I know I haven’t updated this in a little while, but it is because I have been playing around with some different ideas on how best to approach doing Section 2 with Section 1 still on my main puzzling board.  I didn’t want to get too deep into Section 2 until I got this figured out.  I have changed my strategy a couple of times, but I think I have finally found what is going to work the best…thanks to my fellow Life puzzle blog friend Charly in Chile for his suggestions.

Initially, even before I finished Section 1, I had thought I would follow in Scott Slater (who was the first in the world to finish the Life puzzle) and family’s footsteps and build Section 2, 3, and 4 directly on top of one another.  They made it look really easy, and even though I wasn’t sure how my eyes would handle trying to differentiate pieces once placed directly on other pieces in Section 1, I was willing to give it a try.  I found that it wasn’t quite as difficult to see as I thought it would be, but then again, all I had sitting on top of Section 1 was the top and bottom border of Section 2 as you can see in the pictures from my last post.  However, what was happening was the border kept sliding all over the place and didn’t want to stay in place.  I had to pick it up off the floor a couple of times because it slid right off when lightly touched.

So, I began to wonder if there was a better solution.  That’s when my puzzle blog buddy Charly suggested getting some sort of paper to make a “blanket” the same size as my puzzle board to cover up Section 1, but allowing me to work with a clean surface on top of my main puzzle table.  This was a great idea, and I promptly went out and purchased 6 pieces of white poster board and put them together using tape.  I finally finished putting it together only to find out it was short about 6 inches (a miscalculation on my part apparently) on the bottom.  So I went back to Michael’s and got more poster board to finish it up so that I could get back to puzzling….

That night as I was sleeping, I came up with a better idea.  Personally, I think Charly was sending me subliminal messages from Chile as the next morning I discovered he had done the same thing with his Section 1!  LOL  The reason I was still not completely happy with the poster board blanket idea is because I would still have to figure out a way to flip each section over when it was complete.  And, given that poster board is extremely flimsy and flexible, I was pretty sure it would be a complete disaster if I tried to move a section sitting on top of the poster board.  I could see the entire thing crashing to the floor and me CRYING for weeks on end!!!!

So I went to Michael’s again, and this time I bought 6 pieces of 3/16″ foam board.  The new plan is to “cut” the puzzle into mini sections, slide them onto the foam board which is small enough to allow me to put another piece of foam board on top of each mini section and flip them and then slide them back onto the main puzzling board, backside up.  This is what I have to do in order to put contact paper on the back of the entire section.

So this morning I started “cutting” the sections.  I wanted to cut them where the repeat pattern is 37 x 27 pieces (horizontally and vertically speaking), but my foam board wasn’t quite big enough to accommodate those dimensions so I ended up having to break it down into slightly smaller sections, but it worked out okay.  It was not easy getting each mini section off onto the foam board as the foam board kept wanting to move and drop while I was sliding the section off onto the board.  It was a tedious process, but I was finally able to get most of the puzzle onto foam boards.  I still have two mini sections left to slide off onto the foam board, but it will have to wait until Derek goes down for his nap.  

Once all the mini sections are on the foam boards, I don’t think (fingers crossed) that it will be too difficult to flip them over and reassemble them on the main puzzle board.  Then, I can finally put the contact paper on the back and then move the whole, completed section off the board.  This way I will have a clean slate to really get working on Section 2.  I’m excited….after almost 3 years, I think I may have figured out my best strategy for doing this puzzle with limited space options.  Woo hoo!

Pictures to follow soon of how I separated each mini section from the board in case anyone else needs help figuring this out.