I love collages, they’re my favorite type of puzzle. This one took me almost an entire week, not because it was too difficult but because I’m just having a hard time puzzling these days. I may have to start posting every other day, my backlog of puzzles ready to post is dwindling fast! 😦
I find that collages are the easiest puzzles to assemble; even if you don’t have a lot of time you can grab the pieces for a small section and put them together. When I’m only able to sit for only a few minutes I can still complete a small portion of the puzzle and still get a small sense of satisfaction for my little victory.
This puzzle was pretty good quality; it’s a random cut, so the assembly was interesting and kept me on my toes which is always a good thing in my book. The pieces are a good thickness and fit together well but were a little loose for my taste. The image reproduction was very good and the overall image is beautiful and interesting.
The picture doesn’t do this puzzle justice, it’s bright and colorful and was pretty fun to assemble. Re-marks has some excellent collages to choose from, I believe this one was a Barnes and Noble exclusive we got during the January bogo sale. It’s dangerous for me to go puzzle shopping in a brick and mortar store, there are too many fantabulous puzzles to choose from, and I end up not choosing between puzzles and just buying all the ones I want. 😮
Playing Cards by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
Playing Cards was a challenging collage that took a little more time than normal, but was really fun! The finished image is very pretty and would look great framed in a game room. I chose this puzzle to review, it just struck me when I saw it and looked like so much fun – and it was. 🃏
White Mountain puzzles are very good quality that can sometimes be hit or miss, but I had no issues with the quality of this puzzle except for the box image. There are 3 different places on the box image that were covered up, I really can’t stand that! If there’s one slightly covered up section it’s not so bad, but 3? Why?
In one corner was the “made in the USA” logo covering almost half of one card, the bottom center had the words “1000 piece puzzle” covering the bottom third of several cards. The top left corner had a sticker with White Mountain’s “happiness guarantee” that covered almost the entire corner card. I can’t speak for all puzzlers, but if the entire image were an inch smaller all the way around there would be plenty of room for all the extras and we could still see the entire image. Having the picture blocked in several places was extremely frustrating, especially for such a fun collage.
In my opinion, White Mountain has the best catalog of collages around; they are colorful and interesting, with subjects ranging from neon signs to fine wines and everything in between. (Collages are my favorite!) They also have fine art, historical, landscapes, educational maps, and much more. The quality is very good with thick pieces that fit together well, and good image reproduction. Click the link above to see all their beautiful puzzles currently available at Puzzle Warehouse.
There was a LOT of red in this image, which made it a bit of a challenge, but once I worked the other colors I had enough to work off of. There were so many interesting old cards to see and assemble, and lots of fun newer ones too. I love a collage – thank goodness there are so many great ones to choose from. 😎 This puzzle is definitely recommended.
Details:
Title: Playing Cards
Artist: Charlie Girard
Brand: White Mountain
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 24 x 30 in. (61 x 76 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review
Quality:
Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Fair, image blocked in several places
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat
Overall Rating: Very good, recommended
I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.
Here’s another fun puzzle that 3 generations of women in my family assembled together. My mother, my daughter and I all spent the day together and worked on this puzzle; it was harder than it looks but we got it done!
A lot of these packages were foreign to me, toastwiches? What in the world was an Answer Cake? Never heard of them! Most of our meals when I was young were actual home cooking. Store bought cookies taste awful to me, I’ve always had homemade. (Oreos are the exception, mom never had that recipe 😉 ) Mom got reminiscent while we were working, especially about the Betty Crocker coupons – apparently our silverware was purchased with them! How cool is that?
Sometimes the White Mountain quality is just mediocre, and this was one of those times. There were a few coupled pieces that weren’t completely separated, and a few pieces with the image coming off. The image reproduction was slightly blurry in some places, but overall was good. The fit was very good, right in the middle – not too tight or loose.
Collages are my favorite puzzle type, I love the fun of assembling several mini puzzles that all connect together. Working with the box lid and having to search for where a piece or section goes feels tedious and almost like a job to me, there’s no fun in that. Puzzling for me helps me to relax, de-stress, and pass the time; if it feels like a “task” it wipes out all the relaxation and makes time seem to drag.
We all have something different that we’re looking for in a great puzzle – piece shapes, thickness, fit, number of pieces, an image that excites or inspires. What makes a puzzle fun for me may be the exact thing that drives someone else crazy – good thing there are so many different images and companies to choose from! What’s your ideal puzzle?
I love collages, bright colors, cookies, and puzzles – it’s no wonder I loved Easter Eggs! It pushed all the right buttons for me and was one I had a hard time walking away from. For me, these are the most entertaining puzzles, and I loved figuring everything out piece by piece.
Cobble Hill Puzzles are excellent quality, with the only issue I’ve found being that the fit of their 1000 piece puzzles can be somewhat loose. It isn’t so much as to be overly annoying (not for me, anyway), but it is worth mentioning if you’re someone who prefers a tight fit. I puzzle on a fabric covered board, so the loose fit isn’t as much a problem for me. All other areas of quality I find to be excellent, and I never hesitate to purchase a Cobble Hill puzzle. Click the link above to see all of their puzzles currently available from one of their preferred online retailers, Puzzle Warehouse.
I think this was my first Easter puzzle, though I can’t be sure; my memory isn’t what it used to be. I assembled Cobble Hill’s Sugar Skull Cookies last year and had a great time with it, and was looking forward to assembling Easter Eggs – I wasn’t disappointed. The pieces are easy to sort and the random cut was interesting to assemble. I enjoy taking a bunch of similarly colored pieces and figuring out how they fit together. I don’t need the box to tell me anything, I’m figuring it out on my own. This is basically the thing that all puzzlers enjoy, putting the image back together. Collages like this are the most fun for me because it’s like assembling many mini puzzles all connected together.
I highly recommend this puzzle, it was great fun to assemble and has me looking forward to working on the rest of their cookie series – Halloween Cookies, Ugly Christmas Sweaters, and there’s another Easter puzzle called Easter Cookies (mostly the same cookies in a different pattern – looks like fun!) They also have one called Christmas Bake Sale, but it looks like a little bit too much of a challenge for me!
Details:
Title: Easter Eggs
Artist: Photography by Jo-Ann Richards
Brand: Cobble Hill Puzzles
Piece Count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 27 x 19 in. (69 x 48 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review
Quality:
Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Very good, poster included
Fit: Somewhat loose
Puzzle dust: Minimal amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Matte finish, lays flat
Overall rating: Very good quality, recommended
I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.
I absolutely adore the image of this puzzle, but oh my was it a challenge! Good thing I can be completely stubborn at times, because although I may have wanted to give up on this I never did. I wanted to light it on fire a couple of times, but I wanted to see the finished puzzle even more and I stuck with it. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s not your typical puzzle image, and that’s part of the draw for me – I gotta be me and I try never to follow the crowd unless they’re headed towards someone selling chocolate!
This is a Schmidt puzzle, and usually their quality is excellent. This is the first puzzle of theirs that I’ve been disappointed with. The cut of the pieces was less than good, some of the tabs were completely broken off because the part connecting them was so thin. A couple of the pieces weren’t broken on the initial sort, but they broke when I picked them up or tried to place them. I don’t know the manufacturing process well enough to know what causes this, but it was completely frustrating! Here are a few of the broken and almost broken pieces.
A few broken pieces aside, the rest of the quality was quite good. Thick pieces with a linen finish, excellent fit, and lovely image reproduction. This puzzle came in a large commemorative tin, so perhaps because it was a special edition it was cut differently than the other Schmidt puzzles I’ve worked? I can’t say for sure.
I knew going in that it would be quite difficult with all that black, but I love the image so much that I really wanted to get it finished. Normally if I’m assembling a puzzle and it feels like work then it isn’t fun; I’m supposed to be enjoying myself! But once in a while I refuse to give up because I really want to conquer it – this was one of those times.
The lovely lady in the middle of the image was easy enough to work with all the skin, fishnet stockings and sparkles; it was the curtains behind her that tested me. At the edge of the curtains the black is a little lighter and you can see a pattern, but the rest of them are basically solid black. Yikes! I sorted the black pieces by shape and counted them (I just wanted to know how much of this puzzle was all black), and almost 400 of the 1000 pieces were completely black. I can’t believe I didn’t give up!
In the end I’m pleased with myself for finishing, it is such a striking image. It’s mostly good quality, but the broken pieces prevent me from recommending this puzzle. It may have been an isolated problem, but this is a quality issue we puzzlers really dislike. If the pieces are broken, the puzzle is broken.
