Tag: puzzles

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Paper Paradise

I love the idea of paper quilling and other paper crafts, and I actually was into making stamped cards for several years. So when I saw Paper Paradise at the bookstore, I had to get it.

This 500-piece Galison puzzle has a beautiful design with bold colors and intricate detail. I thoroughly enjoyed putting it together. The quality of the puzzle was excellent as well. The pieces had a nice feel and fit together well, and the image was clear and crisp. The artist is Yulia Brodskaya.

I highly recommend this puzzle! I would love to do more like it!

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Edible Mushrooms

Edible Mushrooms is a 1000-piece puzzle that my son gave me for Christmas/birthday last year. It was one I had on my wish list, however, I had forgotten exactly what the image looked like and the box didn’t look fun or inspiring at all. I wanted to do a 1000-piece puzzle recently and decided to do this one and just get it over with.

I was surprised when I opened it and looked at the poster and saw that the image was actually much better than I had guessed based on the box design. It did have some solid-color pieces scattered around the puzzle, which I knew could take a bit more time to do. When I started sorting the pieces, I noticed that the back had letters printed on it. This is the first puzzle I have done that was separated by sections like that, so I decided to go ahead and sort by the letters on the back of the pieces. There were six different sections once I had sorted them:

The picture was so fun to put together. The fact that I was doing it in sections made it fly by, and the solid color pieces were no problem at all since I was only doing a few at a time. The puzzle pieces seemed to have a plastic coating with a white paper backing. They clicked together in a very satisfying way and held together quite well.

Here is the first section to give you an idea how big each one was:

My favorite part was the legend at the bottom – words are so fun to put together. I did really enjoy all of the mushrooms, too, though. It was just a great puzzle all around! I think the next time I do this puzzle I will mix all of the pieces together and just use the letters on the back if I get stuck at all.

I guess the lesson here is not to judge a book by its cover, or a puzzle by its box! I have actually put a couple more of this style puzzle on my wish list already.

Note: I have seen this item sold under a couple of different brand names on Amazon. The one I think my son bought for me was BBOLDIN.

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Painted Lady

Painted Lady is a charming 500-piece puzzle from Bits and Pieces that I picked up at a puzzle box in my area. At first glance I thought it was a Charles Wysocki, but it is actually Joseph Holodook. This is my first puzzle from him.

I really enjoyed this puzzle. After a quick sort, I did the edges and then started on the various sections of the puzzle. My favorite part was the painters’ buggy – I like the dark colors and words on the side of it.

This came together quickly and was a lot of fun. I’ve been doing a lot of these smaller puzzles lately, though, and I think I’m going to tackle a 1000-piece for my next one.

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#Shelfies

This 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco has oversized pieces, making it super easy to work with. I loved the image with the separate areas for each color. The artist is Martha Roberts.

Regarding the quality, however, a lot of the pieces had remnants of the backing that hadn’t been cut through all the way and had to be removed so they wouldn’t stick up through the puzzle. Other than that, the quality was good. A nice-sized poster was included, and there were no pieces missing.

I don’t normally do a lot of this piece count, usually preferring 500 or 1000 pieces, but this was a nice treat!

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Bibliophile Book Club Darlings

I got this puzzle a few weeks ago from my local puzzle box. It is by Galison, which is a brand I have done quite a bit and enjoyed. The subject matter is also right up my alley, as I am a great bookworm! It is 1000 pieces, and the artist is Jane Mount.

I really enjoyed putting together the book spines. It was very easy to sort and build each one. Unfortunately, I got totally stuck once those were done. After I had put in every piece that had even a tiny bit of color on it, I was left with 126 completely white pieces. I thought about at least doing the border but was running into enough false fits that I wouldn’t be sure it was right even if I had finished it.

So as much as I hate to do it, I had to call it quits on this puzzle. I can’t even imagine how long it would have taken me to complete it. I couldn’t even sort by shape as the pieces were all the same shape.

Here’s a picture of what I got done:

Do you ever give up on a puzzle?

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Feathers

Feathers is a 500-piece foil puzzle from Galison that my son gave me for Christmas/birthday last year. The artist is Margaret Berg. Although it had been on my wish list, I was a little nervous going into this one because of how many different colors and textures there were on all the feathers. It turned out to be super easy to complete. I enjoyed it from start to finish, especially with the gold foil accents!

There were so many interesting patterns and colors in this design. And there were no (or very few) pieces without something on them, which made the puzzle go together very quickly. Another win for this brand!

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Winter Perch

Winter Perch is a charming 500-piece puzzle from Galison, and the artist is Cagla Zimmerman. It features a winter scene of several birdhouses with birds flying around them that provide pops of color against the more muted background of blue-green foliage.

This was an enjoyable puzzle to do. I chose it as part of the Winter Bingo challenge I have been doing with the Casual Puzzlers Facebook group. This puzzle was for the Winter Scene bingo square, which was actually the final square on the board for me.

Here is the finished puzzle as well as the finished bingo card:

With the completed bingo card, I actually earned six entries into the bingo giveaway drawing:

  • Four Corners
  • One straight or diagonal line
  • X Marks the Spot – both diagonal lines
  • Picture Frame – all border squares completed
  • Blackout – the full card is complete
  • Disney Bonus – bonus entry for using Pooh in my Disney puzzle

I had a lot of fun doing the bingo and picking puzzles that would fit the different squares. I will say that it feels a little strange now to just choose any puzzle I want to do without thinking about the bingo challenge. I got used to having that structure! I do have several puzzles on my to-do list, though, so I am looking forward to doing whatever I want now.

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Peanuts Baseball

Peanuts Baseball is a fun 500-piece puzzle from Aquarius that I purchased to use for the Winter Bingo I am participating in this season. It depicts several different scenes showing the characters from the Peanuts cartoon playing baseball.

This is the first puzzle I have done from this brand, and I was very happy with it. The pieces were a nice thickness and fit together quite well. There were no false fits, and I was able to move sections around pretty easily. The only downside was that it was missing one piece at the end.

Such a fun, colorful puzzle! I would be open to doing more from this brand.

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Songbirds

Songbirds is a super cute puzzle from Mudpuppy. It is 500 pieces, and the artist is Neiko Ng. I had originally received it from a Secret Santa exchange during Christmas 2022, but I donated the puzzle before doing it to a drive they were having at our church specifically asking for new games and puzzles. I did really like it, though, so I ended up purchasing it for myself recently.

It was a very easy puzzle to do. The birds all came together quite quickly. There were a large number of light blue pieces with musical notation on them that were harder to put in. Once I sorted by shape, however, they went in pretty quickly as well.

I was very happy with the quality of this puzzle. There was virtually no puzzle dust, and the pieces fit together very well. I was able to move sections around fairly easily, and there were no false fits.

I am so glad I got this puzzle again. There is one other Mudpuppy puzzle that I donated which I have put back on my wish list, called Hungry Plants.

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Love Stamps (Repeat)

In honor of Valentine’s Day month, I decided to redo a puzzle I had done a couple of years ago. Love Stamps is a 1000-piece puzzle from White Mountain, and it is a collage of U.S. stamps with the theme of love. The artist is Lois B. Sutton.

This was a really easy puzzle to do. Even though it was 1000 pieces, it took me less than 3 hours to complete. I think it helped that I had done it before, but also it was very easy to sort and then put together each section.

Another reason I redid this one is for the Winter Bingo I am doing for a Facebook challenge. It fulfilled the Romantic square on the board. I only have three squares left, and I will have gotten all 6 bingo entries from the contest!