Balloons Over Cottage Cove by Nicky Boehme – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces
This hot air balloon image is very different to me than most of the others that you see on jigsaw puzzles. Most balloon images are very bright and colorful, this one is muted and understated; I love an image that’s different from the norm. 😉
Pastels and understated colors aren’t my first choice, but I find they’re fun to work with every once in a while.The nature of the artwork made this a bit more challenging, but in the end it’s such a pretty picture!
Doesn’t it look like a lovely place to visit? I love the look of the house, it feels so homey. And the balloon in the foreground has the brightest colors; but all the rest are very understated and more pastel-looking. It’s quite unusual for a hot air balloon puzzle; at least as far as the ones that I’ve seen.
All the greenery and flowers were much more difficult than I bargained for, and took more time than I thought they would. Being only 500 pieces I’d assumed it would go together quite quickly but that just wasn’t the case.
The quality was very good; there were a good variety of shapes, thicker pieces, and a beautiful image. The pale colors aren’t usually my thing, but I enjoyed this puzzle very much. It’s nice to step out of your comfort zone every once in a while. 🙂
3 Teddy Bears by Debra Jordan Bryan – Giftco – 500 pieces
Here’s a new one for you, I’m posting a puzzle that I DIDN’T do. It’s one of the worst quality puzzles I’ve seen in quite some time. As I was sorting it I became more and more disenchanted; and after putting together only a few pieces I put everything back in the box and put the box in the recycling.
First, the colors shown on the box do not match the puzzle – not by a long shot! The image on the box looks bright and fun, with only the bears themselves and the background looking somewhat muted. Many of the pieces are peach colored, but I don’t see that color anywhere on the box. There are so many of them that I’m thinking it must be either the yellow background behind the bears, or the tan background in the border. The other colors seem bright on the box, but are EXTREMELY muted on the pieces; the reds look pink, and the rest are just very, very pale. 😦
Second, there are 6 pieces total that have become totally delaminated. The image layer is completely separated from the cardboard backing. So basically there were 6 pieces of pretty paper in the box, along with 6 naked puzzle pieces. Not good. I was going to just fix them, but the other problems with the quality of this puzzle all added together made it seem not worth the time.
Third, there is no variety in the piece shapes; they are all what I call ballerinas. (2 prong/2 hole – 2/2 – two/two – tutu – ballerina – get it? Yes, my mind is a weird and interesting place) Normally I can deal with that if the image is entertaining, but the severely muted colors and other problems with this puzzle made it seem like it wasn’t going to be worth the effort.
Lastly, even after all the sorting, laying the pieces out on my trays, and seeing those first 3 problems I was still planning on working the puzzle. But once I started the assembly and felt the terrible way the pieces fit together it was the last straw. The fit was very spongy and the awful quality of the cardboard made it so that you couldn’t even tell from the back if the pieces were put together properly. With no variety in shape and the color issues it would have been a nightmare. Ugh!
Life is short, and puzzles are supposed to be fun – not a chore. If it doesn’t seem like fun why on Earth would I do it? Yes, we spent 99 cents on a puzzle that I’m not going to assemble, but it could be worse. We could have paid retail, we could have no more puzzles left to assemble, I could have a yeast infection – there are endless horrifying possibilities! Fortunately we only lost what amounts to loose change, there are hundreds of puzzles still here to assemble, my lady bits are perfectly fine, and I’ve learned what brand NOT to buy. All good things in my book. 😎
If you love puzzles and come across one from Giftco, set the box down and back away! We puzzlers deserve better.
*This puzzle was not named anywhere on the box, so I’ve given it an uninspired name – 3 Teddy Bears. The artwork on the box looks so adorable; it’s a pity it was licensed to this company.
Viva Le Vinyl by Aimee Stewart – Ravensburger – 500 pieces
This bright, entertaining image was great fun to assemble and went together even more quickly than I thought it would. Aimee Stewart’s use of colors makes putting together her puzzles, for me, an absolute joy!
It doesn’t look like it from the picture, but there are a lot of words to assemble. All the background, everything all the records and paraphernalia are sitting on are concert tickets, record covers, notebook pages, etc. Words, words, and more words! You know how much I love that. 🙂
To be honest, this image scared me a little bit, and I put off assembling it for quite a while. I love the artwork of Aimee Stewart so much, but all the black of the vinyl records had me thinking this might not be as fun to assemble as her other images have been for me. As dumb as it sounds, I didn’t want to have a less than awesome experience with one of her puzzles! I shouldn’t have worried, it was great fun and went together so quickly because I couldn’t seem to keep myself from adding just one more piece or finishing just one more section. I loved it!
Sophia’s Doll House by Eduard – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces
Sophia’s Doll House was the puzzle that jumped out at me while mom was showing off her latest thrift store haul. The beautiful colors and interesting scene looked like so much fun, and luckily it was!
It’s been a while since I’ve assembled a MasterPieces puzzle, and I had forgotten how enjoyable the extremely random cut of the pieces is. It always takes me a few minutes for my brain to get into “random gear”, especially if I’ve just finished working a grid cut puzzle. It can be frustrating for some, and it is sometimes for me too; but once I figure it out and everything starts coming together it makes for such an entertaining assembly.
Although it’s not really a collage, the many rooms of the dollhouse made the assembly seem as though it was. It was the best of both worlds for me; a collage of dollhouse rooms, and just a regular domestic scene from a playroom around the edges. I loved it!
These were my favorite 3 rooms to assemble. They’re so adorable, and the interesting wallpaper in the many rooms made for an easy sort. There are framed pictures of dolls in almost every room, and the pretty frames around them were fun to put together.
If you don’t mind a random cut, I highly recommend this puzzle. I had the best time with it, and it didn’t scare me (that much) that it was 1000 pieces. The fit was lovely and the entire scene makes for a wonderful assembly. 👍
The 12:09 – On Time Again! by Jane Wooster Scott – Ceaco – 528 pieces
I haven’t assembled a good corkboard puzzle in years; I’ve assembled a few, but they weren’t very good and just didn’t live up to the first one I did. Fortunately this puzzle was great quality and a lot of fun to assemble. If you’re wondering, yes the sky is supposed to look like that according to the image on the box. It’s weird though, right? Anyway, as an added bonus it’s a fall puzzle with lots of pumpkins everywhere, and even some jack-o-lanterns! 🎃
This was a very good quality puzzle, with thick pieces and a wonderful fit. The cut was devious, with a wonky edge and color line cutting that had me checking the box often – I’ve never seen that from a Ceaco before. Although it was a pity they didn’t put a picture of the entire image on the box (other than a tiny 2 inch picture) – I hate that!
I don’t believe these corkboard puzzles are in production anymore, both of the good ones we have were found at thrift stores, and the boxes say that they’re from the early 90’s. All the cork backed puzzles we’ve found were from Ceaco, but I can’t explain why some are poorer quality than others. A few that I’ve assembled were not as thick, and the cork didn’t seem as well adhered. Different places of manufacture perhaps?
These are only some of the whimsy pieces in this puzzle, but they’re so fun, and there are so many birds in the sky! I love that you can tell the different breeds of the dogs just by their silhouettes – there’s a dachshund, a cocker spaniel, and beagle (at least that’s what I think they are 🙂 )
Sweet apple junction, how adorable is that? What a great image by Jane Wooster Scott. All the cork puzzles we’ve assembled have been with her artwork – I’d love to find some more!
This picture not only shows some of the color line cutting (you can see the straight edge at the bottom of the train); it also shows that unfortunately the name of the artwork and artist has been cut off – whoops!
The added challenge of this puzzle was to find and join the 10 railroad cars hidden in the puzzle – I did it! There was a similar challenge on the first cork puzzle I put together; you had to find and assemble all the parts of a clown. I didn’t even attempt it, but this time I was a bit more brave. 💪
I found this puzzle hiding on one of my shelves full of puzzles just in time for Halloween, and I’m so glad. Mom came and helped me with it too, which is always a joy. It was great fun and made me very happy!
My Jigsaw Journal 