Daddy’s Down Time by Iralu – Cardinal – 300 pieces
Another fun image from my box of 12 puzzles by the artist Iralu. I love his bright colors and fun sketch-style drawings. They aren’t the best quality puzzles out there, but I just couldn’t resist the artwork. None of the images in this set have titles, so I am naming them as I go; since the lady in the tub puzzle was named Momma’s Me Mood, I have titled this Daddy’s Down Time*
The 300 piece puzzles in this set are better quality than the 150 piece puzzles in the same box. They’re a little thicker and fit together MUCH better, and I have no idea why that is – it makes no sense to me. I would think that they would all be manufactured in the same facility – shouldn’t the quality be the same?
Anyway, this was a fun one and I enjoyed it very much! I don’t really recommend buying puzzles in a multipack box set, the quality is usually questionable. But if you find one with artwork that you can’t live without I say go for it – everything doesn’t have to be perfect for you to enjoy putting the puzzles together. 🙂
Proud Lion by Martin Nasim – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces
This puzzle is gorgeous! I’ve been impressed by the quality of these Milton Bradley puzzles, they’re very nice to work with and I love the unique images they have. I always like to have two or three (or more) smaller piece count puzzles around, sometimes it’s just nice to put together a smaller puzzle.
I started by separating the pieces into two halves, the painted side and the funky side; and I also pulled out the middle pieces – they’re easy to spot and a good place to start.
The edges and middle done – I was even able to pick out the pieces that surround the center. (Sorry about that dark spot in the lower right corner, I spilled a drop of puzzle glue on the fabric that covers my board. I usually try to move the puzzles away from it while I’m photographing them, but it slipped my mind with this puzzle. 😉
I started with the more difficult side, and even though I had to use my tired old lady brain cells a little more than usual I enjoyed putting it together. The second side went together more quickly, but still required a bit of brain power. Not all 300 piece puzzles are easy, they can be just as challenging as larger piece counts; I find them completely entertaining and a nice break in between assembling bigger puzzles.
I truly enjoyed the artwork and would love to find more puzzles by this artist – this image was absolutely a joy to put together and makes for a beautiful puzzle. 🦁
Farmers’ Market – MasterPieces (Trendz) – 300 pieces (EZ grip)
While I enjoyed the bright colors and interesting image, the very shiny finish and extremely slippery backing made this puzzle a bit difficult to assemble and VERY difficult to photograph. It was entertaining to put together, but I ended up with a negative impression of it partly because photographing the puzzle is the last thing I do, and this one was a bugger to take a picture of!
I work under artificial lights, but with my fabric covered board it’s usually easy to get a good photograph – the chipboard backing on the puzzles sticks to the fabric and doesn’t move when I lean the board up against the wall. Taking pictures this way takes care of glare from the lights, and makes it easier to get a picture of the puzzle straight on. This puzzle though, with it’s slippery paper on the backing just kept sliding right off! Since I couldn’t lean the board even a little bit I had to take a picture with the board flat and ended up with quite a bit of glare. It took many pictures and much more time than usual to get a good picture. It was extremely frustrating. 🤬
The puzzle itself had large, thick pieces that fit together well, but unfortunately that’s where my positives end. The backing didn’t have a good feel in my hands, the finish was extremely shiny and caused glare under the lights, and the image reproduction made it very easy to tell that this was a digital collage. I’ve worked many, many, many collage puzzles – I would say that most of them have been digitally altered or assembled – but this was the first puzzle that made it glaringly obvious.
I’ve been going back and forth about whether or not to recommend this puzzle to my readers. On the one hand I enjoyed the actual assembly, but on the other hand I had several issues with the quality (that didn’t involve picture taking). It all depends on what characteristics are most important to you when assembling a puzzle. I found the image to be bright and colorful – and also too shiny with a very obvious digitally altered image. The chipboard was thick with a good fit – although the backing felt odd and almost sharp in my hands.
Overall the puzzle itself had good quality, and I mostly enjoyed the assembly, so it is recommended (even though if I came across another of these Trendz puzzles by MasterPieces I would pass it on by). It’s not my pile of pieces, but it may be yours. 🙂
Usually for a 300 piece puzzle it gets finished the day that I start it, but this one has been on my board for 2 days now. It’s been a horrible week, but I’ve made it a point to get myself into the puzzle room at least once a day and do SOMETHING with a puzzle; whether it’s sorting pieces or putting a few of them together, as long as I got a little bit accomplished it helped.
I started with the more difficult side, the brush strokes make it a bit more of a challenge – but there’s fun in the harder ones, and every piece placed is a little victory. And once that side is finished the bright colors and interesting patterns on the opposite side should make for much quicker assembly.
So this beauty is still in progress, but hopefully I’ll be able to stay awake during the day and get it finished. You can’t really tell from the picture, but it’s a beautiful image, it’ll be gorgeous when it’s done. 🙂
Birthday Candle by Stephanie D. Roeser – Sure-Lox – 300 pieces
This image was too funny to pass up, how could you walk by this puzzle on the shelf and not give it a try? That face!
I’ve found that the newer Sure-Lox box means better quality, so I was confident buying this puzzle. I’ve been impressed with the new quality, especially on their 300 piece puzzles. The chipboard is thick and both the fit and the image reproduction are excellent – look at the bright, beautiful colors, and the sharp focus on the cat!
I decided to sort and assemble this a different way, and documented as I went. It was put together at night when sleep wouldn’t come – as per usual these days. Insomnia = lots of puzzle time.
After the edge was complete I started with the the cupcake and candle, and it went together quickly. I love the colors, it’s all so bright and cheery.
Next to be assembled was all of the background; it took a little more time and since I put the box away I was only using the colors to find my way. Shapes were of no help because all of the pieces were ballerinas. It didn’t make it too difficult with this image though; the colors were all the help I needed.
Next I put in all the pieces with both cat hair and background color. Assembling the puzzle this way, from the outside in was quite entertaining and although it doesn’t lend itself to most puzzle images it was fun to try it on this one.
All that was left was to fill in the cat, it was the most difficult part, obviously. After the eyes, nose, and mouth the whiskers were the next to be put together; they were brilliantly white and easy to pick out. Once those were all done all that was left was just fur, which is notoriously difficult; but because there were only 300 pieces to begin with there weren’t that many pieces left, so it went pretty quickly.
The image was great fun, the background colors made it interesting, and I loved the process of assembling in from the outside in and documenting it as I went. Hopefully you, my readers, liked it as well. Meow! 😽
