How to Fix a Puzzle That's Missing a Piece

Finishing a 1000-piece puzzle only to discover one of the tiles has gone missing is a clothes-rending, teeth-gnashing sort of experience. It’s like maintaining first-place in a 26.2 mile marathon only to trip on your shoelaces in the last three meters.At least I’d guess that’s how it feels. If I ever run 26.2 miles in a single stretch you can assume the zombie apocalypse has occurred and I’m fleeing to save my brains.But there’s an easy fix for the puzzle problem: Make your own last piece.No joke. It’s not nearly as hard as you might think, and it doesn’t even have to be perfect for no one to ever realize what you did there.


     First, put a piece of plain paper (cardstock is good for the stiffness) behind your puzzle and trace out the missing piece.


      Cut out your traced piece and you’ll have a blank tile that fits snugly into the hole in your puzzle.


      To build up the thickness so it matches your puzzle’s girth either trace your new piece onto a piece of cardboard, or onto two or three more sheets of cardstock, then glue them on top of each other.

Trace the outline of your blank piece onto the puzzle photo.If your puzzle came with a photo of the finished puzzle, find a spot in that photo that matches your missing piece. The photo is probably smaller than the puzzle, but unless your missing piece is very detailed and central to the visual effect of the finished work, you can fudge this.(If your puzzle did not come with a photo, and the box itself doesn’t offer a good replacement section, simply draw in the missing parts on your new blank piece. Fit the piece into the puzzle, pencil in the design so it lines up with the surrounding pieces, then use markers or paints—or even crayon—to fill in the design as closely to the colors as possible. To approximate the gloss on the puzzle pieces you can lay Scotch or packaging tape over top of your new piece if you don’t have something like Modge Podge handy. Just trim the excess tape and voilà!)

 
      If you’re cutting a piece out of the puzzle photo or box, lay your blank replacement piece over top of the section that best approximates the missing bit. Trace it, cut it out, and glue it to the top of your blank piece.


When I did this with my puzzle I discovered that the color of the photo didn’t quite match the color of the puzzle, and my replacement piece stuck out visually. My artistically gifted daughter suggested glazing over the new piece with some watercolor paints, so I tried that. It worked great. I even painted in a new tree trunk to line up with the surrounding pieces.


We love puzzles in our house. I frame them and hang them up. Every time I look at one I remember when we sat around the table piecing it together as a family.Why let one missing piece ruin all that?Happy fixing!
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