Mom had a successful thrift store trip this week and brought me this Christmas puzzle that was only 100 pieces. It’s such a pretty image! There’s a lot of glitter, but I wasn’t able to get a good picture of it.
Unfortunately this is an E&L puzzle, and the quality was dismal. The pieces are thin and fit together very poorly. You can see by the picture above that the finished puzzle doesn’t lie flat, but being a used puzzle it might be from our fantastic Florida humidity rather than poor quality. Although at 35 cents, it was still money well spent; even with less than perfect quality I can still enjoy the puzzle.
On the positive side, this is a “Sparkles in Light” holiday series glitter puzzle, and the glitter is adhered extremely well. There wasn’t one speck of it anywhere on the bottom of the box – and that’s a rarity with glitter puzzles that I’ve worked. No festive puzzle dust at all! LOL
Desserts is one of those collages puzzles that is so much fun to assemble that I find it difficult to walk away. Back when I could sit for long periods of time this is exactly the kind of 1000 piece puzzle I could have finished in one day – I absolutely LOVED IT❣
eeBoo puzzles have excellent quality, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every one that I’ve assembled. Their catalog is full of bright, interesting images and I find them extremely entertaining to construct. The pieces are pleasantly thick and sturdy, with a good variety of shapes, and the fit is excellent. The image reproduction is stellar, with clean lines and bright colors; my only small criticism is that the finish is quite shiny. If you’re working under artificial lights glare can be a problem, even with the lighter colored pieces. Overall though, they are wonderful quality puzzles. Click on the link above to check out their current puzzle line. (I’m so looking forward to their spring 2019 releases, they have some AWESOME puzzles coming out – including a round 500 piece Votes for Women puzzle that looks amazing!)
The square 1008 piece puzzles they carry have all sides pointing towards the center, they’re great for assembling with family or friends – there’s no bottom or top, whichever side you’re working on is the right side. 😍
Desserts eeBoo Day 1
Desserts eeBoo Day 2
There are only 2 in process photos because I was too caught up in the assembly to stop and take pictures – these are at the end of days one and two, day three had me finishing it. Each small section led to another and I didn’t want to get up from the puzzle table!
The green teapot was my favorite part of the assembly, and the gorgeous cake in the center came in a close second. It didn’t make me hungry for desserts though, it made me hungry to get another puzzle!
One of the many things I like about this brand is that not only do you get a small poster of the image to use during assembly, they also have an unobstructed image on the back of the box – whichever works best for you. I really dislike it when puzzle companies cover the image with logos and piece counts, and other trivial stuff – we want to see what the WHOLE puzzle looks like! eeBoo gives you the entire image two different ways, and this puzzler is extremely grateful!
I enjoyed this puzzle so much more than I thought I would, it was an absolute delight. It gets two cake slices WAY up! 🍰🍰
Details:
Title: Desserts
Artist: Monika Forsberg
Brand: eeBoo
Piece count: 1008 pieces
Size: 25 x 25 (64 x 64 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review
Quality:
Board: Excellent
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Very good
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Shiny finish, lays flat
Overall Rating: Excellent, highly 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.
Wallace & Gromit Christmas Pudding by Nick Park – Wentworth – 40 pieces
Now here is your “not the usual” Christmas puzzle! I love the special whimsy pieces, the image, and the exceptional Wentworth quality. I’ve never seen an episode of the show, but I love this image – it’s so cute!
This is unusual for Wentworth too, this image is only available in the micro puzzle size, you can’t get it in a larger puzzle. It’s a pity, I’d have loved to have seen even more of these fantastic whimsies….
I’ve never had a Christmas pudding – as a matter of fact, I had to look up what exactly it was! It doesn’t sound very appetizing to me, but I’m sure that’s because it isn’t something I grew up with (and also because I’m an extremely picky eater). I’m sure some of the things I love to eat would not seem appetizing to many others. 😉
This was such a fun puzzle! Merry Christmas pudding! 🎄
Over the River by Susan Winget – Ceaco – 500 pieces
Over the River is the companion puzzle to one I assembled in February of this year. They come in a book box with two compartments – each holds a puzzle with cork backing, both by the same artist. Like many of the “different” Ceaco puzzles it was very good quality.
🎶Over the River and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go!🎶
The first one I put together from this box was Simple Pleasures, and it seemed much easier to assemble than this puzzle (although my memory isn’t as reliable as it used to be 👵). There were so many places around the whimsies that didn’t connect at all, and it was a bit frustrating to constantly have to fix pieces that had moved. It can get quite tedious – but sometimes that’s how whimsies go.
With these puzzles it’s sometimes hard to find all the whimsy pieces before you begin; so these are some, but definitely not all of them…
The scalloped edges aren’t as easy to assemble as you’d think, so I began with the words. It took way more brain power than I’d assumed!
The inset scenes were lovely!
Even though it gave my gray cells a little bit of a workout, it was great fun. And you definitely can’t beat the price – 99 cents for two 500 piece puzzles with cork backing! I absolutely got more than a dollar’s worth of entertainment. ☺
The Nutcracker by Anie Maltais – JaCaRou Puzzles – 1000 pieces
The Nutcracker is a beautiful image and puzzle, and although there was a slight quality issue I enjoyed it’s assembly very much. It’s the first puzzle of this brand that I’ve tried, and I was impressed.
JaCaRou Puzzles are a relatively new brand to the market, but I have to say for someone like myself who enjoys bright, interesting artwork they have an amazing catalog! All the artwork is done by Anie Maltais, who also the owner of the company. I surprised myself by choosing this Christmas image with all the other gorgeous, colorful puzzles they have, but something about this one spoke to me that day.
The pieces are a good thickness and quite sturdy with a very good variety of shapes that fit together well. I had some damaged pieces along with an image reproduction problem (the filigree along the edges was very blurry in contrast to the rest of the puzzle). I admit I was disappointed, but my email to the company prompted an unbelievably fast reply from Anie herself; and the excellent customer service I received leads me to believe that my damaged puzzle was an anomaly. I won’t hesitate to try another JaCaRou.
The puzzle comes in a special edition book box of very nice quality, with what seems to be a switch to turn on a small “music box” that I’m assuming plays The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. It didn’t work (dead batteries), but I’m not holding that against them – it’s a great idea!
I started out assembling this puzzle in bed, on my trays. It went together pretty darn quickly.
Now that it’s been moved to the board and filled in some it’s looking fantastic.
The top edge was easy to distinguish from the rest of the edges, and went together quite easily. The cord down the center was a little more of a challenge, but not too much so.
The filigree pattern around the edges was the most difficult part for me, but I love the look of the puzzle as a whole – all that’s left now are the edges!
Close-up of the presents under the tree…
The beautiful colors and patterns on these presents make me want to try one of the other JaCaRou puzzles with the bright artwork, the only problem is which one to choose. 😉 I’m leaning towards either Hearts of Glass or Home Sweet Home. I can’t decide!
Details:
Title: The Nutcracker
Artist: Anie Maltais
Brand: JaCaRou
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 27 x 20 in. (70 x 50 cm)
Purchased: New
Quality:
Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Good, blurry filigree
Box: Excellent, book box
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish
Overall Rating: Very good, recommended
**I don’t normally contact companies about small quality problems, things happen. It’s been my experience though that puzzles with specialty packaging have their own unique problems and are sometimes manufactured at different facilities. I thought that JaCaRou should be made aware of the quality issues I had, especially because of the packaging; I believe the damaged pieces were most likely the result of how they were placed in the box. Anie was apologetic, and graciously offered to replace either the damaged pieces or the entire puzzle (I declined both). She was also appreciative that I mentioned the fuzzy border, so that she can address the issue. I love that she cares so much about making sure the puzzles she produces are the best quality they can be, and that she took so much of her time to correspond with me about resolving any problems.
My Jigsaw Journal 