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That's what I discovered two years ago when I noticed how many Sunday school papers and children's magazines were publishing crossword puzzles in the shape of flags, birds, ice cream sodas, catchers' mitts, etc. After studying all the crossword picture puzzles I could find, experimenting, and getting a flock of rejection slips in my mail box, I began earning from $1.25 to $15 per puzzle.

In the latter half of 1949, when I started making them, I earned only $7. In 1950 I received $70.65 in checks, and $146.85 came in during the first half of 1951. During the same three periods my husband made $5, $67.25, and $78.75 on the same hobby.

Now, of course, these figures are nothing to make you reel back in amazement. Such amounts won't cover the cost of a new car—but they will make kitchen work more pleasant. For $146.85 you can get a lot of little conveniences you haven't been able to scrape out of the weekly grocery money. Or you can buy quite a lot of shoes, hats, or blouses. But I don't think it's the actual amount I have earned with this hobby that's important. It seems more important to me that these small but useful checks were earned in spare moments—little odd bits of time like the last half of noon hours at the office, waiting for the bus, or waiting for a pie to finish baking. If you wanted to go into the hobby on a larger scale, the returns would be larger. For myself I like it best just as a filler, a use for bits of unfilled time, as magazines use puzzles for bits of unfilled space.

ALMOST EVERY picture puzzle I make now sells—if not on its first trip out, at least on its second, third, or fourth. When I make the puzzles, when I finish them up in pen and ink, and when I market them, I keep in mind the various editors' needs and try my best to fill these needs. Editors know their readers' ages, tastes, interests, and abilities. What editors buy must fit into the big over-all policies of the magazine, and it is up to contributors to follow the policies, to find out what the editors want in the way of puzzles, and how often they want them.

How do you find out? It takes some digging. There may be shorter ways, but here's the way I did it. First of all, different market lists are published every month in writers' magazines. For picture crossword puzzles I find the juvenile market list the most fruitful, though I have sold puzzles to an occasional adult religious publication. This juvenile market list, which is published several times a year, lists the magazines and Sunday School papers, with a brief statement of their needs. Some state that they want puzzles. Others, I've found, don't mention it in the market list but do use puzzles. These can be discovered by letters of inquiry, by looking at copies of the publication and seeing puzzles on their pages, or by taking a gamble—working up some puzzles suitable for the age group of the magazine, and submitting them. (It's not too great a gamble; you're only out your postage. I've often made sales this way.)

The market list is well worth studying, for it gives you some idea of the type of magazine to which you're thinking of submitting puzzles. Some, for instance, have a strong evangelical emphasis. Some avoid direct preaching but want material that suggests Christian ways of solving problems by presenting real boy and girl characters in action in real life situations. The latter usually include a wide variety of educational subjects such as nature, sports, hobbies, and vocations. Others have no direct connection with any particular church, and are set up for pure entertainment and enrichment of children's lives. But regardless of the magazine's "slant"—watch your language! They all want words suitable and interesting to their reader audience, and they also want words suitable to wholesome, democratic, American living.

I collected as many of these publications as possible, and as many copies of each as I could. I used the market list to get addresses, and wrote asking for sample copies. I got other copies from our own church, and from friends and relatives whose children got the magazines or Sunday school papers.

Study of these showed me not only the general policies of the various publications, but what kind of work the editors of each had already accepted—how many words were in their puzzles, how much space was given to the puzzle, how difficult the words were, whether the solution was printed in type or presented in art work, whether they used pictured definitions, etc. Incidentally, this study can't be done once and the results followed indefinitely. You may discover that a certain teenage paper doesn't use puzzles at all, then find two months later that there's a new editor who's eager to get picture puzzles. Or a paper which has been buying from you every month may be completely reorganized so that it uses puzzles very seldom, or uses an entirely different kind. Frustrating? No, to me it's a game—keeping up with their changes and finding new markets. The field isn't exactly limited, either. There are a number of publishing houses in the business, each putting out tiny tot, junior, intermediate, and senior age papers, and putting them out every week. Papers for all ages use puzzles (though not papers of all ages of every publishing house).

AFTER YOU'VE made yourself a small library of youthful papers and magazines, and looked over the various puzzles and policies, you're rarin' to go. This looks interesting, you say. Let's make a puzzle and get it in the mail.

The first things you need are an idea, and an inexpensive pad of graph paper. The graph paper (¼-inch squares are best) you can buy at a stationery store. The idea comes out of your head. You don't have to just sit and think, though. It's not cheating to use your five senses to observe what children are interested in. They're interested in a lot of things, so puzzle subjects are almost unlimited. For example, I've sold puzzles on birds, the zoo, baseball, cooking, pioneers, Bible mothers, Bible trees, books, flowers, dogs, horses, the Fourth of July, skiing, Indians, January, Mexico, music and windmills.

After you have settled on an idea, start jotting down words related to the idea. I make this list along one edge of the graph paper, one letter to a square, because then I can see at a glance how many letters are in a word, when I'm making the puzzle later. Also this helps when, for example, I need a word whose fourth letter is "T." I can race down the fourth column, guided by the lines, and check the fourth letter of each word in my list in a jiffy.

Figure 1 shows a word list prepared for use in a puzzle on cowboy life. Simple, well-known cowboy words like "bit," "saddle," "brand," and "bronco" go on the list. If you're making a puzzle for young children, stick to these simple words. As the puzzle being planned in the illustration is for teenagers, less familiar western words, with more difficult spelling, can be used—"wrangler," "hackamore," "alkali," "maverick," "girth," "pueblo," etc. Magazine articles or books on your subject help considerably in making these word lists. Children's books are often a big help.

Beside the word list make a rough pencil sketch of the picture which is to contain the puzzle. (See the cowboy boot in Figure 1). The picture needn't be carefully drawn at this stage, for it is merely a guide as to what shape the puzzle will take. Then start fitting words together within the lines you have sketched. Use pencil so you can erase if you want to. In this cowboy puzzle I attempted to use as many cowboy words as possible, but did not limit the words to those alone. I did not try to make a symmetrical black-and-white pattern within the puzzle, as the boot shape was not symmetrical, and my purpose here was to make a boot-shaped puzzle.

Figure 2 shows the cowboy puzzle with words filled in and black spaces indicated. Each vertical and horizontal word has been numbered. It pays to check over this step carefully to be sure you don't leave some word without a number.

Also in Figure 2 the boot sketch has been cleaned up and more carefully drawn in outline, so that it is ready to trace. It's a good idea to keep a simple file of magazine clippings, so that you have pictures to refer to when drawing animals, athletes in action, and various objects. A mail order catalog makes a fine reference book. You'll be surprised how many objects it will show you how to draw. These puzzle silhouettes should be recognizable but very simple; it doesn't take great artistic ability to do the drawing. If you should have trouble with the drawing and have to erase a good deal, don't worry about doing the whole thing over, puzzle diagram and all. Just fasten thin, transparent paper over the graph paper with little pieces of masking tape. The puzzle will show through and you can draw the picture around it on the clean piece of paper.

WHEN THE puzzle and picture are complete, blacken the back of the paper (or two papers if you used transparent paper for the picture) with a 2H or 3H pencil. Fasten a piece of smooth white ink paper. (I use two-ply) to your table or desk with bits of masking tape at the corners. Use a sheet 8½ by 11 inches or 8½ by 5½, whichever size your puzzle requires. Lay the penciled puzzle, blackened side down, on the ink paper and fasten it down with masking tape. When both sheets are securely in place, trace the lines and drawing with a 4H or 5H pencil. Use a ruler to trace the straight lines. On the first sheet of ink paper trace the picture, the puzzle diagram, and the numbers—not the letters. Magazines differ as to how they want the answers presented.

Some want them in typed form, like the definitions. Some want them lettered, as in Figure 3. If you are submitting to one of these publications, make another tracing on a separate sheet, showing the words and black spaces which separate them. Few magazines require that the picture be redrawn for the answer diagram.

After tracing comes inking. Use India ink, which is quite black and makes a good sharp drawing for reproduction. Keep the area you are not working on covered with another sheet of paper so it will stay clean. Your hands may be clean when you begin, but they will perspire and they will pick up loose graphite and smudge the paper if it is not covered.

The main things to strive for in your inking are (1) straight lines of even width for the diagram, (2) simple, attractive, readable letters and numbers, and (3) smooth, clean-cut edges around the picture. My ways of solving these problems are the ways I've hit on as being easiest for me, but each person has his own favorite tools and techniques, and you may find that entirely different ones help you more.

The order of procedure is another individual matter. What you ink first doesn't matter, so long as you keep the rest of it covered. (If you don't you'll end up with a black drawing on gray instead of white! It can be cleaned up fairly well, but it's easier to prevent than cure.) I usually ink all the straight lines first and fill in the black spaces between the words, then do the letters and the numbers, and last of all complete the picture.

TO INK the straight lines of the puzzle I use the same lettering pen point I use for the letters in the answer diagram—the smallest size round point lettering pen. For a guide I use a ruler with a projection which raises it above the paper. Two triangles are also very good for this, the top one projecting slightly out over the bottom one. You need some such device to keep the ink from running under the straight edge and smearing. Other excellent pens for drawing straight, regular lines are engineers' ruling pens.

If the pen point is still clean enough to make a sharp, clear stroke, I use it next for the letters. Usually, however, some ink has dried on it, and I take a clean point or wash that one with an old toothbrush, soap and water. The letters should be simple capitals, fitted into the squares so that they use most of the space but do not touch the edges of the squares. If you're not sure of the letter forms, get one of the inexpensive lettering books put out by the manufacturers of lettering pens, and study and practice the alphabet. These books show exactly how to make the letters with the lettering pens, what direction to make each stroke, etc., and furnish you with clear models to follow.

After the letters I ink the numbers. Since these must be small, I use a fine pen point.

Some people outline the edges of a silhouette drawing with a pen and some with a small brush which comes to a fine point. It's a good idea to give each a fair try, using each long enough to get the "feel" of it in action, and decide, which gives you the smoothest edge for your drawing. The brush gives the smoothest edge for me, except in small, intricate places, when I find it easier to use a pen. Then I fill in the black areas with the brush.

Your paper should be fastened down with masking tape while you are inking the straight lines and the letters, but it's easier to have it loose for the freehand work, so you can keep turning it. You can't make as clean and smooth a stroke with a pen or brush by going from right to left or from down to up. Therefore, the paper needs to be in position for downward strokes, left to right, or diagonals and curves which the hand can do comfortably. In general, you pull rather than push the brush or pen.

AFTER THE ink is dry, clean up the drawing. Erase any pencil smudges, using art gum, kneaded eraser, or a soft red eraser which comes in hexagonal form and will erase a sweep of about two inches at once. If you have any small rough spots in the inked part, smooth them up with more black ink or touch them up with a little opaque white water color paint, often called Chinese white. Mix this white with water to thin it, or it will pile up above the surface of the paper in a ridge. Another little trick to make it less obvious is to mix a bit of black with it so it matches the paper, which is usually not quite so white as the paint. I find a thin razor blade best for small corrections. If you're careful it scrapes off unwanted bits of ink but still doesn't leave the paper rough. The point of the game, of course, is to get your tools and your hands under control so you don't have much of this touching up to do.

The drawing will reproduce about the same either way, but naturally it makes a better impression on people seeing it for the first time if it's not surrounded by white spots and scratched-off edges.

Figure out the horizontal and vertical definitions and type them neatly on 8½-by-11 typing paper, with your name and address in the upper left-hand corner. When writing these definitions be sure to keep in mind the age of your readers. Then make the definitions difficult enough to be interesting, but not discouragingly obscure. A bit of humor thrown in occasionally is good, if it still gives a proper clue and isn't misleading.

A label for the back of each sheet of art work should also be typed, giving the name of the puzzle and your name and address. While you're typing, address the mailing envelope and return envelope which fits inside it. Cut a cardboard the same size as the art work, to keep it from being bent in the mail. (I use grocery cartons for this cardboard.) Weigh and stamp with the proper postage.

You need some system of recording what goes where, and when. I have a file of 3-by-5 cards, each containing the name of a puzzle and the date it was made. At the left-hand side I write the name of the publication to which it is being sent. That leaves space for three columns, "Out," "Returned," and "Accepted," with room to write dates and any comments necessary in each column. At the front of the file I keep a master card which shows me at a glance when I sent out a packet to a certain publication, and what puzzles were in it. On this card I put the date at the left, then the name of the magazine, then the names of the puzzles sent at that time.

FIGURES 4 and 5 show different types of picture puzzles you can make and sell. Figure 4 is a Halloween puzzle for quite young children, using pictured definitions. Figure 5 is a crisscross puzzle, which uses no numbers and no definitions, but gives the reader all the words that go in the puzzle, arranged alphabetically and according to the number of letters in each. One word is printed in the puzzle for a start, and the reader goes on from there to fit the other words in their places.