Ghost Friends

Ghost Friends by Kathryn Selbert – Crocodile Creek – 100 pieces

You heard about this puzzle a month ago when I talked about Puzzle Chess and how I bought this puzzle expressly for the purpose of playing it with Penny when we finally met and got to puzzle together for the first time. It’s an adorable image by a new artist for me, and a new puzzle brand as well. It was a really enjoyable image to puzzle, and once Penny and I had finished our game of chess and just ended up puzzling together a great time was had by all. 🧩💚

I’d never heard of this brand before, Crocodile Creek. I was impressed with the quality of the puzzle, the pieces were thick and had a good hand feel, there were a great variety of shapes and they fit together well. The image reproduction was bright and clear and colorful with a slightly shiny finish that wasn’t too bad to work with. Overall I was impressed with this little one coffee puzzle!

The great fit made it possible to stand this little puzzle up, it’s the Stacey Stance – woooo hoooo! I don’t know why it makes me so happy to do this, it just does and I don’t apologize for it.

This puzzle was also a glow-in-the-dark image, so we put it outside while we had lunch and brought it in to see if the glow image was as fun as we’d hoped. Alas, it was a little disappointing in the GITD category, but it wasn’t too terrible. I have to keep reminding myself that they can’t all be as fabulous as the Secrets of the Deep puzzle that I assembled earlier this year. Still I got a pretty good picture of this one, it actually turned out better in the picture than it seemed in person.

It’s so adorably spoooooky! Penny and I enjoyed putting these Ghost Friends together, I’m so glad we got to try out puzzle chess, and we put this cutie together – together!

Beats for Bubba*

Beats for Bubba* – Re-marks – 100 pieces

Come on! Look at that adorable face! How could you not want to put together this mini puzzle to see that sweet face looking up at you? I obviously couldn’t pass it by. Puppy pictures please the puzzle princess. 👑

I’m not really a princess, but the alliteration made me smile.

The quality was just good on this puzzle. The fit was a bit loose, the backing was that sharp, white stuff I don’t care for, and the finish was shiny and had me turning my head and holding the pieces at angles before I just gave in and turned off the lights altogether. Other than those things the puzzle was ok. The pieces were a good size, there were a good variety of shapes, and the image reproduction for very good. Three pros and three cons, you decide which ones are important to you.

It was one of the easier small puzzles I’ve done in a while. The colors around the edges made for easy assembly, then there were only a small number of pieces that were just fur and face to contend with. Overall it was a fun build though, and it’s such a cute puzzle I can’t say too much bad about it.

Sweet face, cute image, fun puzzle!

Hello Fall

Hello Fall – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

Adorable little collage of fall images that was harder than I thought it would be, but I got there in the end. I miss fall. Having lived in Michigan for the better part of my life I am used to actual seasons, not just shades of summer all year long like we have here in Florida. I miss the changing leaves, the nip in the air, the smell of fireplaces and woodstoves burning….sigh….I just miss it.

Now that the reminiscing is done, this was a challenging image but really fun too – and great quality to boot. As usual. Ho hum, how boring, I always say the same thing. But it’s important to know, I think, if a company is consistent with their quality or one of those hit or miss brands. If I know that when I buy this brand I don’t have to worry about the quality, then all I need to worry about is whether or not the image is pleasing.

I did this puzzle immediately after one of the MicroPuzzles Puzzle Packs because I wanted to show the difference in size and finished image. You already saw in my previous post Peacocks the actual difference in piece size, but I wanted you to see both puzzle sizes completed as well.

Even though the Puzzle Packs have almost half of the number of pieces, the finished puzzle is still quite a bit larger. They’re both still small, but it does make a difference when you see the puzzles next to each other.

Both quality puzzles, good enough even for *The Stacey Stance* (it still makes me laugh out loud when I type that). I still love both sizes, but it’s really nice to have a choice now when I want to work on a mini puzzle – they’re both excellent!

Monster Meet-Up

Monster Meet-Up – MicroPuzzles (Puzzle Packs) – 80 pieces

I decided monsters would be another good fit for an October puzzle, and this image is just too cute for words! I’m really loving these puzzles packs from MicroPuzzles; the larger pieces, the larger finished puzzle, the great images to choose from, and the convenient packaging make these puzzles that I wouldn’t hesitate to buy again.

After this one I decided that a “regular” MicroPuzzles would be next, because I wanted to really give you a sense of the difference between the two products. They are both enjoyable to me, and both have very good quality. But as I’m getting on in years and everything seems to be slowly degrading with fine motor skills and eyesight it’s nice to have the option of getting great quality mini puzzles with both adult images and bigger pieces that are easier to work with.

See what I mean about great quality? How many mini puzzles do you think you could do that with?

The Gang*

The Gang* – Unknown manufacturer – 150 pieces

This puzzle was just at my house somehow, because I have no memory of where it came from. There’s no markings at all on the test tube it came in showing the manufacturer, photographer, nothing at all. So it has been given a title by me, just for this post. It looks like a fun group doesn’t it? So this is “the gang” everyone. Wouldn’t you love to hang out with them for a little while, I certainly would!

The quality of these little puzzles is really quite good. Most mini or micro puzzles are only one piece shape – not these – there are a very good variety of shapes, beautiful reproduction, and a relatively good fit. This one was a little looser than Vivienne*, but still not bad at all. I wish I knew who made this puzzle so I could give them their props, because these little puzzles really impressed me.

As always, this picture is in Mom’s memory, she told me you can’t really tell the size of a very large or very small puzzle unless there is something for comparison. If you crop a picture to only show the puzzle you have no sense of the size, really. That was driven home to me when we finally assembled the entire 40,320 piece Disney puzzle. If you read along on the blog as I was assembling each section you couldn’t really tell how big each one actually was, but once you see it laid out in front of you there’s no forgetting it.

This puzzle wasn’t as big of an accomplishment, but still it made me happy, and taking that second picture made me think of mom and smile – what more could this old gal ask for? 💖