Tag: 1000 pieces

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Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is a 1000-piece Ravensburger Disney puzzle that I got at a local bookstore to use for the Winter Bingo I am participating in. It fit the squares of Birthday or Balloons (it had both!) and Disney or Cartoon (with bonus entry for using Pooh or Tinkerbell).

It was a really fun puzzle to put together. The quality was great all around, although of course there was a lot of puzzle dust and no reference poster. But the difficulty level was just right and I didn’t get stuck at any point.

Such a cute image! I loved the amount of detail in the puzzle. There was a lot going on, but it wasn’t chaotic at all. Highly recommend!

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Plant Life

Plant Life by Galison is a 1000-piece panoramic puzzle that I got from the local puzzle box. The artist is Julie Seabrook Ream. I chose it because it was a very pretty image, although I wasn’t sure how hard it would be. 

Well, it turned out to be very hard!! It was pretty slow going right from the beginning. The first day I did the border and parts of the yellow, orange, red, and pink sections. I wish I had kept track of my time, but I do know that I spent a lot of hours even though it was only four days of puzzling.

The second day I moved onto the light green and some of the purple. There were a lot of dark pieces that were hard to see, which was made worse by the glare on the pieces.

The third day I filled in more of the sections I had already worked on and started the green section. The green section was definitely the hardest – it was the largest section and had the most similar pieces.

On the fourth day, I think I worked for about ten hours and I finished the puzzle. At one point, with about 200 pieces left, I seriously considered quitting, but I persevered and got it done.

I am glad I kept going and finished the puzzle. It is such a beautiful image. I considered framing it, but frames this size on Amazon run about $80, and even on Ebay or Etsy, the best price I could find was $70. So I ended up taking it apart and it is going to go back to the puzzle box for someone else to tackle.

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The Alchemist’s Home

The Alchemist’s Home is a 1000-piece puzzle from the brand eeBoo, and the artist is Vasilisa Romanenko. This is a new-to-me brand. I had gotten it a while ago and thought I might save it for Halloween, but then I included it in a group of puzzles where I was choosing a random puzzle to do for a puzzle challenge and it got picked!

I was a bit intimidated at first due to the amount of detail going on, but it was actually a lot of fun to do. Each room has a different wallpaper and floor/rug, so that made it easy to sort out the pieces.

I enjoyed all of the different things going on in this puzzle, and I really liked all of the ghosts that appear in the various rooms and even outside the house.

The quality was great as well. The pieces were a nice size and fit together well. I had just a couple of false fits on the border, but it didn’t take long to sort those out.

I am looking forward to doing more from this brand, including more from the Alchemist’s series!

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Whisper of Cactus

Whisper of Cactus is a 1000 piece puzzle from a brand that is new to me, Antelope. The artist is Lynn Weilin. I actually won this puzzle a little over a year ago from a YouTube giveaway at The Casual Puzzler. I had been putting it off because it was a little intimidating with all of the green, but I pulled it out on New Year’s Eve Day to give it a try.

It did turn out to be a hard puzzle, but I ended up finishing it in one sitting. I thought about taking a break after I finished each of the harder groups of pieces, but then I just kept going. I think it helped that I started rewatching Gray’s Anatomy while I was puzzling; that sort of kept me engaged.

I started out with the colorful flowers, then did the maroon ground. After that, I did the blue cacti, and then started tackling the various shades and textures of the green cacti. I’m not sure how many hours I spent on it exactly, but I finished up around 2 am on New Year’s Day! Way to ring in the New Year!!

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Favorite Things

This weekend, I put together another puzzle from Elena Essex. It’s a 1000-piece called Favorite Things, and the artist is Mara Penny.

I received this puzzle last Christmas from my ex-husband. It’s one that I knew I wanted the moment I saw it; it’s my favorite type of puzzle – an assortment of images arranged by color.

Yesterday, I did the border and the pink, red, orange, yellow, and green sections. Then today I did the purple and blue. It was super fun to put together and very good quality.

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Christmas Cornucopia

For my second Christmas puzzle of the season, I did Christmas Cornucopia from Elena Essex. It’s a 1000-piece puzzle with beautiful colors and gold foil accents.

This is also my second Elena Essex puzzle to put together. The first one was Woodland Magic, which was an absolute dream to do.

This puzzle was harder than the mushroom puzzle as there weren’t as many different colors. It was definitely doable, however, once I hunkered down and started picking out the different textures in each color.

The only downside of this puzzle was the border. There were so many false fits, and I really struggled to get the border completed. I had to move things around multiple times and was very far into the puzzle before I got it completely done.

How far I got before the border was done

I did love the colors and the gold foil accents. I also appreciated how well the pieces held together. It was very easy to move sections around.

Finished puzzle

I highly recommend this puzzle for a fun holiday experience.

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Puzzled Cats

Puzzled Cats is a charming 1000-piece puzzle from a company called Two Bird Press. I had it on my Amazon wish list for several months but kept putting it off because it was a little pricier than I normally do.

Then another puzzle on my wish list that I really liked disappeared from the list. After that, I decided to go ahead and get this one while it was still available.

It was a very enjoyable build. The pieces were a tight fit, maybe even too tight. Sometimes, I had to force them together, even when I knew they were in the right place. The image was super cute, though, and it was just the right level of difficulty.

Puzzled Cats
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Hidden Cows

Hidden Cows is a Sandra Boynton puzzle from Workman Puzzles that was absolutely delightful. It is 1000 pieces.

I had previously done her 500 piece Puzzle Complaints, which I loved. So I was eager to get into this one. It was harder than the other one, but still fun.

I started out differently than normal by turning all the pieces over and pulling out the edge pieces but not sorting the rest of them at all. Then I just picked out the pieces that matched each section I wanted to work on.

About halfway through the puzzle, I sorted the rest of the pieces because I was tired of this method. Once I had finished the more distinct areas, I worked my way through the light green and dark green pieces. Towards the end of that, I had to sort by shape, which is the only way I got through all the white pieces.

Finished with all the easy parts
Completed puzzle

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The Art of Pendleton Patchwork

The Art of Patchwork Puzzle is a 1000-piece puzzle from Chronicle Books that features wool patterns from the Pendleton company.

The quality is very similar to the puzzles from Laurence King Publishing. The pieces are all two in, two out, the fit is very crumbly, and there were several false fits.

All that aside, I did enjoy this puzzle. Each pattern was like a mini puzzle, which provided just the right amount of challenge.

I actually got this puzzle on a trip to Fallingwater, in their gift shop. I know it seems strange that I didn’t get a Frank Lloyd Wright puzzle, but the ones they had seemed more complicated, and I was nervous to get one of those. I might get one of them now that I have a bit more experience puzzling.

First Day
Second Day – turned it around so I could reach the sections I needed to do
Finished Puzzle

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The World of the Brontes

I finally finished my first puzzle since moving into the new apartment! I had done The World of Jane Austen last year and liked it so much I framed it. I want to put it up on the wall above my TV, but it’s a bit small for the space, so a friend of mine suggested I do another puzzle to put beside it. I decided to do this one because it’s from the same line and is a similar style and the same size as the Jane Austen one.

This puzzle is from Laurence King Publishing, and the artist is Eleanor Taylor. It is 1000 pieces.

I spent a couple of hours sorting pieces because I knew it would be helpful to have the different buildings separated as much as possible. The first day I worked on it I finished the sorting and did the border.

It took me a while to get back to the puzzle, but when I did, I made some decent progress on the buildings. The fit was pretty crumbly, but I was prepared for that because the Jane Austen one was the same way.

Finally, I sat down and finished the puzzle. It was challenging in spots, but not so bad that I ever considered giving up. I am really happy with the finished puzzle.

I will post a picture once I have both puzzles on the wall. Next puzzle is going to be a fun, easy one!