The Bug Collection by Paul Fenwick – Great American Puzzle Factory – 100 pieces
Very nice pieces on this 100 piece kid’s puzzle, and the fit was exceptional! Nice snug fit without being too tight. This is a perfect puzzle for a little one who loves bugs and creepy crawlies. My daughter was the one of my three children who loved bugs, worms, and everything that crawled, slithered, and flew. She would have enjoyed this puzzle when she was younger. 🙂
I enjoyed the puzzle itself, but the glow was a bit of a disappointment. With all the bugs it should make an excellent glow in the dark puzzle, but even after letting it sit in the sun for a few minutes to “charge it up” there was barely any glow. Perhaps it dims with age? I’ve done so many children’s puzzles that glow in the dark, but never one that didn’t really seem to have any glow left. Bummer!
Still, a nice puzzle with enough challenge that it won’t be boring for the younger puzzlers out there. And here’s hoping if you find this puzzle that it’s still got it’s glow mojo! 😉
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!
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. 😎
The third of 6 double-sided puzzles in this box. The gourds make for a puzzle that looks perfect for this time of year. I love the fall! Too bad I live in Florida where we only have shades of summer, all year long. 😐
I really enjoy these small 100 piece puzzles; it’s nice to pick up a puzzle and not stop assembling until it’s done. And just because it’s only 100 pieces doesn’t make it any less enjoyable for me, if it’s a pretty picture and a fun puzzle it doesn’t matter if it’s 24 pieces or 2000. Although I must say I get that wonderful feeling of accomplishment much quicker with a 100 piece puzzle. 😉
They say that when you double the number of pieces the difficulty level goes up quadruple. So then a 200 piece puzzle is 4 times more difficult than a 100 piece; and a 400 piece puzzle is 16 times harder, I think. I tried to do the math to figure out how much more difficult a 2000 piece puzzle is but my brain got a charlie horse. Ow!
My Jigsaw Journal 