Dear God, Friends are Forever by Annie Fitzgerald – Vista Puzzles – 100 pieces
This is an extremely adorable kid’s puzzle found at the thrift store. There were 3 there from the same series, we still have 2 of them to assemble. I love the artwork, but it makes for a much more challenging puzzle than it seems!
The quality was fair/average; the pieces were a little thin and there was some image lift. The fit was very nice, however, and the image reproduction was crisp and clear.
I’m looking forward to assembling the remaining 2 of these puzzles next time I’m hanging out at mom’s house. Although after putting this one together, we didn’t really want to do the next 2 right away; I think we got our egos a little bruised because it was more challenging than we thought! Some days we assemble all the kid’s puzzles she’s found so we can get them out of the house and donate them. We’ve done more than 5 puzzles in one day, sometimes including a 300 or 500 piece!
Flower Pot Friends by Jane Maday – Mega Puzzles (Garden Delights Series) – 750 pieces
I enjoyed this puzzle very much! I found it to be excellent quality for a Mega Puzzle, and was delighted at the way they included the whimsies. All the other pieces actually had connectors; so even though the whimsies just fit into place, the surrounding pieces were all connected. Awesome!
I love puzzles with whimsy pieces, but I don’t love how they’re usually included with many other pieces that just sit next to each other. I know there has to be some of that when you include specially shaped pieces, but so often it seems that there is much more of it than is necessary. I admit to not really having any knowledge of how puzzles are made, but the pieces sitting together instead of fitting together makes me crazy!
This puzzle had none of that, the whimsies themselves didn’t connect, but all the rest of them did. Hooray! Someone finally did it my way! In addition to that, the pieces were very thick for a Mega Puzzle and fit together extremely well. All in all, not anything like other Mega Puzzles I have worked, much better quality.
I’m not really a cat person, I prefer dogs; and I don’t normally go for cat puzzles either. (I know, you think little old lady with her puzzles and cats, but that’s just not me – I’m a little old lady with her puzzles and her Boston Terrier!) Even though it’s a cat puzzle something about this image drew me in, and I really had a good time assembling it.
All the regular rules went out the window with this puzzle. I don’t normally do Mega Puzzles because I find they’re just too thin, not so with this puzzle. I don’t normally do cat puzzles, but I loved this image with the cats and had a great time with it. I usually have a tough time with dealing with the pieces of a puzzle with whimsies, but this one was done very well and I was impressed!
This puzzle image is excellent and it made me want to get to assembling it immediately – the bright colors, fun backgrounds, a collage – yes please!
This was a thrift store purchase, and although the box was slightly banged up and dented, all pieces were present and accounted for. This giant of a puzzle almost filled my entire 4 ft x 3 ft puzzle board. You never can tell in pictures, unless there’s something to give perspective; this is a HUGE puzzle!
This puzzle was loads of fun and even though it took me a few days I loved every bit of it. It was easy to separate out pieces of background colors and patterns and work on a section at a time. I love when I can just grab a bunch of pieces and assemble them without any assistance from the image on the box or a poster. It’s just me and my brain figuring out what goes where; it’s very satisfying for me. The pieces fit together tightly, but not the super tight fit that some Springbok’s have – I didn’t have to smash them together with my thumb (which is a bonus in my book).
If you’re a fan of purses or collages, this puzzle is for you! The bright colors and the interesting purses will keep you entertained – but be forewarned – this beauty requires a very large work space. 🙂
Details:
Title: Purses! Purses! Purses!
Artist: Allied Products Corp.
Brand: Springbok
Piece count: 2000 pieces
Size: Approx. 34 x 43 in. (86 x 109 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store
Quality:
Board: Excellent
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Good, a little thin for such a large puzzle
Fit: Tight, not in the extreme like some Springboks
This one brought back flashbacks of Winter Aspen. 😮 And you’d think that seeing that one of the sides was aspen trees I would have chosen to assemble the opposite side. You’d be wrong. I think somewhere in my brain I wanted to show these aspens who’s the boss. I am! (when there are only 100 regular sized pieces, that is 😉 )
I like these 100 piece puzzles more than I thought I would. Even when the subject matter is a difficult image, there are only 100 pieces and it feels like you can accomplish it. When I’m working on a difficult puzzle or am feeling like I’m not making progress on my current puzzle it’s nice to grab a small piece count puzzle and spend a few minutes assembling it – it doesn’t matter if it’s easy or not. I feel like I’ve gotten something done and my mood lifts a bit.
There are two more puzzles (4 more images) to go. I’m sure they’ll be as satisfying as the previous ones have been. We have certainly gotten more than our 99 cents worth of entertainment from them!
In Dreams by Geoffrey Gersten – Artifact Puzzles – 116 pieces
If you read this blog regularly, you might remember I bought my first wooden puzzle this year in September. I absolutely adore it, and have already assembled it 4 times! I was looking on the Artifacts Puzzles website for more awesome puzzles and saw this beauty with hexagonal shaped pieces – OH. MY. GOODNESS! I emailed and texted my mother to show her how cool these pieces were, so she decided to buy me this puzzle for my birthday. I wasn’t hinting for a present, I just wanted to show someone who would have the appropriate response; she is the only one who loves puzzles like I do. My mom rocks. I took the puzzle over to mom’s house yesterday and let her complete it by herself. She loved it too, of course!
The piece shapes are so interesting and it made for a challenging assembly; love, love, loved it❣ It only has 116 pieces, but it took me 40 minutes to assemble – 40 fantastic minutes. (I suppose it would have been quicker if I’d looked at the box image, but where’s the fun in that?) This was so fun, I’m sure I’ll be assembling it over and over again. What a treat! The piece shapes are quite obvious in the finished image, but I honestly don’t care. It didn’t diminish the enjoyment of the assembly for me at all, and as long as it’s fun I’m a happy, happy puzzler. 😉
What do I do now? I clearly have an addictive personality; I believe I’ve developed a wooden jigsaw puzzle addiction! I’m still enjoying my cardboard puzzles, I really just love puzzles in general; but I’m pining for more wooden jigsaws too! Here’s how addictive my personality is…..I’ve ordered one puzzle each from the 4 other wooden puzzle manufacturers I’ve found who have relatively reasonable prices. (Also, my wishlist of Artifact puzzles amounts to about $2600!) Oh my.
So, you can look forward to more reviews of wooden puzzles – they’re all on their way to my house right now! Undoubtedly I have issues. Whatever. 😎
My Jigsaw Journal 