Monday, March 9, 2026 Missing Piece of the Puzzle

Sometimes you get to the end of the jigsaw puzzle you’re working on, and find out that there’s a piece missing. While this isn’t nearly as catastrophic as reading a book and finding out that a page is missing, it’s still somewhat anticlimactic. The whole puzzle experience has been moving toward putting in that last piece, the moment of triumph!

I had borrowed this from friend Lori who had notated on the box cover where the missing piece was, so it wasn’t a cruel surprise. In case you can’t see it, the missing piece is in the red hat in the cat in the middle at the top.

Here’s what I discovered some years ago: you (yes, you!) can make your own puzzle piece to replace the lost one. Here’s what I do.

I put paper under the puzzle and pencil in the edges of the piece on it.

Then I glue the paper onto some cardboard that’s more or less the same size depth as the puzzle pieces:

When the glue is dry, I cut the piece out. This is actually not very easy – wish I could find a better way to do it. Then I make sure it fits:

Yay, it fits! After this I do my best to match the colors of the missing piece. I usually use colored pencils, but this time I wish I had used markers – it might have turned out better.

So, it’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing, right?

This has been “Unusual Crafting with Lynniebee.”

The missing piece of this post will get fixed in the morning. Or not.