Short version: I made this coaster out of scrabble tiles. The eight words (across and down) are all obliquely about beverages and/or water.
Long version: I was visiting my brother and his expecting wife recently and part of the weekend was spent at the local fair. While touring the booths, we saw two knick-knacks that caught our collective eye.
The first was a hand-crafted, double-layered puzzle for kids. We discussed how to cut the pieces out of the wood while leaving a border. (I offered that that the puzzle could actually be separate layers glued together, but some challenges to crafting the pieces still remained.)
The second eye-catching ware was a variety of 4-by-4 scrabble-tile coasters. These coasters didn’t actually spell out words across and down; thus, the above challenge was born.
While I was in the midst of figuring out how to fit drink-related words together in a 4×4 grid, my brother and his wife were busy showing me up:
Yep, my bro and sis decided to tackle the double-sided puzzle problem head on. I’m still not sure how they cut the pieces out of the wood while keeping the pieces intact. Whatever the answer, I can definitely say this: Their kid is going to have very cool parents.