Tag: 1000 pieces

Posted on

Garden Goodness

Garden Goodness is a 1000-piece puzzle from Springbok. This puzzle had its pros and cons. The pieces were a nice thickness, but there were quite a few that weren’t completely cut apart and there was a ton of puzzle dust. There weren’t false fits, but sometimes I had to force the pieces together even when they were in the right spot.

I did enjoy this image. I like grid puzzles a lot; it is satisfying to complete each block of the puzzle. I also like putting together words, and there were a lot of different typestyles represented here. So while I wouldn’t say this is a really good brand, I did have a good time doing it.

Posted on

Some Flower Puzzles

I have done a bunch of puzzles over the last week, and several of them feature flowers, so I thought I would post them all together.

Wildflowers of North America is a 1000-piece puzzle from BBOLDIN, which is basically a generic Chinese brand you can find on Amazon. I knew this image might be a bit challenging for me, but I also knew that these brands print letters on the back of their puzzles so that you can sort the pieces into several sections to make it easier.

I enjoyed doing this one. It is so satisfying to do each section, and I especially like all the words at the top and bottom. This is very similar to a mushroom puzzle that I did a while ago.

Fantasy Gardens is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Liselle Larsen. This was a quick, easy puzzle. I usually reserve the term puzzle snack for 200 pieces or less, but this went so fast that it felt like one. The image is well-designed for doing a puzzle.

City Garden Rainbow Retreat is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cross & Glory, who use AI to generate their art. I fell in love with this image the first time I saw it and was so happy to be able to get it.

I love the abstract nature of this image. Because it has somewhat of a rainbow pattern, I did sort by color up front. Usually, I just pull out the edges and flip the rest of the pieces over and put them in sorting trays, but it definitely helped to do more sorting for this one. This puzzle was on the more difficult side, but it was never overwhelming, and I felt like I made slow but continual progress.

I love that I have had so much time to puzzle the last couple of weeks. My stash of puzzles to do was getting pretty big, and it feels good to make a dent in it and do some of the puzzles I have been looking forward to.

Posted on

Walden’s Manor House

Walden’s Manor House is a 1000-piece puzzle from MasterPieces, and the artist is Art Poulin. Poulin is known for his folk art and wanted this image to show the difference between the social classes of the time with this upstairs/downstairs cross-section of a manor house.

It was an enjoyable build of medium difficulty. I got it at the puzzle swap I went to a few weeks ago and was happy to see that all of the pieces were there.

Posted on

Recent Puzzle Hauls

I have acquired several puzzles over the last few weeks that I am excited about doing. Most are new but a couple are used.

  • Balloons from Ravensburger, 300 pieces – part of their Moments line and it’s just so pretty
  • Diamond Dahlia from Buffalo Games, 500 pieces – looks like a lovely rainbow puzz!le
  • Wine Country Camper from Ceaco, 750 pieces – hard to find puzzle from the Happy Camper series, had to get off Poshmark
  • Amsterdam Weekend from Antelope, 1000 pieces – have wanted this one for a while and decided to take the plunge
  • Whimsical Village, Concord, 500 pieces – saw this and loved it, found on ebay
  • The Tree of Hope, Pintoo, 300 pieces – this brand is new to me and is famous for their plastic pieces
  • Coastal Harbour, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces – recently did one by this artist, Georgia Breeze, and really enjoyed it. This came from the UK but was sold on Amazon, so I didn’t have to mess with high shipping or customs fees
  • Simple Joys, 1canoe2, 1000 pieces – I have done one other by this brand and liked it a lot, this one just looks so relaxing

I am going to try buying fewer puzzles for the next month or so and try to focus on the ones I already have. That is a really difficult challenge for me, though, so we’ll have to see how I do!

Posted on

Houses I Read

Houses I Read is a 1000-piece puzzle from Magnolia, and the artist is Nihal Cifter. This was on my wishlist for a while, and I finally added it to my collection.

I absolutely loved doing this one. The colors are gorgeous and the art is so quirky. It was so much fun. The sky was a bit hard but not too bad since there were no false fits.

Here are a few closeups:

Posted on

Into the Jungle

Into the Jungle is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is David Penfound. This is another puzzle I got for free from a friend.

I am very pleased with how it turned out even though there is one piece missing. It provided several sessions of puzzling and is such a nice image. Cobble Hill are a good quality puzzle with a matte/linen finish. Their puzzles are random-cut, which does increase the difficulty of the solve. Towards the end, I was convinced there would be several pieces missing based on the holes I had left to fill, but the odd pieces shapes ended up filling everything except for that one little piece on the left edge.

Posted on

Paris Windows

Paris Windows is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Amanda Haley.

I had *so* much fun doing this puzzle. Buildings are my favorite things to puzzle, and this one has a ton of them! It is a very busy image, so a lot of it was pick and place one piece at a time. The quality was mid, but about what you would expect from this brand.

Here are a few closeups:

Posted on

Garden Allotment

Garden Allotment is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and the artist is Georgia Breeze. When I first encountered this puzzle, it seemed to only be available in the UK, but a few months later, I found it on the Ravensburger US website and ordered it immediately.

I loved this puzzle from beginning to end. The quality of the puzzle is fantastic, as always with this brand, and the art is so inviting and engaging. It has a lot of flowers without being too difficult as flowers sometimes can be, and it even has a few buildings, which I especially love.

Here are a few close ups. So cute!

I just heard of a new puzzle from this artist called Coastal Harbour (shown below). I am really hoping it becomes available in the US as well.

Posted on

Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill. I had hoped to do it for Easter this year but ran a little bit behind! Oh well, it was still a lot of fun to do.

Cobble Hill puzzles are excellent quality with thick, matte pieces, but I am always amazed at the sheer volume of puzzle dust. I had to get out my mini desktop vacuum after sorting and then again after building the border!

I was a bit nervous about doing another random cut puzzle from this manufacturer after how hard Country Life Crochet was, but Easter Eggs was a lot easier than that one. The details were much easier to pick out on these pieces than the intricate stitching on the other one.

Here are some closeups:

Such a fun, festive puzzle! This might have to be a spring staple for me.

Posted on

Hue Wormhole

Hue Wormhole is a beautiful puzzle by Wenjia Wang.  This is a 1000-piece, circular puzzle from Antelope Puzzles, and it was a lot of fun to put together. I have never done a circular puzzle this big and it actually ended up being too big for the puzzle board I was doing it on.  I had to carefully transfer it to foam board to get photos of it.

The colors in this puzzle are gorgeous, and the quality is impressive! The pieces were a nice thickness and fit together well. I started with the border and then worked my way from the outer green and blue up to the purple edge. The greens and orange went pretty well, but then I got a big bogged down in the reds. I kept working it and eventually got to the purples, which were a lot easier.

All in all, this was a joy to assemble and I highly recommend it!