Leprechaun Hat Puzzle (using XCS 2 edit node)
Instruction
What kind of a hat would a tipsy leprechaun wear? An Einstein aperiodic monotile "hat", of course! It seemed obvious (at least to me) that this monotile had to be part of Xtool's “St. Patrick's Day Hat” challenge.
How this was designed using edit node. I downloaded an image of a St Pat's hat and a shamrock from Adobe Stock Images Using the edit function, took out the image background and erased around the hatband. Then the hatband was traced with 0 set as the offset and the second line option turned off. Similarly, the shamrock was outlined. With edit node turned on, I made the shamrock stem thicker to ensure it wouldn't break off. Erasing nodes is easy. Just highlight the node then hit delete. This also works for more than one node at a time. So I just deleted all but the bottom node on the right side, and the pulled it out a bit to thicken the stem. The hatband and shamrock were then welded together.
The second use of edit node was to create the mouse hole in the corner to facilitate taking out the pieces. Using the vector pen tool, I drew a straight line between the two lowest points of a corner piece then added a third node by clicking in the center of the line. The middle node was pulled out, and using the symmetrical rounding button turned into a mouse hole. (see pictures above)
Cut out the pieces as above moving the hatbands to fit your material. Ungroup the hats, and move the off the workspace. Using a second piece of plywood, cut the backing for the puzzle frame.
Finish the frame pieces. I stained the backing board using Watco Danish oil. I painted the upper portion dark green using a paint marker.
Glue the top of the frame to the backing, clamp and let dry.
While the pieces are in the frame put a mark on each piece to indicate which side is to be painted. (Some of the pieces need to be flipped horizontally to fit --see fourth picture-- and it is necessary to know which.)
Paint the hats and bands, and glue the bands to the hats. I chose to set all the bands to the same orientation just to confuse the situation, but flipping the bands to match the flipped hats is fine, too. It makes finding the flipped pieces easier.
Print our the cheat sheet--png above. It will be helpful if you need to put the pieces away in a hurry.