Tag: 500 pieces

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National Parks Map

National Parks Map is a 500-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. I have a lot of puzzles by her, including several food trucks and several happy campers (some of which are featured on this puzzle.)

This was super easy and a lot of fun. I actually did it with my friend Suzanne when she was over one evening. She did the border while I pulled out the pieces for the top and bottom areas. Once we have those done, it was basically pick and place for the rest of the puzzle because of how busy it was.

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Little House on the Prairie Map

Little House on the Prairie Map is a 500 piece puzzle from Pippi Post, and the artist is Alexa Zurcher.

I am a huge Little House fan, so I couldn’t resist this charming map puzzle with illustrations of notable places from the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I especially love the quotes around the border!

I love the quality of this brand. The pieces almost look like plastic, but they are actually a chipboard with a white backing. The only flaw was on the enclosed poster; it had two black boxes covering some of the image. I was able to use the image on the front of the box, however, so it wasn’t a big deal.

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Mama’s Colorful Quilts

Mama’s Colorful Quilts is a 500 piece puzzle from Cardinal. I was unable to track down an artist.

This is such a fun, colorful image! I got this one from the thrift store. Quality was decent, and it did have nice large pieces which would be good for people who have trouble with small puzzle pieces.

I especially like the orange sky and the rounded appearance of the hills in the background. And of course, the quilts and the buildings were great fun!

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Whimsical Village

Whimsical Village is a 500-piece puzzle from Concord, and the artist is Bukhavets Mikhail. I saw this online and really liked the image, so I tracked it down on ebay and purchased a copy.

Now that I have completed it, I do have to say that Concord isn’t the best brand. The quality was just okay, but I still enjoyed it because I like the illustration.

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Holiday Postcards

Holiday Postcards is a 1000-piece puzzle from Trefl. I purchased this one for a challenge that is taking place in a Facebook group I belong to which has a weekly clue. This week’s clue was postcard, and this puzzle fit that perfectly.

This was my first time doing this brand, and I was very pleased with it. The fit was a bit loose, so it took a minute for me to get used to and make sure I was getting the right piece in the right place, but once I got used to it, things were fine.

The image is a really good one for a puzzle. There were a lot of different colors and textures, and I finished it faster than I thought I would. I would definitely be open to getting more from this brand.

Bonus puzzle: Last week’s clue was ladder, and someone in the group mentioned a puzzle that had a barely noticeable ladder. I had actually done that puzzle before and still had it, so I redid it for the challenge. It is called Northern Lights, and it is a 500-piece Nancy Wernersbach from Ravensburger.

Can you find the ladder?

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Boho Interior

Boho Interior is a 500-piece puzzle from PieceRelax, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. PieceRelax is a brand created by Pintoo, which is known for their plastic pieces and interchangeable edge/frame pieces. The brand aims to highlight the relaxing aspect of puzzling, and this image certainly does that!

I did this puzzle with my friend Suzanne when she was over recently. She picked it from my smaller piece count puzzles because of the cats in the image. We both enjoyed it. The pieces are pretty small and get harder to click into place the more you get done, but it’s really not too bad. And it’s so cool to be able to pick up the finished puzzle and do whatever you want to it without it coming apart!

I have done one Pintoo puzzle before, but this was my first one from PieceRelax, and I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it that it included a free puzzle magnet. It is so pretty and really added to the experience of ordering from this company.

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Rockies Explorer

Rockies Explorer is a 500-piece puzzle from Villager Puzzles, and the artist is Anja Jane. This was my first experience with Villager, which is a woman-owned Canadian brand featuring artwork from Canadian women artists.

The puzzle came in a box with a magnetic closure and a reusable plastic bag. It included a nice size poster as well. The pieces have a lovely matte finish and fit together beautifully, and the art was great. I loved the colors, especially the sky and mountains, and I am looking forward to doing more of their puzzles.

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Solena

I ran across this puzzle at a local thrift store recently and was intrigued enough to bring it home. It was packaged in a cylinder, which is unusual for puzzles, and the brand was called Remember, which I had never heard of. After a bit of Googling, I found out that it is a German brand featuring design and gift items. They currently have 8 puzzles on their website, all of which have abstract designs like this one.

The puzzle was fun to put together, but the pieces do have a fairly loose fit. Because of this, I had some false fits in the beginning. Once I knew to look carefully at whether a piece actually fit where I was trying it, I got better at recognizing when it was in the right place. The pieces were rigid and had a black backing, both very different from the puzzles I am used to.

Here is a picture of the packaging the puzzle came in:

I would enjoy doing more Remember puzzles, although I don’t know if I will ever get the chance. You can get them through Amazon, but they are prohibitively expensive. I didn’t realize the deal I was getting for $4.99 at the time I bought it!

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Diamond Dahlia

Diamond Dahlia is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Josie Lewis. I think this is a perfect example of a rainbow puzzle. It is so satisfying to do a puzzle where I can start with one color and work my way around.

The white lines in the design along with the shading of the colors made it easier to place pieces than I thought it would be, although the red and pinks were very similar and took a bit longer than the other colors.

I really want to get one other puzzle of hers, Rainbow Sunrise. It is out of stock everywhere I’ve looked, though, so I’ve got an alert set up on ebay in case one shows up there. Here’s a picture of that one:

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Spring and Summer Gnomes

Spring Gnomes and Summer Gnomes are 500-piece puzzles from Bits and Pieces. They are part of a set of 4 puzzles I got a while ago. Last year I did the fall and winter puzzles, and I was recently inspired to finish these ones off.

These two were definitely more fun than the other ones. The fall one was tricky, but the winter one was diabolically hard between the random cut pieces and the many shades of white and gray. The summer puzzle was the easiest of the four because it has more colorful elements that are spread out more throughout the design.

While these are very cute puzzles, I don’t think I would want to do them again, so the set is going in the stack for the next puzzle swap I am able to attend.