Tag: 500 Piece

Catching Up!

PuzzledPickle2 Comments

Hello hello! It’s been a bit since I posted- getting over the flu and trying to catch up on the housework is rough! Everything was, and still is partially at least, a wreck! D: I’ve alos been to the doctor today for an ear infection I picked up while I was sick, so that’s fun. But I’m still puzzling!

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I finished this beautiful 500 piece MB Puzzle Croxley image, no name that I can find. 100% complete, which is always lovely from a thriftstore find!

After that I decided to start this Ravensburger…. Mostly because it’s a Ravensburger and is super nice quality. I’ve wanted to get it done so I can trade it away for something I like more!

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I just was NOT digging the image though, not at all. Someone had mentioned that they did the same image as a 500 piece, and did not enjoy it all, so that put me even more off it! I decided to pack it back and put it straight into my trade/sell bin! Too many puzzles to do to waste time on ones I won’t enjoy, even if they are fantastic quality!

I decided instead to break out this panoramic 750 piece by MB Puzzle, “Big World”. I’d been looking forward to doing it quite a bit, he image son the box is phenomenal. While I was doing it however, and getting a more close up view of the art, I discovered its the sort of digital art I’m not as fond of, where everything is vaguely plasticky looking. I still love the image, but decided to pack it up and be done with it when it was complete! It also went into to my trade box!

And last but not least, I stopped into a Goodwill in a town nearby, and boy am I glad I did! Came away with all of these vintage lovelies for around ten bucks!

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Color me excited! All of them are in excellent condition, and appear to be complete! They’re gonna be a blast to put together, and my are also my mum’s favorite variety of puzzle because they’re the sort she grew up on, so I’ll be loaning them off to her to puzzle out as well! Win-Win! 😀

Thanks for puzzling with me today!

Thrifting in Flu Season

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This last Tuesday I went thrifting for puzzles for the first time. It was a fun solo outing; my husband despises browsing stores in general, so thrift stores are definitely out of the question!

I was a bit short on time, and a lot short on funds, but I found some lovelies regardless!

‘The Flintstones’ 60 piece by MB Puzzle

I sat down that afternoon and assembled this fun Flintstones puzzle. It’s clearly been well loved over time; it’s from 1991, nearly as old as I am. I’m so sad about the missing pieces, though I knew the risk buying second hand!

I may try and make some replacement pieces for it, and see what I can do about flattening everything out a bit… Give this little slice of history some love!

After that I decided to give this MB photographic puzzle a try! Photos I’ve tended to avoid so far, as they seem particularly difficult to me. But this one’s been a blast so far. And it’s from 1985, three years older than I am!

Alas, I’ve not made it much farther than this as I’ve been taken down by the flu. It’s the first time I’ve ever had it. It really sucks! Haven’t been this sick in a long time.

If anybody needs me, you’ll find me clutching a cell phone in a heap of tissues, blankets, and cats, binging on Star Trek and whimpering.

Facebook Find!

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Today I got a little treat! A few days back I saw a listing for three jigsaw puzzles for only five dollars on the Facebook Marketplace. Two 500 pieces and one 1500, all three lovely images.

I just had to snap them up! I’m most excited for the stormy lighthouse because the image is simply stunning, and the vertical panorama is unique. But all of them are great quality, very thick pieces, and they snap together tightly too!

I’m enjoying a nice cup of coffee on the couch and pulling the pieces apart! Very nice Friday so far!

Umbrella Street

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“Umbrella Street” 500 piece, by Sure-Lox

Not a bad little puzzle! Very fun to put together and super colorful- I’ll be hanging this one over my desk for sure.

I very much enjoyed putting it together. The slightly smaller cut pieces than what you have with the lower piece count puzzles that came in the pack with it. I think being smaller, they popped apart easier than the larger pieces perhaps. In any case, quality aside, I’ve enjoyed all the puzzles I’ve done from this inexpensive pack. I also did a lovely little 200 piece  that was all art supplies…. But I realized to my horror I hadn’t photographed it as I was about halfway through dismantling it to put into a bag. Whoops!

Flock of Cardinals!

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Howdy howdy! It’s been a while since I’ve posted any puzzling news, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been puzzling! I’ve been working on a veritable flock of Cardinal puzzles, among others!

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‘Boats’ 500 Piece, by Cardinal
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‘Boats and Sea’ 500 Piece, by Cardinal

Joining my last puzzle ‘Boats and Sunset’, are these two other lovely boat puzzles. My intention is to frame the three of them and hang them in our master bathroom! I felt like the nautical theme will go great in a room with so much water involved!

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‘Colorful River Stones’ 500 Piece, by Cardinal

After that was this lovely, which I intend to hang over my desk. I love these sorts of paintings, such bright colors really bring out the vibrancy of nature.

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‘Fresh Vegetables’ 500 Piece, by Cardinal
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‘Colorful Corn’ 500 Piece, by Cardinal

And lastly these two food related puzzles, which I intend to hang in the kitchen. Unfortunately, of all the puzzles I’ve done so far, the corn one is the very first I’ve encountered that’s missing a piece. Alas, I cannot seem to find a contact to request a replacement- Cardinal Games seems to be a bit all over the place on the internet, and half their stuff links to other another sub company (or something) called ‘Spin Master’. Their support only seems to be for the their board games division. Oh well, the puzzle itself was only a dollar, I’ll go this weekend and see if I can find another copy of it to filch a piece from! Such a shame their puzzle division seems almost an afterthought-  bit more effort o  their part, and a bit thicker cardstock, and they could really be fantastic!

In other puzzling news, I started and gave up on my FNAF puzzle…

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I knew it would be a challenge, but I’m a HUGE Five Nights and Freddy’s fangirl, and this is the only FNAF puzzle I’ve managed to come across. I saw another person post a picture, and they’d mentioned it was an absolute nightmare to work; and they were right!

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This is all just TEETH! OMG! Sorting it was awful, and even then, despite my best efforts the whole puzzle sorted into 3 large piles, and a smaller pile of just teeth. The entire puzzle in three piles. That doesn’t even feel like it’s sorted! I fiddled with it for a while, finally decided I was just not having fun, and gave up. I repackaged it all sorted, so I can break it out again in the future, but man… It’s a really tough one. I’m not sure I’ll ever do it.

I will admit, I did also have a reason for wanting to clear my puzzling board…
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A birthday gift from my friend arrived! He took a piece of my own artwork, and put it on a puzzle! It’s an older piece, from 2012, but it’s still my favorite that I’ve done; though we did have to upscale it a bit to make it fit, which resulted in a bit of loss of clarity…

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But it’s always been a dream of mine to produce artwork for puzzles, and now I’m even more determined. I already feel like I’ve learned so much for making good puzzle art (not that an upscaled piece of old art is a fair comparison!), like a way higher density of detail, and a larger variety of color changes and textures to aid with placing pieces. It’s been fantastic fun to work so far, even with the slight blurriness of the pieces; Ravensburger is always incredible quality, and their custom puzzles are no exception!

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It’s a blast!

 

Boats and Sunset!

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“Boats and Sunset” 500 piece Cardinal Games, unknown artist. Such a fun one! Don’t mind Miss Gidget! She’s just grumpy because she got shooed off my desk twice while I was working on this!

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It makes me sad how the ‘dollar store puzzles’ are seemingly universally reviled! Someone in some of the puzzle groups on Facebook posted a picture of some of their puzzles, asking which they should do next (and even requesting no hate on their dollar store puzzles), and what pops up like, two comments down? How horrible the person thinks these puzzles are, followed by agreeing replies. How rude! D:

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I’ve had a lot of ‘quality’ puzzle brands that don’t hold together nearly this well!

Well, excuse me, but these Cardinal puzzles aren’t that bad. Yes, the pieces are small, and the cardboard is thinner than most. But the cut is crisp and the pieces fit tight, the printing is fantastic, and there’s hardly any puzzle dust. Of course they’re not Ravensburger quality- but they’re also only a dollar! The quality is great for the cost!

Not all dollar store puzzles deserve this universal hatred, darnit!

Anyway, a combination of their post and needing to let my art program run a very time consuming backup inspired me to put this one together finally! Shame about that duplicate piece, someone will probably be missing that… After getting partway through, I had to take another snap of the remaining pieces in the box- the colors were so pretty!

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Flower Delivery and a Beachy Retreat

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Thomas Kinkade 500 Pieces
It’s been a rough week. Last Wednesday, December 5th, my grandmother passed away. It had been a long time coming unfortunately. The night she passed, I and a few other family members had gathered at my grandfather’s house, and I had brought along a pack of four 500 piece Thomas Kinkade puzzles to pass the time. I had just finished sorting out the edges of this lovely beachy scene, and was starting to assemble them when she left us.
I’d packed the puzzle back away, but went ahead and decided to finish it. I’d been so looking forward to doing this one ever since I bought the pack months ago, and I know my grandmother wouldn’t have wanted me put off of it. I also had packed it up in one of my grandfather’s tupperware dishes, and he’ll probably want that back as well!
It’s been a difficult week since then, filled with grief. I’ve spent a good deal of my time working on this 1000 piece MB Puzzle/ Cardinal Games ‘Flower Delivery’ to keep myself occupied. My grandmother would have adored all the flowers in it, she just loved flowers. Not as big a fan of dogs…. Too slobbery for her!
There may also have been wine involved…
The flowers were the easy part, simple to pick out of the box of assorted ambiguous greens and blues! They went together in a pinch!
Even with all the trouble the greens were giving me, I was still having a blast, a little ray of fun to distract me from the sad.
My cats are also a great distraction. Here’s Taco, siting in the chair across from me, taking a bath! Little goofball!
And finished! All around, I was really impressed with the quality of this one. The Cardinal Games puzzles I got from the Dollar Tree are about what one would expect for only a dollar, very thin cardboard, if otherwise good. But these, made in conjunction with MB using the ‘Premium Quality Blue Board’ are spectacular!
The cardboard is a good thickness, and very, very rigid with very little bend, so none of the pieces I encountered were bent or damaged in any way. The cutting was crisp and precise, and the printing and finish on the front was lovely. It also came with an extra resealable bag to keep the pieces in when finished, if that’s your thing, and a little fold out ‘box easel’, which you can fit the box lid into and will hold it up for you to look at while you work. I didn’t use it but I’ll definitely keep it around for the future in case I ever need something like it. What a clever idea! I’m really happy to have purchased several more puzzles by this company.
All around, it’s been a long, difficult week. I’m so glad I have such a nice, calming hobby to help get me through it!