Halloween Kitten

Brand: Sunsout

Pieces: 300
Size:  53.34cm x 60.96cm

Product Code: 32724

As we're only a few days out from Halloween, I thought it would be fitting to put up the above image. 

I never really used to care about Halloween, and thought it mostly to be an Americanised holiday, but over the last few years I have noticed it grow massively in popularity. My three-year-old daughter is keen to go trick-or-treating this year and wants to dress up in the highly imaginative costume of a ghost- I guess we'll see what happens...

As it happens, I have picked up some puzzles over time that feature Halloween-based designs. Not only have I collected Reverie Puzzles' two Halloween Advent Calendars but I purchased this one several years ago from Sunsout. It was tougher to do than expected for a 300-piece puzzle - the black of the cat and the surrounding orange hues made it much more challenging to piece together and the irregular shaped pieces added to the challenge. But after pushing through, the end result was quite cute.

Do you have many holiday-themed puzzles? Do you try to do them in time for the event?

Going Trick Or Treating

Brand: Mr Bob Puzzles

Pieces: 525
Size: 40cm x 30cm

Product Code: -

After all the excitement of last week, reaching 400 posts, and the Victorian Puzzle Competition, I forgot to post up a photo of a Halloween-themed puzzle!

I was never really interested in Halloween until recently, and just saw it as another 'non-holiday event' but it has really started to take off here in my area, and now I'm getting a bit more involved. Enough so that I have started doing Halloween-themed puzzles anyway! lol.

The above puzzle features a cute illustration by artist Alicia Rutigliano, and is the first larger-piece-count wooden puzzle I have completed. The design was so cute and I was just drawn to it. 

In true Mr Bob style, it also features cute whimsy pieces of Halloween motifs, although I don't think I pulled any out for the photos unfortunately.

There are so many cute/ scary/ cool  Halloween puzzles out there nowadays, and I'm keen to do a few more. I especially loved the Halloween Advent Calendar that Reverie Puzzles released and will probably post some photos from that at some point. 

Which awesome Halloween puzzles did you do? 

Charles Wysocki: Trick Or Treat Hotel

Brand: Buffalo

Pieces: 500
Size: 54cm x 38cm

Product Code: 3872

Despite their popularity, this is the first Charles Wysocki puzzle I have ever owned or done, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the end result. I hadn't done many Halloween-themed puzzles before so I thought it might be time to get into the spirit of the spooky season. 

This puzzle stood out to me with its elaborate detail and overall coolness, so I decided to go with it. The colours and design were fantastic and the illustration was so detailed. 

I'll probably end up doing more of this guy's designs over time- this was a great introduction to his work!

I'm gonna be pretty busy with work over the next few weekends so my puzzle-posting schedule might be a little off. I usually post on a Saturday morning here at home but I will be interstate and very busy for the next two weekends so that won't be possible. I might have to post on the Wednesday's preceding before I leave, so if you don't hear from me for a little while (or if the days are a bit off) that'll be the reason why...

Take care, and keep on puzzling!

The Witches Lair

Brand: Pennywinks

Pieces: 1000
Size: 75cm x 52cm

Product Code: -

Halloween is approaching, and what better puzzle to do than one that incorporates all the spooky fun of the day! 

I never used to be terribly interested in Halloween- I thought it was a very commercial and unnecessary day that we had adopted from other countries. But over the last few months, I have been invited to a party and seen all the excitement surrounding it, and now I'm kind of in the mood! Haha! I'm actually looking forward to dressing up and seeing other people's costumes now, and I'm looking forward to the day when my daughter is old enough to want to get involved. My, how things change...

Anyway, this puzzle is the only one in the Pennywinks catalogue so far. They released it through their Amazon page and are Australian. There are more puzzles apparently in the pipeline. The quality was wonderful, the colours more vibrant than my photo shows and the pieces fit together perfectly. While it was a little on the expensive side to purchase- I bought it when they put it on sale- I will definitely be looking at whatever else they have to offer in the future.  

Favole series by Victoria Francés

Brand: Heye Puzzles
Pieces: 75
Size: 10.5cm x 29.7cm
Product Code:  Tree (29368), Portrait (29365), Curly (29363), Snowflake (29366), Shoulder (29364), Leaves (29367)

Until recently in Australia, the Halloween holidays were not a big deal. 

It was considered more of an international event, celebrated in America and some European countries. 

But over the last few years, more and more Australian retail stores have begun to seize the day- selling costumes, house decorations and other Halloween-themed paraphernalia. 

To embrace this theme, I decided to scour my collection to find a suitably spooky puzzle to do, but it turns out that my collection doesn't really extend to ghosts, witches and vampires at this point! 

Instead, I found these six mini vertical puzzles from Heye, which feature the gothic illustrations of Victoria Francés. Taken from her Favole collection, the women in these pictures are all gorgeously supernatural-looking, which I think lends to the spooky Halloween theme perfectly.

Curly

Leaves

Portrait

Shoulder

Snowflake

Tree

Each puzzle has 75 pieces, which means that they're relatively quick to do. While many of the colours are similar, it is easy enough to work out where each piece goes, and as I mentioned before, the illustrations are quite pretty, if not a little eerie. Victoria Francés, a Spanish artist, specializes in gothic romance illustrations, and these puzzles certainly fit the bill.