Puzzle Adventures - December 2020

 Where did December go!?!

For the alphabet challenge I did I is for Ice Skating. A fun little Dowdle puzzle entitled 'Over The River'

Followed by a bunch of Christmas and winter Themed puzzles. I enjoyed every single one of them!

This one by Serendipity is older, and beautiful but the puzzle quality is quite ghastly! So many pieces are loosing lamination, I literally did it with glue bottle in hand. It was worth it though.

Lovely little details in these images...

For Gingerbread House Day on December 12th, I did this Dowdle one, aptly named 'Gingerbread House' it is such a fun image loaded with tongue-in-the-cheek characters.

Next up this stunning one by Eurographics. This is one sadly missing a couple pieces, but I was gifted a new one for Christmas, so this one will go up for trade.

Love this little image on the Christmas card

For the alphabet challenge, A is for Animals. The challenge stipulated more than one type of animal and I think 'Christmas Pies' by Larry Jones delivered. It was a great build and by now I know to just start anywhere with these Bits & Pieces puzzles, no point in trying to do the border first. Many inside pieces have straight edges, which defeats that effort. I do, however, store the edges separately for the next time I do them...

Adorable little mouse with a veritable feast at it's paws. No wonder it is smiling!

And to top it of a Christmas themed 'Santa's Workshop' by Dowdle. I enjoyed it, but it is not my favourite Dowdle. Rather dark and some of those character's faces look downright creepy. We'll see whether it makes it until next Christmas or join the 'to trade' pile before then...

And that's another year of puzzling done. And not a single Cobble Hill among them. That is unusual for sure!

On to World Puzzling Days next starting in January...

Birthday Puzzle Treats - Cobble Hill

 As I mentioned in the last monthly puzzle adventures post, I was given 3 puzzles for my birthday recently. And to say that I was pleased to receive these is an under statement. I was delighted...and started on the first one immediately.

These were purchased from a local retailer who always has a shelves packed with delicious looking puzzles, including lots of Cobble Hill ones!

I could not wait to start this one...all those delicious details and the beautiful saturated colours! What is not to love about that?

I thoroughly enjoyed discovering all the little items in the collage. After all I am very fond of 'I spy' type books, 'Where's Waldo' etc. I also love postage stamps - miniature works of art, and this puzzle is full of them!

Just some of the little dolls in the collage...

An absolute delight to make. I was ready to start it all over again as soon as I had broken it up.

Next up I did this one...love birds, love details, like the idea of seasonal images. And I really did enjoy this one. I was not sure how it would be as the art work really leaves much to be desired. Images of mostly birds super-imposed over a background of questionably computer generated art work...that was a disappointment. I hope Cobble Hill is going to maintain a high standard of quality of art in their puzzles. This does not fit the criteria. A buildable puzzle yes, enjoyable yes, but good pleasing art? Nope! 

I did enjoy discovering all the different birds, insects and animals, and doing the puzzle was not a bad experience. I will do it again for sure.

Must love this little nuthatch!

I've commented on art in a Cobble Hill puzzle before - in this post, however that was a matter of personal preference. The art work in that puzzle -Mountain Cascade - is beautiful, I just did not enjoy doing it as a puzzle. 

I recently borrowed a puzzle, from a puzzler locally...another new Cobble Hill called  'Parisian Flowers' and the art work was so bad I could not bring myself to do it. I was appalled at the quality. Please Cobble Hill, don't let us down! I have always assumed the art work you use is of the highest quality, seems I may be wrong when it comes to some of the newer items!

As always though, the puzzles are high quality - I like the thickness of the pieces and the random cut that fits snugly. The matt linen finish feels luxurious to the touch and the smell when you cut that bag open for the first time...oh my, oh my!

Smells better than chocolate...

And finally - this beauty. Adirondack Birds, by artist Greg Giordano.

I like snowy puzzles and this one is no exception.

It was a joy, start to finish. Lots of variety in the snowy areas, so none of that 'solid blue sky' syndrome LOL

Cute little chipmunk detail...

...and a birdhouse. Another favourite motif of mine. I also really like the reds in this painting. I think it works really well for the puzzle.

Another puzzle from another friend joined the gift line-up, but I have not had the chance to do it, as I only got it last week...covid rearranging everything this year, including regular lunch dates with friends.

I'll be back with December puzzles in a couple weeks, and then I will be doing World Puzzle Days again, so I'm collecting a pile of 6-8 puzzles to do over January and February.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Brrrr...sure looks cold doesn't it? But also pretty...like it's somewhere in the mountains. A little retreat or haven in the forest...

I used Cathy K Designs 'Snow Fun Bundle to scrap these pictures. Note the mugs with steaming hot beverages on the left? Seemed appropriate! As well as including some of that delicious pink on the brown ground to warm things up a bit more...

Be sure to visit Cathy's blog, sign up for the newsletter and her Facebook group Cathy's Krew where she will be giving away freebies, including the 2 borders I used on this page.

Happy scrapping!

More Christmas Puzzling -

The next puzzle on my Christmas wish list was this one -  'Christmas Barn'. Another Bits & Pieces  one and by the same artist, Larry Jones, as the Happy Holiday Snowman.

The Christmas Barn was a quickie to do, but most enjoyable. So many little items to discover in the background and I enjoy the bright colours and all the details throughout the picture.

Making a start -

Coming along nicely now -

And a few details - playful cats getting up to mischief - of course!

Nice variety of quirkily shaped pieces

Another shaped 750 piece puzzle winner! I look forward to doing it again next year.

Christmas Puzzling

I'm was pretty low on Christmas puzzles so when Bits & Pieces offered some specials, I got a few. Wish I could have gotten all the ones on the wish list, but at least I did get the Happy Holiday Snowman, which has topped the list since last year.

Interesting with lots of details, and lots of red,which is a bit more difficult to do if one doesn't sort pieces before hand.

It only just fitted onto the foam core board, which makes it a nice large shaped puzzle at only 750 pieces.

Getting started :

And a few little details -nice to discover little eye candy such as this cat!

The snowman's hat looks like a snowglobe.

Some of the delightfully quirky edge pieces!

Great puzzle to do, not difficult, the picture is great, quality of the pieces great. Some pieces were lightly attached,but separated easily and there was no puzzle dust. My only observation is that the bottom part of the box is very thin and the corners very lightly closed. I would not want to store this one without bagging the pieces first!

Highly recommended.

Winter Time Cards

Did I ever have fun making these! All the stamps I used are digitals from the Lili of the Valley Shop

For the snowman trio I used patterned papers from my stash, an assortment of dies, ribbon and stamps from various sources. I pulled out whatever would work with the images. All the colouring is done with coloured pencils.

For the next 3 cards I used the same approach, pulling out whatever I thought would work with the images. The back grounds were made using the embossing folder technique where one uses wax paper in the embossing folder and then iron card stock over the wax paper. This leaves you with a beautiful resist pattern to ink blend over. I used dye inks for blending.

I also added bits of cheesecloth on these and a few hand stitches to the one with the stocking. The colours used are right up my street and the entire process was most enjoyable. The images are so precious...

You'll find :-

The single snowman is HERE

The Rabbits in the Stocking is HERE

The Girl and Robin you can find HERE


Get them from :-  Lili of the Valley Shop