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Sunday, January 31, 2021

Puzzles - Winter Themes and Current Challenge

Seems my puzzle completions have gotten ahead of my blogging!

I finished this winter puzzle called After The Snow Has Fallen by artist Joseph Holodook purchased through Bits and Pieces. The theme of snow matches what I see outside my window right now.  SNOW! It was fun and not very hard.  Maybe a week to complete.  I do enjoy these simpler art pieces where the colors and the lines are pretty well delineated without out much guessing involved as to where they should go.


The second puzzle I finished is another wintery scene called Home Again, artist H. Hargrove and purchased through Bits and Pieces as well. This one was little harder due to the blending of colors but even so ... not hard.




Left side of the puzzle.


Right side of the puzzle.

This puzzle, however, had a tricky element to it.  Pictured below on the left is a bush that appears to have need of more bush pieces to complete the image.  There were no more bush pieces!  I got out my magnifier to see if the pieces I put into place really look like they belonged.  They did, line, color and shape.  But obviously not right because I had no free bush pieces left to place.  (Images below) Then I started mixing up the arrangement of the pieces based on shape alone ... and the picture on the right shows the finished bush.  What I have noticed with the Bits and Pieces puzzles is that the way they cut the pieces sometimes results in incorrect placement - even if the shape and picture seem to match.  Not sure if that is common across other puzzle brands or not, but it has soured me a bit on Bits and Pieces puzzles.  


I have a few more to complete but will be interested in seeing if this if this is true with other brands.

Currently I am working on a Disney puzzle called Tangled which is the Disney version of the story of Rapunzel.  I plan to glue the pieces together, frame and give to my grand daughter for her play room.


This 500 piece puzzle is only 14” x 18” and the pieces are measurably smaller that the other 500 piece puzzles I did which ran 18” x 24”.  The pieces show small bits of blended colors and is making this much more of a challenge.  But the picture is beautiful.  

Tangled is part of a 4 puzzle set - all 500 pieces and all 14” x 18” and all painted by Thomas Kinkade Studios. The other 3 puzzle themes are Lady and the Tramp, Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Fantasia, and Winnie the Poo.  I suspect they all will be somewhat challenging because they are all done by the same artist in the same size pieces.


9 comments:

Marie Smith said...

You are a puzzle master in my book. I’ve never done enough puzzles to notice the problem you’ve discovered with the Bits and Pieces ones. It is interesting to see the board and the piece containers people use these days. They sure make it easier to move the puzzle around when you need to.

Michelle said...

Love the pictures but I wouldn't like a puzzle cut in a way that offers "alternative facts" -- ha! No, I've never worked a puzzle that had that 'feature' and wouldn't like it at all. I like the stereotypical interlocking jigsaw pieces; guess I'm not up to much of a challenge!

Wendy said...

Lovely puzzles but yes the cut of those pieces looks like a real challenge.

Leftycrafter said...

Love your puzzles. They are so much fun to do. Hopefully, I can get back to doing some soon. I love Ravensburger puzzles but they are a bit pricey. I find their pieces are cut much better and are a bit thicker so easier to handle.

Becki said...

Lovely puzzles, Elaine. So this hasn't occurred to me before now, but I'm wondering if Aja is curious about all those puzzle pieces.

Lynne said...

We must be on the same “frequency!”
I found an app on my iPad and I can’t stop doing puzzles.
One or two a day.
Birds, flowers, animals and today I did a Bald Eagle in flight.

I think I did the puzzle in your first picture a few years ago.

Have you seen any of the wooden puzzles.
Strange puzzle shapes.
A friend has been doing them.
Challenging and pricey, I think.

Anonymous said...

There are other primitive rural drawing puzzles in the 1000-piece range. Most we found at the big box craft stores. We have done dozens of them in the past. They were well-cut and while somewhat challenging, very fun to do and we never ran into a puzzle piece problem. One of the artist’s names was Charles Wysocki but I think there were others. Since they were done on the dining room table only real challenge was what to do when we had company for dinner!

Sandy said...

Soooooo cool. All are pretty pictures. I can see why you're gluing and framing the final one. That will make a lovely addition to her room. One of friends is a puzzler, I need to ask her if she's ever had that bush incident happen. She's one of ladies I travel with when we do Spring and Fall Girls weeks. There are 3 of us. Typically she's working on a puzzle while I'm knitting and our 3rd friend is shopping on ebay.

Sandy said...

Popping back round as I make my blog visits and hoping you're doing well. Super excited, heading out in a bit for my 2nd shot!!!