At the puzzle swap I attended in November, I got two puzzles that had been used in the 2025 US National Jigsaw Puzzle Championship. These are both 500-piece puzzles from Ravensburger, who sponsors the competition.
Art Studio was illustrated by Jena DellaGrottaglia. It was trickier than I thought it would be to put together, but it did come together and it really quite beautiful.
Home Sweet Home was illustrated by Demelsa Haughton. I have done a couple of her other puzzles and find her style to be so charming. I loved discovering all the whimsical details and adorable creatures in this image. It went much more quickly than the previous puzzle, which was nice.
Happy Halloween is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and the artist is Demelsa Haughton. I find her artwork so charming. I was thinking this was the first puzzle I have done from her, but then I realized my only 2000-piece puzzle Novel Avenue was one of hers.
This puzzle was more challenging than I thought it would be, probably because of how detailed it is. With that said, I love all the fun and spooky details in this image. The pumpkin houses are charming, and I especially love the colors of the sky.
Last September, I completed my first 2000-piece puzzle, which was Novel Avenue from Ravensburger (artist Demelsa Haughton). I loved it so much that I wanted to save it and hang it up on my wall.
For my first attempt, I taped the back with blue painter’s tape and put it in an inexpensive frame that I got off Amazon. The frame turned out to be too flimsy for a puzzle, and I took it down after a while. Next, I got a bunch of Command Strips and used them to attach the puzzle to the wall. I had several across the top and bottom of the puzzle. That was better, but then it started bowing out in the middle, so I took it down and added another row of the strips across the center.
Unfortunately, that didn’t hold up very well. Perhaps it would have been okay if I had done three rows from the beginning, but there’s no way to know and I really wanted to protect my puzzle as well as show it off better. I started looking into framing, and that’s when I found Preserve My Puzzle.
Preserve My Puzzle were so great to work with. They offer either lamination or framing, and I chose framing. Since my puzzle was larger than the sizes priced on their site, I submitted a request for a custom quote. They got back to me very quickly with a quote and even called to follow up and see if I had any questions. It was very simple to turn my quote into an order and get the ball rolling.
Within a couple of days, a puzzle mailing kit arrived at my door. Since my puzzle was so big, they recommended using a standard mailing kit and breaking the puzzle into two halves. That would keep the shipping down, although the shipping on the return trip would be higher due to the size of the framed full puzzle.
The kit included a mailer with a UPS label already affixed, a tri-fold cardboard holder for the puzzle, and puzzle glue sheets to put on the back of the puzzle. I removed the blue painter’s tape I had previously used, split the puzzle into two sections, and put on the glue sheets. Then I packaged the puzzle up in the tri-fold and put it in the mailer so I could take it to the UPS store.
There was only one tiny glitch when I got an automated email a few days later asking if I had sent my puzzle yet. The tracking showed it had already been delivered, so I was concerned and emailed them to check on it. It turned out they did have my puzzle, but because it was a custom order, it didn’t get checked in the same way as a regular order so the automated email system didn’t know they had it. Phew!
The mounted and framed puzzle arrived at my door a couple of days later. It was the most securely packaged item I have ever gotten. There were cardboard corners, shrink wrap over the frame, foam pieces nestled over the edges on all four sides, and bubble wrap covering the entire thing.
The frame had a wire attached to the back so that it could be easily hung on the wall. I had a friend help me measure and hang it up on the wall above my couch in the living room. I am incredibly pleased with the result!
Novel Avenue is a 2000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and the artist is Demelsa Haughton. This was my first puzzle larger than 1000 pieces. It was intimidating due to the larger piece count, but once I got into it, it was definitely doable.
The first night I sorted the pieces and worked on a couple of small sections. The following day my friend Suzanne came over and we worked on it for a few hours. She worked on the border (that’s her favorite part!) and I worked on some more of the books.
I worked on it two more days after that and then it was done! I am so proud of myself for finishing it. It is a lovely image and was a true joy to put together.
I like it so much I have decided to frame it and hang it above my couch in my living room. Michael and I just have to figure out how to flip it over so I can tape the back.
In So Many Words 