Another collage! I LOVE collages! This puzzle was a gift from my mother, and I had a great time putting it together.
I always love to have lots of words to assemble, and the books reminded me of my childhood; reading Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, going to the library to get more books to read and watching the tv shows on the weekends. Shaun Cassidy anyone? Pamela Sue Martin? Parker Stevenson? I do believe I am showing my age. The Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew Mysteries! 🙂
Although the puzzle seems dark, it wasn’t overly difficult, and Cobble Hill pieces feel so great with the linen finish. The random piece cut makes it more interesting (or more difficult depending on your preference) If you like collage puzzles or Nancy Drew, this puzzle is for you.
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!
What a fun puzzle! It was refreshing after working the large Cinderella section to have a puzzle where I barely had to look at the box and could put together large sections of it. I’m not sure I would call it a collage, but it felt that way to me. Really relaxing and entertaining, along with educational.
The Eurographics brand is quite good – random cut, good thickness, and the image was crisp. Really fun to assemble; it was easy to pull out all the words and put those together, then the flags, etc. The frames for the Union and Confederate generals were different as well, so that made the portraits easy to pull out and assemble too.
Under each general’s name was a short bio including dates of birth and death, major battles and campaigns participated in, and place of burial. I had never heard of many of these men and I learned a lot.
And oh my the facial hair – mutton chops for days, impressive beards and fantabulous mustaches!
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.
Cinderella is finished! I’m super proud of myself, and very thankful to my mom and husband for helping put the last pieces in today. Thanks guys! Actually, thanks mom. Hubby never reads this blog. He gets to hear about the puzzle and sees it every day. 🙂
I sure was right when I said that this would be one of the difficult ones. But it took me only 16 days to complete this section compared to 20 days for Snow White. I think I learned a few things working the first section that sped things up a bit, and I also think I worked harder on it because I wanted to get it over with. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, because I did; but at times it seemed as if I was making no progress at all. And again, there were raging hormone days which made slight frustrations seem way worse than they actually were.
She is beautiful and I’m glad she’s finished. The twinklies were the last pieces to be assembled and it seemed more difficult on this section than it did on Snow White. Perhaps that’s just my perception, but it sure did feel as if I spent WAY more time looking for pieces. It is helpful though that there is a pattern to the pieces along the connecting edges. You can see in the picture above that it alternates, this is helpful in determining what shape pieces you’re looking for next.
Tomorrow she’s coming off the board to be put on cardboard to rest under my bed until assembling day. I really should figure out what I’m going to do with the puzzle once it is complete! Buy a bigger house with a wall large enough to display it? Or with enough floor space to put it on the floor and cover it with a clear sealer? If I do that though, I can never ever move! Also, do I really want people walking all over it? I think not!
Dumbo is next, but I’m not sure if I’ll start sorting tomorrow or not. I have pulled the bag of pieces but that’s as far as I got. I am still working on the Civil War Generals puzzle, but I may get antsy to get started on the next section. I do want to finish the Civil War puzzle, because it’s quite fun – interesting and informative. Lots of words too, which I LOVE to put together. Although you may be seeing Dumbo progress start very soon!
