Tag Archives: puzzle

Whiskers At The Window: A Large Piece Puzzle Review

August 27, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

I’ll be the first to admit that I have issues accepting all the changes that my disability has forced upon me. Some are easier to accept than others; it is easier for me to ask my husband to tie my shoes, for example, than to deliberately reach for the large piece puzzles. I really hate the fact that my hands have problems with both sensation and grip on bad days. Thus, when my representative at The Jigsaw Puzzle Factory offered a 300 Large piece puzzle, I balked. I’m not that bad yet, really! My mind protested, but I know that while this blog is about my reviews and opinions; it is mainly about discovering things to make hobbies accessible.

So I waited for a day when my hands were sore and swollen, which after last week’s brick kit, wasn’t hard.

Whiskers At The Window reminds me of the puzzles I used to do as a kid. Not in a juvenile sense, but a fond nostalgia. I love the fact that the back of the box was given to the artist, Jane Maday.

The size of the pieces where certainly large! Better yet, each side has a different texture, glossy and smooth on the front, and matte and pebbled on the back.

On to the puzzling! The sorting went quickly enough, as this is only a 300 piece, and I’ve been doing 500-1000 pieces for a while now.

I forgot an important fact! This puzzle is ROUND! My normal boards are rectangular! I ended up having to have the Spouse-Critter set up the full-size card table and help me move my setup.

So big! The diameter of the puzzle is 24 inches!

Amazingly, none of my cats were interested in this puzzle. My only interruptions were SC wanting my opinion on his current project.

All in all, I think I managed to assemble this in about three hours, which is a new record.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: The Jigsaw Puzzle Factory
Title: Whiskers At The Window
Artist: Jane Maday
Year released: 2017
Pieces: 300
Cut-Style: Grid-cut puzzle
Finished size: 24″ round
Bonus poster: Yes
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy medium weight, 8 x 8 inches
Board: Medium thickness, recycled chipboard
Cut: Cut with a steel-cut die, all pieces fully separated
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Slightly glossy
Puzzle Dust: None!
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Good, but loose. You cannot pick up multiple pieces and move them

Disability Notes: I have to give my rep credit, this a wonderful puzzle. 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: Whiskers At The Window is available on the The Jigsaw Puzzle Factory website for $14.99 USD.

The Jigsaw Puzzle Factory: 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!

Puzzle Review

Hidden Images Glow in the Dark Jungle Pride : A Puzzle Review

August 9, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

I normally wouldn’t have chosen this puzzle for myself. It’s a 500 piece, which is within my current ability, and the subject matter is cat-based…But Spouse-Critter (SC) fell in love with both the tigers and the idea of hidden images. I tend to shy away from both hidden images (the Magic Eye™ images give me vertigo) and glow in the dark ones. That being said, how could I tell SC no? He rarely steers me wrong.

I love how well protected the puzzle pieces are!

There were only a few hanging chads, and it’s obvious that the die stamp had gotten dull rather than a design flaw. The chipboard is made of recycled materials, and the pieces are of medium thickness.

I had a bit of trouble keeping the cats off my tigers! We did find that one of the images on the side of the box is meant to be seen when upside down, so you can use the box to store puzzle pieces and still see the image!

Once I had my frame in place, the assembly only took me a few hours, spaced out over some rainy days. The mix of standard and irregular pieces made for a great mental exercise. Matching stripes took what felt like forever!

It took some experimenting to get the glow to pop, those rainy overcast days hadn’t given off enough light. I got limited results with a led lantern, so SC went out and bought a black light bulb. Look at the glowy awesome!! The box says there are 16 tigers in the puzzle. I could only find 14, but as I mentioned before, I suck at finding hidden images. The ones I did find look amazing.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: MasterPieces® Inc.
Title: Hidden Images Glow in the Dark Jungle Pride
Artist: Steve Read
Year released: 2017
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Grid-cut puzzle
Finished size: 15 x 21 in
Bonus poster: No
Made from recycled materials
Made in China

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy but lightweight, 8 x 8 inches
Board: Medium thickness, recycled chipboard
Cut: Cut with a steelcut die, very few pieces were not fully separated
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Slightly glossy with sandy texture where the glow in the dark ink is
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Very good, small clusters of pieces could be moved without falling apart

Where to buy: “Hidden Images Glow in the Dark Jungle Pride” has been re-issued as a 550 piece puzzle and is available on the MasterPieces website for $12.99 USD.

MasterPieces 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!

Tutorials

Puzzle Preservation: Mod Podge

July 31, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

I love puzzles, I do. Puzzles are both brain-food and art. I love to assemble puzzles, but on their own, puzzles as art is ephemeral. Thus…Glue! There are now a ton of different ways to preserve a puzzle, and I’ll most likely do posts on them as I try them. But, when I grew up, the only option was glue.

I tried a few different brands until I found Mod Podge. I love this stuff! They have nearly a dozen variations now, but I tend to stick to either Matte or Satin. Satin is my go-to. It goes on smooth, and if I take my time, the brush strokes disappear.

Anyways, my process for gluing a puzzle is simple.

I assemble my puzzles on a piece of foam board. I cut out enough wax paper to cover the whole puzzle. Tape these together with a good bit of overlap on the edges.

Place the wax paper over the image side of the puzzle and top with a second foam board.

With the puzzle sandwiched in between the foam boards, flip it upside down.

Now it’s time for Mod Podge! Much like with painting, always keep a wet edge. Which means; once you start, you have to finish! I start by laying a thin line of Mod Podge the entire length of the top about 2 inches from the edge.

Using a paintbrush(I like these thick foam ones), spread the Mod Podge in an even layer with long strokes. Don’t worry, it starts white, but dries clear. Continue to add lines of Mod Podge and brush it across the puzzle until it is completely covered.

Then set it aside in a warm, dry place where it will not be disturbed. Because I have cats, this is usually my laundry room. It only takes about 20-30 minutes to dry, but I like to wait a day in between coats. I recommend at least 2 coats on the back and one on the front. To remove any stickiness, Mod Podge’s website recommends finishing with an acrylic urethane spray. I haven’t tried that yet, once I do, I’ll update this post with my opinion.

Disclosure: I bought the Mod Podge featured in this post. All opinions are my own.

Mod Podge™ is copyright http://www.Plaidonline.com

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

Sharks! A Puzzle Review

July 28, 2018 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

Early last February, I got to go to the New York Toy Fair. This was an awesome weekend where I got to see the new toys, games, and hobby kits that companies would be selling over the upcoming year. While there, I was gifted a veritable plethora of swag. Swag is great, it’s the free stuff that companies give out in the hopes you’ll spread the news and buy more stuff. At the time, I had no real plans for the swag, which included puzzles, micro-brick kits, and bath bomb kits. Then winter hit me, and hit me hard. I spent the better part of two months staring at the ceiling, too ill to leave to bed. I watched a lot of Netflix. Honestly, I watched so much that I became bored with boredom. It’s summer now, but nothing, especially good health doesn’t last long. My spouse-critter (SC) recommended I start a blog, talk about the things I love. My body may have bad days/weeks, but my brain still craves stimulation, and I certainly can’t be the only one!

Back on topic, one of those Toy Fair Puzzles was this:

1000 piece Shark Chart Puzzle by EuroGraphics Puzzles

My family and friends will agree…I’m obsessed with sharks. Discovery Channel’s Shark Week is sacred holiday in my house. What better way to build this puzzle than to marathon watching Shark Week’s 30th Anniversary season?

So I set up my work station, AKA the couch and bought a season pass on Amazon. The cats decided this was to be a family project. Zane tests the box for sits as Teedle warms my spot.

This is a new brand to me, and I was really impressed. While there were a few pieces that weren’t fully separated during the cutting process, the overall quality of this puzzle is excellent. The irregularly cut pieces, mixed with traditional ones, made for a fiendishly clever puzzle. Featuring nearly 30 sharks from over 25 different species; this puzzle is almost more educational than Shark Week! Better yet, my FAVORITE shark is on it. Spotted Wobbegong FTW!All finished, and beautiful!Hurricane gave it the Cat Seal™ of approval as Zoomie supervises.

Okay, enough cat photos. Here’s the details!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Eurographics Puzzles
Title: Sharks
Artist: Unknown
Year released: Unknown
Pieces: 1000
Cut-Style: Grid-cut puzzle
Finished size: 26.5 x 19.25 in
Bonus poster: No
Made from recycled board and printed with vegetable based ink.
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: sturdy, sized 14 x 10 in
Board: Very sturdy and rigid
Cut: Cut with a steelcut die, very few pieces were not fully separated
Image Quality: Excellent
Finish: Slightly glossy
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Very good, small clusters of pieces could be moved without falling apart

Where to buy: At the time of this post, “Sharks” is listed for sale on the Eurographics website for $17.99 usd.

Eurographics 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!

Announcements

A new venture

July 24, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

Welcome to my new venture. I will be reviewing puzzles, coloring books, and building brick kits that could be of interest to individuals whose minds are sharp, but their mobility is limited. There will be adventures — and cats, as mine get into everything.

I am currently working on my first puzzle to be reviewed while watching Shark Week 2018. I assure you, the puzzle is appropriately themed!

#puzzlepaws #sharkweek2018

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