Tag: Cardinal

Catching Up!

PuzzledPickle1 Comment

Hopefully this will be my last “late” post! Lots of puzzles to show!

2019-09-23 16.03.00
“Eeveelutions” 2000 piece by Buffalo

My husband and I are really big Pokemon fans, especially eevee and all it’s evolutions- and when we saw Pokemon puzzles for sale at Walmart, on my husband’s birthday no less, we both scored big! He picked three for me to assemble and glue for him to decorate over his desk, and of course the first I did HAD to be the eeveelutions!

This was a blast to assemble, and looks fantastic when it’s finished! Now if only they didn’t have to shove a Pikachu into every piece of Pokemon merchandise, regardless of what the main theme is…

2019-10-19 10.27.51
“Detective Pikachu” 500 piece Buffalo

Another of the puzzle’s hubby picked for his birthday…. And the one I least looked forward to assembling! I tried to impress upon him how ‘not fun’ this one would be, what with all the solid black, without telling him no outright, but he would not be detered! Ah well, it was only 500 pieces, and I only had to sort the last 50 pieces or so by shape and try each one until they fit… @_@;;; It’s nice looking finished off though!

2019-10-02 23.50.11
“Still Life with Watermelon” 500 piece Cardinal

A quick finish on my desk puzzling space, just a little dollar store beauty. Glued and hung in the kitchen!

2019-10-20 10.19.24
“The Astronomer” 750 piece by Master Pieces

This one is far more lovely in person, because it is holographic and nearly impossible to get a good photo of! I can’t say I’m a fan of the holographic pieces from an assembly point of view, as it adds an extra layer of challenge that I don’t find enjoyable. But it does look pretty cool when it’s finished!

2019-10-15 13.51.02
A snap of some of ‘The Astronomer’s pieces, which better shows their vibrant colors!

And last but not least, a Cobble Hill thrift store find! One hundred percent complete, and now going in my collection! I adore Cobble Hill!

2019-10-30 12.02.45
‘Fishing Lures’ 500 piece by Cobble Hill

Varied Puzzling!

PuzzledPickle2 Comments

My puzzling has been very varied the last week or so since my last post! I made some small amount of progress on my custom birthday puzzle, which is unfortunately, kind of a nightmare…

2019-01-29 12.35.58

I love it, but man, is it ever hard. Like, really hard. Like, barely make any progress hard. Disappointing for sure! So I’ve been taking a break for some smaller, more enjoyable puzzles!

2019-02-03 16.53.02
‘Canned Veggies’ 500 piece Springbok

I started and finished this lovely Springbok. I’ve done it once before and had it for years; I’d intended to glue it the first time I completed it to hang in my kitchen at the apartment, which I never got around too. I eventually broke it back up and reboxed it.

It was just as much fun the second time around! I’m really, really starting to love Springboks. At first the random cut was a major turnoff for me, but the more I do them, the more I find it to be a lot of fun! Also helps that Springbok’s are fantastic quality, nice and thick, not much puzzle dust, and the images are always bright and clear.

And this time, I got it glued and hung in my kitchen! Even better, since its now in my very own house, and not in that crummy apartment! I also hung up the two Cardinal puzzles I completed for the kitchen, though I did give up trying to find another copy of the corn puzzle for the missing piece, and opted to glue it as is. I decided I kind of actually like that little missing piece- gives it character!

2019-02-04 14.30.29

After gluing all those, I noticed something neat- the ghost of the Springbok puzzle, left behind on the wax paper after gluing! I thought it was sort of cute, so I snapped a picture!

2019-02-03 17.13.44
‘Watching  From the Wood’ 1000 piece MB Blue Board,art by Linda Ravenscroft

I started this lovely Fairy puzzle after finishing the canned veggies. I just adore these blue board puzzles, wonderful quality, and the images on them are great. Plus, I can find them inexpensively at Tuesday Morning! This one will be hung in the hallway with another Ravenscroft fairy image once it’ completed and glued.

2019-02-08 01.41.30
‘Art Supplies’ 1000 piece Cardinal

I’ve really been enjoying doing these small dollar store puzzles on the end of my desk. This one is going to be hung over said desk; I’m a digital artist, so I don’t often use traditional tools, but it’ll still look great!

2019-02-08 04.56.15

I couldn’t resist this puzzle pack I saw at Walgreens when I went in for chapstick and prescriptions! Mostly because of those umbrellas, they are so cute! But also, it was very cheap. I expected pretty lousy quality from this random brand, but I wasn’t concerned of the low price. Worth it for those adorable umbrellas!

The quality was both worse than and better than I expected. The 6 puzzles are all bagged individually, and barely fit in the box. A lot of the bags are folded over, and I guess this piece got caught in the bend! Surprisingly though, these Sure-Lox puzzles sure do lock together! That’s a darn tight fit for a cheapo puzzle!

2019-02-09 14.57.10-1
‘Seaside Fishing Boats’ 200 piece Sure-Lox

This one was super quick and fun to put together. Great little image! I’m looking forward to assembling the rest of the pack, weird bent pieces included!

Flock of Cardinals!

PuzzledPickle1 Comment

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!

2019-01-28 13.07.40
‘Boats’ 500 Piece, by Cardinal
2019-01-28 13.08.02
‘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!

2019-01-28 13.09.37
‘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.

2019-01-28 13.08.58
‘Fresh Vegetables’ 500 Piece, by Cardinal
2019-01-28 14.07.04
‘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…

2019-01-19 17.24.03

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!

2019-01-21 13.45.09

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…
2019-01-25 15.19.32

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…

2019-01-25 15.27.35

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!

2019-01-26 17.35.34

It’s a blast!

 

Flower Delivery and a Beachy Retreat

PuzzledPickleLeave a comment
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!