Father Frost by Rachel Arbuckle – Wentworth – 36 pieces
This gorgeous shaped micro puzzle is beautiful, and a little challenging too – the perfect combination! The interesting shapes made for a longer assembly time than I thought, but a wonderful one.
I had no idea when I assembled it that it was artwork by Rachel Arbuckle, I adore her artwork! I have the first 3 puzzles in her 12 days of Christmas series, and I’m looking forward to assembling them.
The curlicue pieces and shaped edges made for quite the entertaining puzzle! This one comes in a Christmas cracker box too; they’re a little more expensive than the regular micro puzzles, but I love them anyway.
I assembled another kids puzzle with the same name on the same day (that’s the reason for the number), they were both Ravensburger and both very pretty. This one was much easier to assemble, but the other one had fairies and glitter and you know I’m a sucker for some glitter!
Ravensburger kids puzzles are absolutely wonderful quality, if you’ve got kids you’d like to buy puzzles for I highly recommend them. Cobble Hill and Eurographics also make excellent quality puzzles for children and have great catalogs to choose from.
The pieces are large and easy to handle, very thick and fit together beautifully. The colors are interesting and lovely without being too bright – it’s subtle, but so very pretty. There are an excellent variety of piece shapes to work with, and enough going on in the scene that each piece has clues to where it should go. It’s important with a puzzle for very young children that it not be too difficult for them to figure out placement, each piece should have something that leads to the piece beside it. It builds confidence and gives them a sense of accomplishment, and puzzles are so very good for developing brains!
I never took ballet lessons as a child, I was too much of a tomboy to want to put on a frilly tutu and dance around. I wanted to be a gymnast like Nadia Comaneci; it seemed like much more fun to get to run around and tumble, that was much more my speed. But if you’ve got a little ballet dancer in your life, this would be a great puzzle for them! 🙂
Busy Airport by Peter Nielaender – Ravensburger – 35 pieces
This very small piece count puzzle didn’t take much time at all, but it was done on a day where I sat in front of the tv assembling all the kid’s puzzles I had in the house. I wanted to make sure all pieces were there before donating them to the school my daughter works for.
Another wonderful quality Ravensburger puzzle, although I think this one may have been well loved before it was donated to our local thrift store. The box showed quite a bit of wear and tear, but the pieces seem to have held up very well. There was one slightly bent piece that you can see in the picture above (the tab is slightly raised), but otherwise the puzzle remains in very good condition.
Many puzzlers say they only do 1000 piece puzzles or more, but I love puzzles no matter the size. I’ve had quite a bit of fun doing puzzles geared towards children, perhaps because I may be an adult but I refuse to “grow up”. I can enjoy myself doing a puzzle no matter how many pieces it has, and as long as there’s enjoyment that’s all that matters!
Besides, parents need to see reviews of puzzles for children; they deserve information about quality and difficulty of assembly as much as adults do. 🙂
Festive Fir – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 30 pieces
These are a couple of the Christmas micro puzzles from Wentworth Wooden Puzzles. I went a little insane and ordered MANY of these 30-40 piece puzzles when there was a free shipping special. I don’t regret it, I’m worth it, and they make me happy. Besides, they’re so cute and fun to assemble they will be done many more times – no doubt about it!
The festive fir was a challenging cut, but even the more difficult ones aren’t too bad when there are only 30-40 pieces. It’s lovely to sit and assemble a puzzle in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee. A fellow jigsaw puzzle blogger from Russia calls these “one coffee puzzles”; they are small piece count puzzles you can finish in one quick sitting. I love the name and have started using it too.
I’m not really a collector, so puzzle boxes aren’t really that important to me. I do take note when they’re interesting or really well done. The boxes for these Christmas micro puzzles are so adorable I had to give them a mention. They’re shaped like Christmas crackers! You twist open one of the ends, and the pieces are inside in a gold mesh bag.
It won’t be as easy to shelve these as it would for regular boxes, but they’re just too cute not to show you. They’re a little more expensive than the regular micro puzzles, but oh well. 😎
Festive Gingerbread House – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 36 pieces
A completely adorable gingerbread house! I’m glad I splurged and bought all of these micro puzzles – mom and I absolutely love them. This one was also a little bit of a challenging cut, but it was a joy to put together.
My wonderful husband has never said a negative word about any of my puzzle purchases, in fact he thinks I should spend money on myself more often! So there’s really no problem with all these purchases, right? Of course right! 😁 (Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself of that, it’s still pretty new to me spending money on things I don’t really need, and at times I feel a little buyer’s remorse)
Perpetual Puzzles Pesky Parrots by Makoto Nakamura – The Lagoon Group – 36 pieces
Awesome puzzle in a puzzle by The Lagoon Group! There are 36 parrots, 18 facing one direction and 18 facing the opposite. There are several ways to assemble it according to the box. The first way that we tried was the picture above. Make a 6 x 6 “square” where no parrot is touching another parrot of the same color. Not really difficult to do, but the pieces were so fun to work with!
The pieces are extremely thick and the colors are bright and fun. Mom and I didn’t take long to assemble this first puzzle, but we enjoyed it all the same. 🙂
Onward to the next solution….
In this picture is the same “square” 6 x 6 puzzle with no parrot touching another of the same color AND any beaks and feet that touch cannot be the same color. This solution took a little bit more time, and I almost let it beat me; but actually my dad stepped in and moved a few pieces for us! 😮 Puzzles aren’t his thing at all, and he never works puzzles with us – but for some reason he wanted to help with this one. Yay dad!!!
The last way to assemble it is called “Desktop Diversion”, place the pieces however you want, in any order or any shape. You could make a long line of the pieces or an interesting mosaic – it’s all up to you! A lovely way to clear your head and relieve stress if you ask me.
There were at least five different puzzles in this series by Makoto Nakamura, I’d love to find them all! There are Canine Capers, Brilliant Beetles, Lively Lizards, Feline Frenzy, and Pesky Parrots. It doesn’t look like they’re still being produced, but hopefully we find more of them, I loved it!
My Jigsaw Journal 