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.
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!
Eames House of Cards Fantasy is a 1500-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and it was designed by collage artist Shelley Davies to commemorate Eames’ 80th anniversary.
Best known for their groundbreaking furniture designs, Charles and Ray Eames also developed a number of iconic toys. The first edition of their House of Cards was introduced in the US in the 1950s, and it has continued through several iterations since then. This building toy is a deck of picture cards, each with six slits allowing them to be built in many different shapes and sizes.
This puzzle was a lot of fun to put together. There were so many interesting patterns and intriguing little details. The Ravensburger quality is so good, of course, and because it was secondhand, I didn’t even have to deal with the puzzle dust they are so infamous for.
This was also my first 1500-piece puzzle. I have done one 2000-piece, but usually I do 1000-pieces or less. I would be open to doing more large count puzzles if the image is good and doesn’t have a lot of solid color areas.
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!
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.
Cozy Retreat is a 500-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and the artist is Nancy Wernersbach. It is one of their large format puzzles with oversized, easy-to-grip pieces, and it has a nice matte finish.
I have done a few other large format puzzles from Ravensburger and enjoyed them very much. This one has been on my wishlist for a while, and I’m glad I got it. It was a nice, relaxing puzzle to put together, very low difficulty and such an interesting image.
Here are some closeups:
I can definitely see myself revisiting this puzzle many times!
The Artist’s Desk is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger. I picked it up at a thrift shop and was pleasantly surprised upon opening the box to find a small ziploc bag with the edge pieces separated out. It was nice to be able to jump right into puzzling!
This was a fun image to put together. I did have to shape sort for the darker areas, but it still wasn’t too hard. And, of course, the Ravensburger quality is always excellent!
Valladolid is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and the artist is Marie Boiseau. This puzzle was designed especially for the 2024 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship in Valladolid, Spain, and I was very happy to be able to get a copy of it for myself.
This puzzle was harder than I thought it would be, and now that I have finished it, I am even more impressed by how fast the puzzlers at the competition were able to complete it. I have noticed when puzzle with friends that I am faster than they are due to the amount of time I have spent puzzling, but I am nowhere near a speed puzzler!
The Gardener’s Palette is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger. The artist is Anne Searle.
This one had been on my wish list for quite a while. I think the image is so pretty, but I also thought it would be doable since each type of flower has its own block within the puzzle. I stopped at Barnes & Noble before my last therapy appointment and picked it up then. Last week, I had a tooth pulled and my friend Renee brought me a dinner of soft foods and hung out to watch some Grey’s Anatomy. I had already seen the episodes and was getting restless, so I decided to start this puzzle. After sorting the pieces, I was glad I had my little vacuum because of course there is so much puzzle dust with Ravensburger.
I worked on the puzzle little by little over the next several days and it was such a joy to do. I love the quality of Ravensburger puzzles. It was so much nicer than some of the puzzles I have done recently (either because of poor quality or having been done so many times that they were soft and breaking apart). The image is just beautiful and it even has words to put together to identify each flower. (I love puzzling words!)
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 