If you or someone you love liked dogs, you might want to consider this lovely puzzle from Vermont Christmas Company. It comes in a larger 1000 piece size, and its challenging to find pet puzzles in this adult size. The scene is soft and appealing with blues, pinks, and, of course, lots of gorgeous canines! The puzzle is of easy difficulty and took me three sessions to complete. The Vermont Christmas Company quality is good with hard, solid pieces. The cut is mostly a grid cut, but not all edges line up and some sides have wavy and diagonal edges. There is some glare under overhead lights due to a glossy surface. Assembly is fun but be prepared for a lot of dog fur in white, brown, and black... CONTINUE READING
Inspirational Puzzles Week For this last week of 2016, we're featuring inspirational puzzles to put you in a contemplative and hopefully positive frame of mind for the new year. This week I reviewed "Peace" by Sam Timm and "St. Francis" by Randy Wollenmann. Now here's my top ten list of the best inspirational puzzles available at Puzzle Warehouse. Okay. Let's get... CONTINUE READING
"Peace" by Sam Timm is a lovely and challenging puzzle. The peaceful winter scene is serene and will put you in a meditative frame of mind as you work on it. The snow, church, and trees in the puzzle are fairly straight-forward to assemble, even with the added challenge of the reflection. Working the blue sky and water, though, is more difficult. There's strong color shading in the puzzle, so much of the image is assembled by discerning one shade of blue from quite similar shades of blue, and looking for matching hole/connector fits. I found this a nice change from my usual "busy" puzzles and enjoyed the extra challenge. The final puzzle is beautiful. The Sunsout quality is very good, with sturdy pieces and a nice random piece cut. I like that you can move around a set of joined pieces without them falling apart. Recommended for those looking for a little more difficulty... CONTINUE READING
"St. Francis" is a gorgeous inspirational puzzle with a stained glass look. The puzzle is bright and beautiful with very crisp artwork, and the end result is worthy of framing. I loved assembling it too. The inner scene of St. Francis was easy to piece together, but the arched frame of leaves, berries, and doves was challenging because it's a repeating pattern. I had a blast assembling that part because I was in the mood for something that took more thought and effort. The Sunsout quality is very good, with sturdy pieces and a nice random piece cut. I like that you can move around a set of joined pieces without them falling apart. This is a moderate-to-difficult puzzle but worth every piece placed! Highly recommended... CONTINUE READING
More new 2017 puzzles have been announced! You can add your favorites to your Christmas eve dreams of sugarplum fairies -- and jigsaw puzzles. SUNSOUT 2017 Sunsout has new releases throughout the year, but these are my favorite picks of the new puzzles from their just-released 2017 catalog. Most of these are already in stock at Puzzle... CONTINUE READING
This is a lovely Christmas themed puzzle from artist Randy Wollenmann. The bright colors are fun, especially the pink in the image. The wintry scene is appealing with kids and families out choosing their Christmas tree. The puzzle is a nice blend of easy elements, like the characters in their unique outfits, and slightly more challenging elements like all the fir trees, snow, and night sky. The difficulty is easy-to-moderate. I especially like the art style, which is hand painted and a little bit cartoony. The Vermont Christmas Company quality is good with hard, solid pieces. The cut is mostly a grid cut, but not all edges line up and some sides have wavy and diagonal edges. Recommended for all who enjoy cartoon or Christmas puzzles... CONTINUE READING
“Christmas Fayre” is a beautiful holiday puzzle from Gibsons set in a traditional English village Christmas market. The puzzle is easy-to-moderate in difficulty. The night-time colors are rich with purples, oranges, and reds. The artwork is a hand-painted scene with a good amount of detail. There’s some repeating greenery and red and white stripes throughout the image that make assembly slightly more challenging–in a good way. I enjoyed seeing all the characters as I put the puzzle together, young couples and families out enjoying the market. There’s lots of Christmassy details like wreaths, trees, advent candles, roasted chestnuts. The Gibsons quality is exceptional with thick pieces and a waxy finish that feels good to the touch. Recommended... CONTINUE READING
The end of the year is here--only two more weeks of 2016. It's the perfect time to reminisce about the year that was. We reviewed a lot of puzzles here at Jigsaw Junkies. Which ones were the best? CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY: We'll give one lucky winner any puzzle on this post that we have in stock at Puzzle Warehouse, winner's... CONTINUE READING
"Small Town Christmas" is a gorgeous Americana Christmas puzzle from artist Charles Wysocki and Buffalo Games. It's a good moderate challenge that took me three sessions to complete. No one area is difficult, but there's a lot of detail throughout. The palette of bright colors against the snow and blue sky is very cheerful. I particularly liked the red ribbon around the tree, the fir tree lit with candles, and the birdhouses in the sky. There's so much fun detail to examine in this image as you assemble the puzzle. The Buffalo Games quality is very good with grid cut pieces and a nice box that comes with a poster. Recommended to all fans of Christmas puzzles... CONTINUE READING
