Vintage Summer Books by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces
We all know how much I adore the artwork of Aimee Stewart, so normally starting one of her puzzles I know that I’ll really enjoy the assembly. This one had me a little wary, I thought perhaps all the flowers and greenery would be quite challenging – I was completely wrong, it was a FANTASTIC assembly, with just the right degree of difficulty. 💚🌼
I adore the look of this section and it was one of the first ones that I put together. There’s something about vintage advertisements, they make me happy.
Just look at all the beautiful colors in this one little section, absolutely stunning! The flowers weren’t nearly as difficult as I thought they’d be, in fact I enjoyed putting them all together.
The piece in the center with the couple kissing was the last piece to be placed in this book. I looked at the piece, was trying to find colors to match it with and then suddenly realized it was a couple. All the titles of the books were complete and in place, so I knew then that this must be the last piece of “In Love’s Garden”; none of the other book titles seemed as though a man and a woman kissing should be on the cover. 💏
This puzzle was much more entertaining and enjoyable than I thought it would be, and I went into it knowing it would be fun! Don’t you love it when a puzzle is even better than you thought?
This little thing was MUCH more difficult than anticipated, I was constantly putting pieces in the wrong places! I thought the image would be fun (it was) and wouldn’t take too long (it did); but no matter, the challenge got me motivated to finish it and it was enjoyable the whole way through.
Normally I don’t have to use the image on the tube these puzzles come in – but for all the little scribbles on the paper it definitely helped to have a reference.
The fit was a little looser than usual, but otherwise it was the same great quality MicroPuzzle that I’m used to. Loved it!
Rainbow World by Michael Searle – MasterPieces – 300 pieces
This image is quite an assault on the senses (my son picked it out), but the puzzle was excellent quality and I enjoyed the assembly very much – in spite of the eyeball blistering artwork. 😲
This was the best quality MasterPieces puzzle that I can remember assembling. The pieces were quite thick with a very good variety of shapes, the fit was excellent, the reproduction is bright and crisp – overall just a great quality puzzle and I was duly impressed.
The fit was so impressive that I even got one of my favorite types of pictures….you guessed it!
I was so confident in the fit that I took this picture first, before making sure I had a good “normal” picture for the post. If I’m not mistaken I have never been able to take one of these pictures with a MasterPieces puzzle before – this puzzle really impressed me!
Also, this is a glow in the dark puzzle. I’m not always a fan of these types of puzzles, only because of the tactile feeling of the pieces. They can feel grainy, almost like there is sand glued to the puzzle, and this one did as well. I can usually deal with it, as most GITD puzzles are smaller piece counts; but I’m not a fan of the way it feels in my hands.
Grainy feeling or not, I got a FANTASTIC glow in the dark picture!
Garden Study of the Vickers Children by John Singer Sargent – Laurel Ink – 500 pieces
Fine Art puzzle images aren’t usually my thing, but there was something about this one that I couldn’t resist; there’s something about the faces of the children but I’m not sure I could articulate what that is. Not only is the artwork striking, but the puzzle is from a company I hadn’t heard of before – the added excitement of trying out a new brand!
The quality of this puzzle was good/very good. The chipboard is a good thickness and there are an excellent variety of piece shapes. The fit is very good, as is the image reproduction; the finish was somewhat shiny which did cause me a few problems, but it wasn’t too bad. My only quality concern was quite a few pieces still attached.
Whoever assembled this puzzle before didn’t separate all the pieces; so there were probably about 40 or more with two pieces attached, and some with more than three or four pieces still connected together. Separating the pieces caused little bits of cardboard to stick up at the corners of the pieces, and in some places it shows in the finished image. Overall though, it was a good quality puzzle which made me very happy.
The entire back of the box was dedicated to a small biography of the painter, John Singer Sargent. It was an interesting read, and I enjoyed both learning about him and his work and assembling the puzzle.
I really did well on my last trip to the thrift store. I found both this one and the 65 year old Tuco; Mom would be proud. 💖
It isn’t very often at all that one comes across a brand new type of jigsaw puzzle that they’ve never seen before – this is one of those rare times. Have you seen a “Double-Sided Brainteaser” jigsaw puzzle before? This was my first time.
My Dad found two of these puzzles in Mom’s things about a year after she passed, and although I started playing with them soon after he brought them to me, they inevitably got put aside. They were lost in the shuffle of my crazy life for a bit, and recently I took them out again. I finished the first one in July of this year.
Here’s the concept…
The box tells you that it’s easy to play anywhere since there is no tabletop required for laying out pieces – it’s all supposed to be handheld as there is only one piece out of the frame at a time.
The way to solve it is knowing when you take a piece out exactly where it belongs. Which leads to the next piece, etc. That isn’t the way I usually do it, and I couldn’t seem to get my set-in-her-ways-old-lady-brain to cooperate.
If I know where the first piece I take out belongs, that leads to me having to know where the piece that it’s replacing goes. I tried, believe me; but it just isn’t the way puzzles go together for me and it wasn’t something my brain seemed to want to help me with. I found it unbelievably frustrating. I felt stupid because I’m good at puzzles, so why couldn’t I just solve them in a different way?
At only 48 pieces I thought it would be quick and easy to assemble correctly, but my brain doesn’t work in the fashion required to solve this brainteaser puzzle the way it’s meant to be solved. Perhaps it’s old age, or OCD, or just years of assembling jigsaw puzzles differently – whatever the reason, I found that the best (or only) way for me to put this puzzle together was to take all the pieces out of the frame first. As I’m always telling you, whatever way works best for you is what’s best, right? 😉
In addition, unlike every other double-sided puzzle I’ve completed, when one side is correctly assembled the other side is not; there is no “cheating” and only finishing one side and getting two complete images. That’s a first for me too.
This seems to be a collaboration between Andrews & Blaine and Pintoo. The pieces are extremely thick plastic, and the fit is incredibly tight. It takes some work to push the pieces out of the frame, but it would have to be quite snug if you wanted the pieces to stay put at all. The pieces are all ballerinas (2 prong/2 hole) and all exactly the same shape. It’s a well made puzzle.
It’s quite small, very easy to throw into a backpack or a purse and take with you…
It’s quite the interesting concept, and even with my frustration I enjoyed trying out it even though it wasn’t made for the way my brain works. It seems as though these are no longer being manufactured, and the only place I was able to find them online was on eBay. Perhaps the price had something to do with the decision to stop making these – the box says it was originally $14.95 for one 48 piece puzzle!
I have one more of these yet to assemble, but it will definitely go faster now that I’ve realized the best way for me to put it together. The images are both photographs, this time of sea life. Nothing overly exciting, but it’ll still be fun. 🧩💚
What do you think? Is this something you’d want to try if you found one of them out in the wild? Is your brain wired so that you could assemble a puzzle this way?
