I cannot stress enough how adorable and entertaining this puzzle was to assemble. Such a great little puzzle from Artifact, and if you’re so inclined it is highly recommended – it gets two very enthusiastic hoots! 🦉🦉
The decorative border was quite interesting, it was my first time with a border like this and I found I liked it very much. There were no whimsy pieces, but honestly it didn’t need any. And the artwork by Annya Kai makes for a great assembly – the colors and patterns were lovely to work with.
My youngest son picked this out for me to assemble, and even came in and helped me near the end – a minor miracle! Although these days he seems more interested in what puzzles I do and has been helping more often when the image is to his liking. This makes his old momma very happy.
This was one of those puzzles that I wanted to take apart and immediately start working on again. Love, love, loved it! ❤💕❤
Blooming Heart – Crafthub – 80 pieces? (I’ll count them up later)
Here’s another of the terrible quality wooden puzzles from Crafthub; unfortunately I bought three of them to make the shipping cost worthwhile so there’s still one more after this one. Even though the first one was so frustrating that doesn’t mean I would just get rid of the other two – of course I’m going to put them together, exasperating as they might be.
I’m not sure why, but as we were packing for our trip I threw both of these remaining Crafthub puzzles into my suitcase. It turns out that was a good idea though, because there are still several days left on our trip and I’m almost out of puzzles. The horror! 😱
Yesterday morning when talking about them with hubby a fantastic idea popped into my head; so believe it or not I was actually excited to start working on one of the crappy puzzles right away – even though there are two Wentworth puzzles in my suitcase that have not yet been assembled.
Once this puzzle is complete I plan on committing what normally would be a terrible puzzling sin in my own eyes – I’m going to glue this wooden puzzle. Shocked? I don’t blame you – never thought I would hear myself put all those words together in that order. Never. Ever. Wooden puzzles are such a joy to work with that prior to these Crafthub puzzles I would never have even considered gluing one. Part of the reason they’re more expensive is that they can be assembled over and over, even passed down through family sometimes. Gluing a beautifully made wooden puzzle is a TERRIBLE idea if you ask me, you would never again be able to experience the delight and satisfaction of assembling it.
But here is my thought process; these puzzles are NOT beautifully made, not ones I would ever want to assemble again, and inflicting them on anyone else by giving them to friends or donating them elsewhere doesn’t seem like a good idea either. The only positive with these puzzles so far is the beautiful images, so the thought came to me that it would make a lovely little wall hanging or decorative tchotchke – why not glue the sucker and at least get some future use out of it?
That’s my plan anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes. 😎
Boobie Trapped by Angie Rees – Artifact – 340 pieces
This is the most fun I’ve had with a puzzle in a long time, the bright colors, the silly artwork, the excellent pieces – it all made for a great puzzle that I would love to start all over again. I gave myself over completely to the puzzle and just put in pieces wherever I found them; no pressure, no peeking at the box, just a little bit of puzzle paradise whenever it was needed.
When I first started stocking up on puzzles to work on after my surgery I was only looking at the smaller piece counts. I didn’t look at much else and ended up completely missing this one. Penny and I were window shopping online together (lots of texts back and forth with links to cute puzzles) and she came across this image. She knew immediately that I would love it, and it ended up that several cute ones had gone totally unnoticed by me because smaller piece counts were all I was looking at. Thankfully she’s always there to pick up the slack and enable me as much as possible, so an additional order was placed – we couldn’t leave this poor boobie trapped moose all alone!
The dangers of air-drying your laundry in places where there are roaming moose; well, it seems apparent what one of those dangers is doesn’t it?
Great whimsy pieces, including a bra and underwear set. Love the sense of humor with with one! The two beavers with the forest ranger hats were adorable as well.
The “drop out” in this puzzle was perfect. 💕 I don’t think I could have enjoyed this puzzle more, it was fantastic!
This adorable puzzle is a “Little Liberty”, made for kids. The pieces were much bigger than the usual ones from this company, and the image is an easy one for kids to work on. Although I am a “grown up” this puzzle was still completely entertaining for me – just a big kid at heart I guess.
The image is by one of my favorite artists that Liberty uses, Phil Lewis, he’s a local artist in Boulder, Colorado – where Liberty Puzzles are located. His artwork makes for gorgeous puzzles; he made the image on one of my favorite puzzles I’ve ever assembled, Sugar Magnolia. I love his illustration here of a dreaming doggy with the clouds above showing what he’s dreaming about; you can see a rabbit being chased and a tennis ball, so cute!
Almost 25 percent of the pieces were whimsies, Liberty has the highest percentage of whimsy pieces per puzzle that I’ve ever worked with (from a contemporary company). They’re all appropriate to the image and easy to recognize, which is also excellent in a puzzle designed for children.
After I pulled all the whimsies out I commented to my husband that they all made sense to me in relation to the image, except for one – the standing woman. (I was working on this one in bed, hubby was right next to me while we binged a favorite show) Neither one of us could figure it out, hubby said perhaps she was holding a treat in her left hand that she might be giving to one of the dogs. We decided to wait and see what it looked like from the back once it was completed; sometimes in Liberty puzzles there are tableaus using more than one whimsy in the finished image. Any guesses for what it turned out to be? Hubby and I were both wrong…
At the top near the middle you can see where the lady fits in – she’s walking her poodle! I love how the designer fit in a straight line between pieces as the leash (the only straight line in the whole puzzle). There are a few little scenes in this image, all things Merlin may be dreaming about; barking at a cat, chasing a rabbit, playing with kids, etc.
It went together quickly, but it was a fantastically made puzzle with beautiful artwork by Phil Lewis. I adored it. 💖
King Lion by Marjorie Sarnat – Wentworth – 140 pieces
Holy crackers is this puzzle BEAUTIFUL! Every time I was working on it in bed my hubby commented about how striking it was, how the colors were so gorgeous – every time I took it out to add some pieces. Either he was just trying to keep my spirits up or he really thought those things; I think he really liked the image.
This was one that took loads more time than anticipated. The box image wasn’t used as a reference and with all the colors and patterns it took more brain power than your average cottage scene, landscape, or photographic image. But that was a plus in my book. Even if I was only able to put in a few pieces at a time I enjoyed searching for just the right one and hearing that satisfying “plunk” as it dropped into place.
Love all the whimsies, they completely fit in with the theme of the puzzle – and the details are amazing. Excellent puzzle all around, so much so that I’m looking forward to completing it again. 🦁
