Happy Easter!

Every year I make up an original puzzle for my youngest to solve so he can find his Easter treats. He just turned 19 so I have to make them challenging. I figured I'd share the one I just made, in case someone else would like to try it. It's in a form that I invented myself.

There are 5 shapes in 7 different colours with letters on them. You place them into the blanks to make words and sentences. The shapes and colours are in repeating patterns. ie if there were only 2 colours, they'd alternate. If there were only three shapes, they'd go diamond, cross, star, diamond, cross, star for example.

Here are the blanks typed out. Except for the last line, each line has one word. The "," are commas, not apostophe's. The solution is a cryptic clue.

_ _ _,
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _
_ _ _, _ _ ?

You can print it out by accessing this file:
Fill in the blanks.

The shapes are here:



You do get 4 hints to get you started:

The green triangle with the letter Y on it is the 3rd letter.
The yellow egg with the letter Y is the 19th letter,
The red square with the H on it is the 30th letter,
and the blue triangle with the Y on it is the 53rd letter.
...........................................................

So Happy Easter from me, my family and my dog Silas and my favourite plant!

Party Puzzle

Where is the party loot?

Puzzle

Jack had just gotten the much awaited computer game “Final Auto Theft Fantasy 4” and invited his friends over to play it and other computer games he had.
To be fair, everyone got 15 minutes on the new game, then someone else got a go.

The people who played it were:
Adam, Anton, Julian, Philip, Stephen, and of course Jack and his brother Justin. The clues refer only to their first names.

From the clues below, find out the order in which people played the game. Then answer the questions after to find out where to look for the next part of the treasure hunt.

Clues:

1.The first four to play it all had the letter “N” at the end of their name.
2.The 3rd, 4rth, fifth and sixth person each had a letter repeated in their name. (ie “George” has the letter “e” repeated.)
3.The first three kid's names were in alphabetical order
4.The last two were also in alphabetical order.

So the order of the kids was:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Questions:

Second last letter of the fifth person is ______

Second letter of fourth person is ______

Third letter of sixth person is ______

Second letter of third person is ______

Fourth letter of second person is ______

Third last letter of the first person is ______

Third letter of the last person is ______

easy puzzle

I make original puzzles for treasure hunts for every time my kids have a birthday. Here's an easy one telling you where to find the next clue.

What you do is, cross out three of a kind- either three of the same shape, the same colour or the same letter- you can cross things out vertically, horizontally or diagonally in any direction and you can cross something out more than once. The remaining squares make a shape that tells you where to find the next clue.
It could mean several things so the next clue could be in several places but I originally meant it to lead to a beverage.

Another Original Puzzle for Teens and Adults

Here's another puzzle I invented, again for a treasure hunt. Solve the puzzle to find where the next clue is.

Treasure Hunt Puzzle

CHALLENGE:

Here's a string of numbers. You want to convert them into a different string of numbers. Here's how:

If a number is followed by a 1 then subtract 1 from that number and write it down.

If a number is followed by a 2 then add 1 to that number and write it down.

If a number is followed by a 3 then leave the number as it is and write it down.

If a number is followed by a 4 ignore the number and leave a blank.

If a number is followed by a 5 ignore it and write down 9 instead.

If a number is followed by a 6 then subtract 2 from it and write it down.

If a number is followed by a 7 then add 2 to it.

If a number is followed by an 8 then add 1 to the last number you wrote down.

If a number is followed by a 9 then ignore that number and write down 3 instead.

If a number is followed by a 0 then ignore it and write down 1 instead.

The numbers wrap, so if you have a 0 and have to subtract 2 from that, write down an 8.

Example: 01234567890 would be converted to
922_938931


52569145374504546504504188456957

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

__ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

Now circle every 4rth number (or blank). Each number represents a colour. Find an object with the circled colours to find your next clue.


0 is Grey 6 is Pink
1 is White 7 is Orange
2 is Blue 8 is Brown
3 is Green 9 is Purple
4 is Yellow Blank is Red
5 is Black

Example: for 12_456 the circled number would be 4 and the object would have the colour Yellow in it.




Now take the new numbers you got and change them into letters:

1 is M or N or T 6 is W or G or B
2 is C or B or P 7 is N or L or C
3 is R or T or F 8 is E or Y or S
4 is W or O or H 9 is O or I or A
5 is C or E or R

Good luck!


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Shapes Puzzle

Click on the image below to see the instructions for doing a new kind of puzzle that I invented.


Where is the treasure hidden? Fill in the dashes to find out.
_ _ _ _ ' _
_ _ _ _ _ _ ,
_ _ ' _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ .
_ _ _ _ _ ,
_ _ ' _ _ _
_ _ _ _.