Tag: jigsaw puzzles

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A Few Mini Puzzles

When I made my recent trip to Illinois, I knew I would miss being able to puzzle whenever I wanted, but I didn’t have room to take many puzzles with me. So, in addition to the one new puzzle I took with me – the PieceRelax one I posted earlier – I took these three mini puzzles.

  • Cozy Kitchen from Trevell, 99 pieces, artist Marion Reau
  • Llama Bama Ding Dong from MicroPuzzles, 150 pieces
  • Mushroom Patch from WerkShoppe, 100 pieces, artist Emma Jayne

Here are the puzzle details from left to right:

I have done all of these before, but they were the perfect size to pack and I knew they would at least let me scratch the puzzling itch while I was away from home.

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Whimsy Garden House

Whimsy Garden House is a 300-piece puzzle from PieceRelax, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. I love her artwork and was excited to come across this one when I was first checking out the PieceRelax website. PieceRelax puzzles are different because the pieces are plastic and the white borders are interchangeable pieces.

I took this puzzle with me on my recent trip to Illinois and did it in the hotel room one morning. Since it came with a poster, I just took that along with the bag of pieces so it wouldn’t take up much room in my suitcase. And since the pieces are hard plastic, I could just pack the puzzle flat without taking it apart for the trip home.

This was a nice, easy puzzle, although as you get more and more pieces in, it can take more pressure to make the pieces snap fully into place. As a bonus, it came with a free puzzle magnet. I have done one other puzzle from this brand, so this is my second puzzle magnet. I love that they include those with their puzzles.

Here is the magnet:

I would definitely do more by this brand or by the related brand Pintoo.

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Puzzle Haul

I have purchased a few puzzles recently that I am excited about. I am trying to get more smaller piece counts because most of the ones I have on my to do shelf are 1000 pieces. I was somewhat successful!

Puzzles in this haul:

  • Rainbow Sunrise – Buffalo Games – 500 pieces – Josie Lewis
  • Eastern Bloc Telephones – Galison – 500 pieces – Troy Litten
  • Potting Shed – Mulic – 500 pieces – Chris Bigelow
  • Happy Beads – Ravensburger – 500 pieces – Elspeth McLean
  • Sewing and Reading – Pieces & Peace – 1000 pieces – Angela Holland
  • Quaint Cafe – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces – Jason Taylor

Buying puzzles is definitely its own hobby, that’s for sure!

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Street Market

Street Market is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and the artist is Angela Holland. I just love the cozy scene with all of the vendors. There is just so much to look at, and so many great colors and textures.

Because the image is quite busy, most of it was done by a pick and place method. That is just what it sounds like – you pick up a piece, look at the box, and put it where it goes on the puzzle. I was able to put together a few larger areas before starting that, but not a lot.

I have another street market puzzle on my to do shelf, so it will be interesting to compare them once I do that one. It has more buildings and a lot less people. Here is a picture of the box; it’s called Market Day and it’s from Elena Essex.

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Kellogg’s Cereal 6-Pack

Kellogg’s Cereal is a 6-pack of 100 piece puzzles from Spin Master Games. The puzzles include Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Honey Smacks, Raisin Bran, Rice Krispies, and Froot Loops.

These puzzles were so cute and fun to build. I actually think they would work well for puzzle chess, so I will probably hold onto them for that. The Honey Smacks puzzle had an extra piece in it, which is better than missing a piece but probably means someone else will be missing it.

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Puzzle Chess with Renee

My friend Renee came over recently and hung out for an evening while she was on vacation. We ordered pizza and watched a couple of episodes of Tracker, and then we decided to play Puzzle Chess.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with puzzle chess, here’s how it works. You pick a small puzzle (we used 100 pieces) and you build the border together and lay out all the other pieces. Then you start a chess clock, which you can get on your phone, and take turns putting one piece into the puzzle. Once you have placed your piece, you tap your clock to end your turn and start the other person’s time. Whoever has the most time left when the puzzle is done is the winner!

We played four rounds, and I won three of them. To be fair, I puzzle all the time and Renee only does it when she is with me (except for sometimes on her phone). Our first puzzle was Popsicle Monsters from fishwisdom, and I won by 16 seconds.

The second puzzle was a Peanuts puzzle called Birthday from RoseArt. Renee won this one by 15 seconds.

The third puzzle was Beautiful Wild Animals from a generic Chinese brand. I won this one by 40 seconds.

The fourth puzzle was a Dr. Seuss puzzled called I Will Not Eat Green Eggs and Ham from Buffalo Games. This was the hardest puzzle we did and also the only vertical one. I won by 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

I love playing puzzle chess and am so happy when someone agrees to play it with me.

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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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The Beautiful Pirate

The Beautiful Pirate is a 1000-piece puzzle from Magnolia, and the artist is Romi Lerda. This is my second puzzle with Romi’s artwork, and I just think it is so pretty.

This puzzle was definitely challenging though. Magnolia has a difficulty star rating on their boxes, and they marked this one as 3 out of 5. I would have rated it higher than that, so I don’t think I want to try any puzzles they think are even more difficult!

I just heard there are some new puzzles coming out with her artwork, so I will definitely be checking them out. I wouldn’t mind getting a few more of her older ones as well.

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Pumpkin Spice Cafe

Pumpkin Spice Cafe is a 1000 piece puzzle from WerkShoppe, and the artist is Maria Taylor. I know it’s not quite fall yet but I just couldn’t wait to do this one. I just love the scene it presents, with the wind blowing the leaves all around and the cozy scenes in the windows of the buildings.

Solving this puzzle was so enjoyable. It didn’t have too much of any one color, and the piece shapes were really interesting.

The packaging was also beautiful. The pieces were in a plastic bag inside a resealable bag and the box slid open from the side via a small fabric pull tag. The only downside was that a lot of the pieces were still together, and when I tried to pull them apart, I found that they hadn’t been cut all the way through so the paper would tear. I had to apply a lot of pressure to compress the pieces as I pulled to prevent that.

I think I would do more from this brand despite the issue with the pieces being stuck together if I really loved the image.