Tag Archives: 500 piece

Belated – Trick or Treat! My Halloween Puzzle Review

November 12, 2019 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

Sometimes getting back into the saddle after a length of time can be difficult. I had finally shaken the nasty cold that had plagued me just in time to work NekoCon October 31-November 3rd. Unfortunately, even though I had gotten my flu shot days before, after con I had a small relapse of the cold.

While I was well enough to blog last Friday, I’ll admit to having a bit of a mental block. I wanted to write…but the very thought of tackling nearly a month’s backlog of emails and empty space was daunting. It still is. But! SC and I did an awesome puzzle for Halloween in the short space when I felt well, and I miss having the schedule of posts to organize my weeks. So this week you get a bonus post or two. I have a small backlog of projects to write up before I can tackle new ones.

My mom knows I love Dowdle puzzles and she got me a handful of different ones during a summer sale.

if you can’t read the above photo, the Dowdle website has both the poem and a scavenger hunt here.

I don’t have my usual frame and pieces photos as I assembled this puzzle in a bit of a hurry with SC. I wanted to do SOMETHING for Halloween since I’d been too ill to decorate and had the last convention of the season coming up in a few days.

So I sorted the pieces according to location; sky/street/townhouses and we spent an enjoyable 3 or so hours trading pieces and exclaiming over all the little Easter Eggs that Eric Dowdle puts into his art.

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Because it was Halloween, I did dress up the cats in costume! Pandemonium as a BumbleBee and Hurricane Enlil as Sharknado!

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I have to admit, this 500 piece was a great way to get back to my puzzling habit. It’s bright, colorful, and busy; and the pieces are the perfect size for slightly arthritic hands.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Dowdle Puzzles
Title: Trick or Treat
Artist: Eric Dowdle
Year released: Unknown
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 16″ by 20″
Bonus poster: Yes
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy and compact, 7.5″ by 7.5″ by 3″, with paper sleeve
Board: Medium weight chipboard, sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Semi-gloss, with great color saturation
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Very Good. Some of the irregular pieces make it so that pieces can only be moved in small groups.

Disability Notes: The slightly larger size pieces of the 500 piece puzzle are kinder to the hands while still being complex enough to challenge lovers of larger piece count puzzles. Honestly, I want to try this brands 300 and 100 piece counts for this winter when my hands threaten to swell into claws. I can recommend this for people with mild to moderate arthritis or hand/eye coordination.

Where to buy: Trick or Treat is available on the Dowdle Puzzles website for $19.99 USD.

Dowdle Puzzles : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received this puzzle as a gift. The opinions are my own.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page.To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Puzzle Review

Of Butterflies & Birthdays

September 13, 2019 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

September 12th is the start of Birthday Hell in my family. My younger but much taller sister, Little-Big(not her real name) turned 33 today. She loves everything butterflies and purple, so I had to get Cobble Hill’s new Butterfly Magic for her.

All right, full disclosure here. I did not touch this puzzle except to help sort out the edge pieces. Little-Big loved the idea of a birthday puzzle, and whenever I turned around, she was happily assembling her own present!

This puzzle went together relatively quickly. I was down with no spoons yesterday, so Little-Big sent me pics while I rested in bed.

Little-Big started sorting her pieces by trying to finish the monarch butterfly with the sunflowers; then ended up sorting her pieces into the different framed sections.

My sister had the best time working on the random cut, which had her scrambling to find where pieces fit right up to the last 2 pieces!

TaDa!! Butterflies! Little-Big managed to get this finished just a few hours before her birthday. It will be glued this weekend and then mounted in her room.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Cobble Hill
Title: Butterfly Magic
Artist: Rosiland Solomon
Year released: 2019
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 19.25 x 26.625
Bonus poster: Yes
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Medium-weight, 10″x14’x2.5″ Matte-Linen Finish
Board: Thick and sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Satin, linen texture
Puzzle Dust: Almost none
Piece shapes: Random
Piece Fit: Very Good, nice tight fit that if careful, I could lift it up completely

Disability Notes: Little-Big likes the larger pieces, which are easy on hands. The bright colors and different sections make dividing the pieces into workable groups easy.

Where to buy: Butterfly Magic is available on the Cobble Hill website for $15.99 USD. While Fall is fast approaching, this puzzle is perfect for any butterfly enthusiast or to brighten up those upcoming gray days!

Cobble Hill Puzzle Company : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Puzzle Review, Uncategorized

Easter Bunnies and Easter Eggs!

April 19, 2019 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

I don’t know about you guys, but Easter is one of the few holidays that I get excited about the food. As a kid, I loved my Easter basket filled with marshmallow Peeps, jellybeans, and chocolate bunnies. The best part wasn’t Easter supper with its ham and fixings, but Easter breakfast; where after searching the whole of the house for hidden eggs, I got to crack those colorful shells and roll my hard-boiled eggs in salt and pepper.

This Saturday, I’ll be helping my younger sister Hime and my god-daughter Bug fill my kitchen with the scent of vinegar and a veritable army of brightly colored eggs! Lucky for me, one of my favorite puzzle companies, Cobble Hill, unveiled a perfect Easter puzzle for the 2019 year.

Easter Bunnies by Donna Race is a springtime delight! It’s a 500 piece random-cut puzzle that has three sweet bunnies guarding a nest of colored eggs among a field of early Spring flowers.

The included mini poster! A super helpful puzzling tool!

Ignore the cat hair, check out these weird shapes!!

I had help assembling this puzzle. My sister Hime is in town for the holidays, and she and Mom helped sort the border and started work on the bunnies. My Bestie Angel came by the other day and helped finish the bunnies and made a serious dent in all the flowers.

I can’t express how happy this puzzle made me. It really brought home the fact that Spring is here, and that while my neighborhood flowers haven’t bloomed, they will soon!

I know that only some of my readers celebrate Easter, because some are observing Passover or Ostara this week. To all of you, I wish the best of holidays and I’ll see you on Monday, which is both Earth Day and Half-priced candy sales!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Cobble Hill
Title: Easter Bunnies
Artist: Donna Race
Year released: 2019
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 19.25 x 26.625
Bonus poster: Yes
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Medium-weight, 10″x14’x2.5″ Matte-Linen Finish
Board: Thick and sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Satin, linen texture
Puzzle Dust: Almost none
Piece shapes: Random
Piece Fit: Very Good, nice tight fit that if careful, I could lift it up completely

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a teen, an adult, or for a person whose hands have good and bad days. I had fun. My hands didn’t ache after assembly, and the difficulty level was certainly up to adult standard. I can happily recommend a large piece puzzle for people with fine motor skill issues, or arthritis.

Where to buy: Easter Bunnies is available on the Cobble Hill website for $15.99 USD. It is still in stock, so I suggest ordering in advance for next Easter!

Cobble Hill Puzzle Company : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Puzzle Review

1500 Pieces!My Largest Piece Count Yet!

April 12, 2019 PuzzlePaws 3 Comments

The fun part of being a puzzle blogger is finding new brands to try to stretching myself as a puzzler. Before I’d started PuzzlePaws, the largest puzzle I’d done was a 1000 piece, and honestly, I preferred 750’s. While I don’t hold with New Year’s Resolutions, I do want to challenge myself and to be active in the puzzling community. Next year, I want to be able to join World Puzzle Days, and Jigsaw Jubilee. To do so, I know I need to increase my piece count to include 1500 and 2000 piece puzzles! It’s a bit scary for me.

Thankfully, while I was at Toy Fair this year, I discovered Playview Brands, which is the spin-off company of Karmin International and their puzzle line. When I explained that my goals, I was offered a chance to try a different sort of large count puzzle.

This is a triptych puzzle, or a three-in-one puzzle. There are three separate 500 piece puzzles that make a single 1500 piece image. It was perfect to help me work on this year’s goals!

The puzzles came individually bagged and included a lovely poster to help with assembly.

I got a bit lucky, while the bags aren’t labeled as to which image they hold, I guessed by using the pieces I could see and managed to assemble them in order! Assembly was an adventure!

I found the pieces to be on the small side of an average 500 piece puzzle, thin, but incredibly sturdy! They connect well and hold tightly.

56749176_410701726390606_987145190139494400_n — Puzzle 1

Puzzle 1, day 1, I had friends who had swung by to pick up some firewood SC had split and they stayed and spent a good hour or so helping me build the image. Elyse refused to go home until she found the piece of deer that was eluding her!

57028912_322606175124039_164383525292736512_n — Puzzle 2

Puzzle 2, day 2, I got a late start, and assembled it all by myself. Because of the late hour at which I finished and took the photo, my overhead glare is awful. Lesson learned, take photos in the mornings!

57154953_560126491146801_1282849393501798400_n — Puzzle 3

Puzzle 3, day 3, I started this puzzle the night before, but had only managed the frame and sky before running out of spoons for the day. One of my besties came over in the morning to help me puzzle. She hadn’t done a puzzle since she was a little girl, so it was fun to show her tips and techniques.

56786094_577281452675381_973459053512491008_n — The Big Picture!!

This is a huge puzzle! When fully assembled, it is 24 inches high by 54 inches long! It completely took over my 6 person dining room table and I had to stand on a chair to take a picture.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Karmin International Puzzles/ Playview Brands
Title: Mountain Cabin Scene
Artist: Geno Peoples
Year released: 2018
Pieces: 3×500, or 1500
Cut-Style: Grid
Finished size: 24″x 54″
Bonus poster: Yes
Made in China

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Medium-weight, 12″L x 8″H x 4″W
Board: Thin and sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Semi-gloss
Puzzle Dust: Almost none
Piece shapes: Grid style, 5 shapes
Piece Fit: Very Good, nice tight fit that if careful, I could lift it

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a teen, an adult, or for a person whose hands have good and bad days. My friends and I both had fun, and the full assembly only took us roughly 3 days. My hands didn’t ache after assembly, and the difficulty level was certainly up to adult standard.

Where to buy: Mountain Cabin Scene is available on the Karmin International website for $14.99 USD wholesale, I do not know if they do direct retail sales.

Karmin International Company : Website

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Puzzle Review

Cherry Blossoms and Chickadees! A Springtime Review

March 22, 2019 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

Spring is finally officially here!! Huzzah!

It’s silly, but Wednesday was both the first day of Spring and the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC. I’ve never gone, but I have friends who hit it every year. This weekend I’m in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for Zenkaikon, an anime convention. Before I left, I started Cobble Hill’s Chickadeedeedees. It’s a 500 piece puzzle featuring chickadees and cherry blossoms by the amazing Karen Latham.

Pardon the warm tones, I was trying to reduce my night-time glare.

This is one of the new 2019 designs, and one of the rare puzzles SC insisted on. I’d never known that my spouse liked chickadees, but there he was, reading me the Wiki and listening to bird calls on YouTube. If you want an awesome video about chickadees, I recommend LesleytheBirdNerd’s video.

Honestly, I find it cute when he gets excited/inspired by something out of the ordinary. He listens to me explaining the difference between ribbon and random cut puzzles. By the way, this is very much a random cut puzzle! SC likes the random cuts, finding them to be a great mental challenge. “That piece doesn’t go there at that angle…Shit, yes it does!”

I mentioned that I started this puzzle, however, I didn’t manage to finish my assembly before having to leave. SC, bless him, took some of his spare time to finish it and gave me his analysis. He also did my amazing cover photo!

Two thirds finished and yes, that’s a dice catalog in the corner.

I’d managed to do about 2/3rds of the puzzle, finding it to be of moderate difficulty. It’s a 500 piece puzzle, so the pieces are comfortably large and with a random cut, the placements are not always obvious. SC did the final third, noting that I had mistakenly placed a piece where it didn’t belong, so he spent a bit of time looking to place a piece that belonged in the space I’d filled.

His sorting style was thus: flowers first, then obvious leaves, then twigs, then oddball shapes, and finally the standard shaped pieces. He did say it was of moderate difficulty, and that a couple of pieces nearly achieved flight (he was frustrated and want to throw them across the room)! SC notes that the large piece size confused his eyes, but made his hands happy, and that the pieces fit and click in securely. Both of us liked the new small poster included with the puzzle that was printed with the same linen texture as the puzzle and that both puzzle and poster images matched!

All done! I couldn’t have done it without my Spouse-Critter!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Cobble Hill
Title: Chickadeedeedees
Artist: Karen Latham
Year released: 2019
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 19.25 x 26.625
Bonus poster: Yes
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Medium-weight, 10″x14’x2.5″ Matte-Linen Finish
Board: Thick and sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Satin, linen texture
Puzzle Dust: Almost none
Piece shapes: Random
Piece Fit: Very Good, nice tight fit that if careful, SC could lift it up completely

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a teen, an adult, or for a person whose hands have good and bad days. SC and I both had fun, and the full assembly only took us roughly about 6 hours over 3 days. My hands didn’t ache after assembly, and the difficulty level was certainly up to adult standard. I can happily recommend a large piece puzzle for people with fine motor skill issues, or arthritis.

Where to buy: Chickadeedeedees is available on the Cobble Hill website for $15.99 USD. It is currently out of stock, but it’s on order, which means there will be more made soon!

Cobble Hill Puzzle Company : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Puzzle Review

25 Days of XMAS – Day 8

December 14, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

This post is about the next-to-last item from Uncommon goods. SC was over the moon when I chose this puzzle.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater®, a 2-in-1 500 piece puzzle. I hadn’t done a double-sided puzzle since the original My Little Pony 3D one in the 1980s. The one side is a glossy reproduction of one of Christopher Little’s photographs, while the other side is a matte reproduction of Fallingwater®’s blueprints.

With this puzzle being only 500 pieces, it only took me two days to assemble, and that was mostly because I would get distracted. The pieces are of a decent size, and I enjoyed the sensation of the different finishes on the two sides. I’ve only done one other Galison puzzle, but I’ve found them to be of excellent quality.

I did my best to reduce the glare, but sunny days and glossy puzzles don’t mix! I assembled the puzzle using this side, and really loved it. There is a reason Frank Lloyd Wright’s building are remembered, each one has a certain…emotion to it.

SC liked the blueprint side, and I can’t really blame him. There is something visually interesting about it. Honestly, this puzzle was just too pretty to put back in the box. SC is in the process of layering fixative to it in the mudroom as I write. He thinks we can rig a double-sided picture frame so that we can hang this lovely puzzle in the dinning room and simply turn the frame around when we need to change our decor. Man is a genius, I swear.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Galison
Title: Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater®
Artist: Frank Lloyd Wright / Christopher Little – Photographer
Year released: 2017
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Ribbon cut
Finished size: 24 x 18 inches
Bonus poster:Yes
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Thin sturdy cardboard, 11.5 x 8.5 x 3 inches
Board: Mediumweight Recycled greyboard
Cut: Steel-cut dye
Image Quality:Excellent
Finish: Semi-gloss / Matte
Puzzle Dust:Minimal
Piece shapes: Traditional 2-Knob
Piece Fit: Excellent

Disability Notes: I found this to be a wonderfully easy puzzle to put together. The pieces are of a medium size and well-made. If you have mild hand issues, you should be just fine. If you have an eyesight issue, you may want a friend to help or a magnifier and light. All those greens and browns get tricky.

Where to buy: You can buy the Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater® puzzle for $16 USD at the Uncommon Goods Website, listed below.

Uncommon Goods: Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received these products for free in exchange for a review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them. Fallingwater®is a trademark and a registered service mark of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Photograph © Christopher Little.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Puzzle Review, Uncategorized

Eric Dowdle’s Harvest Festival: The Pumpkining!

September 20, 2018 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

I love Fall. I was born in October, and the season has always been a favorite. There are days that it feels like summer is still in its height, and some where it cools just enough to need a hoodie. Ok, not so much for me….I live in Virginia now. But I grew up in Upstate NY right on the shores of Lake Ontario. Summers were short, “Winter Was Coming” and Fall meant apples, pumpkins, hayrides and giant leafpiles. I went shopping the other day with SC, and the stores are full of Halloween. I had wanted to wait until the First, but this puzzle really captures the memories and mood of Fall for me. What the heck, the Vernal Equinox is later this week, that’s close enough!

I really like Dowdle’s boxing. There is a heavy paper sleeve encasing a pretty little box.

The box is really well constructed, folding around itself and sealing with a Velcro button so that the box is reusable.

Better yet! All Dowdle puzzle come with a mini-poster of the image and a resealable plastic bag.

Now to assemble!

For a 500 piece puzzle, this was really tricky in places. the amazing amount of detail that artist Eric Dowdle puts into his art and the random piece shapes kept me busy all evening! SC even put a few pieces together, commenting that it was harder than it looked.

So many memories! My parents took a bunch of photos like this when I was growing up with my siblings!

SC had to take my finished picture, as I was having a horrible time getting my pictures to come out right. After finishing this puzzle, I have two thoughts. First, now I feel properly ready to Fall, and secondly…I need a pumpkin spice latte, stat!

IMG_4235 (Edited) — SC is a photography genius.

Pandemonium approves! Puzzles are cat-baths, don’tcha know?

About the Company: Dowdle Puzzles is a part of Dowdle Folk Arts. The artist and owner is Eric Dowdle, who has over 200 folk art paintings, mostly focusing on American cities and national parks. As well as selling paints, prints, and puzzles, Dowdle is now branching out into coloring books! (I’ll be wishlisting those!)

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Dowdle Puzzles
Title: Harvest Festival
Artist: Eric Dowdle
Year released: Unknown
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 16″ by 20″
Bonus poster: Yes
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy and compact, 7.5″ by 7.5″ by 3″, with paper sleeve
Board: Medium weight chipboard, sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Semi-gloss, with great color saturation
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Very Good. Some of the irregular pieces make it so that pieces can only be moved in small groups.

Where to buy: Harvest Festival is available on the Dowdle Puzzles website for $19.99 usd. At the time of this post, it is sold out.

Dowdle Puzzles : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page.To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Little pieces make a bigger picture