Thrift store purchase. The quality was, uh, not up to snuff. Yikes. There were only 2 different piece styles and the thickness of the pieces was extremely thin. The finish of the image was shiny and gave off quite a bit of glare.
Looking back on it, I’m surprised I even finished this puzzle. The image isn’t one I would normally choose, and the quality was quite poor. If someone gave it to me now I don’t think I would even start it.
Once it was completed we gave it away – lesson learned. I am now a jigsaw puzzle snob (according to my mother) and this isn’t a brand I like or recommend.
Songbird Garden by Johanna Basford – Buffalo Games – 500 pieces
Started and finished this puzzle today. I love the colors, and it’s been a while since I’ve done a 500 piece puzzle. It seemed unbelievably easy compared to the puzzle I’m currently working on 😉
I enjoy Buffalo Games puzzles, the fit is always very good, and there’s no guesswork as to whether a piece fits or not. They also have the unique zig zag shape that I haven’t seen in any other puzzles. It was very nice to be able to pull a bunch of pieces for a small section and be able to finish it quickly without having to look at the box or picture for assistance.
I apologize for the picture, the photo editor on my computer got upgraded, and the crop feature isn’t working properly (or more likely I don’t know how to work it properly) I wanted to crop and straighten it, but it keeps cutting off the top of the puzzle. Grrrr!
Very nice puzzle, with lovely artwork. I haven’t come across this artist before, and I enjoyed the image and colors. Fun, easy puzzle – it’s nice to do something quick and easy for a change. I’ve been kinda snobby about 500 piece puzzles, I prefer 1000 or more pieces. But I’ve changed my tune. It’s nice to work on a smaller puzzle that you can just enjoy and put together leisurely. I’ve already started my next 500 piece puzzle, a shaped Wizard of Oz puzzle. Hope to have a completed picture for it soon!
Unknown title, artist and manufacturer – 500 pieces
This was the most difficult puzzle I have ever done! I was unbelievably proud when I finished it, and am trying to find the right frame to display it in. While cleaning the office in my parent’s house, we came across a couple of puzzles in ziploc bags. This puzzle had a very small picture cut from the box for “reference” – it was about 1 1/2 or 2 inches square. Not big enough to help at all, but just to show what the puzzle looks like completed.
It’s hard to tell in this picture, but each of the squares is actually four squares of different fabric/designs. With no picture for reference, this 500 piece puzzle took me 5 days to complete (for comparison a 1000 piece puzzle I can usually finish in 2-3 days)! I don’t know why this didn’t frustrate me, but I was content to work on this puzzle and spend more time looking for pieces than actually assembling. It may have been that I knew it was going to be an awesome looking finished image, or that I loved the challenge of having no picture to work from.
Most of the time when I finish a puzzle, I take it apart and take it to moms house so she can do it if she wants to. She said something to me about trying it herself and I had to tell her that I couldn’t bear to take this apart! Sorry, but I will be gluing and framing it because I’ve never been more proud of a finished puzzle. The most difficult jigsaw puzzle I’ve ever done, and I don’t even know where it came from!
This is an amazing company from Germany that I’d never heard of before. They don’t carry very many puzzles (there were only 9 to choose from last time I checked), but they are of amazing quality. The puzzle came in a large round tube, there was a poster inside, and the pieces were unbelievably thick! They were cardboard, but so thick and dense it almost felt like wood.
I believe this was purchased at Barnes and Noble in the clearance section, and how I wish there had been more of this brand! The image is interesting and the colors were bright and fun. It wasn’t overly difficult to assemble, grid cut, and the feel of the pieces made for a wonderfully fun tactile experience. I would love to find more of this brand here in the states, there are 3 or 4 of their other puzzles I would enjoy doing very much.
Candied Apples and Candy Corn by Jane Wooster Scott – Ceaco – 584 pieces
This is not your normal Ceaco puzzle, the pieces were backed with thick cork board and there were a lot of whimsies – there were balloons, a dog, a train, birds, even a clown! SO MUCH FUN! As an added bonus there are 42 pieces of the puzzle that you can assemble separately to make a juggling clown. I didn’t do that part, but what a cool idea!
The puzzle was only 584 pieces, but they were quite large – almost too big for my whiteboard which I used at the time for regular 1000 piece puzzles (20″ x 27″). It wasn’t an easy puzzle by any means, the two trees at the top took me an hour 😮 It’s more challenging with the random cut of the pieces and whimsies, but I enjoyed every moment and love, love, LOVE THIS PUZZLE!
I used to tell my mom to stop buying puzzles at thrift stores because we have so many, and she’s always buying more. Not anymore. If it makes her happy she should go for it, I should keep my mouth shut – not to mention she sometimes finds amazing puzzles like this one. Best thrift store find of the year! (I checked online to find a price, and found one new for sale at a retail store for $124.00!)
My Jigsaw Journal 