Orchids (Art by Nene Thomas)

Brand: SunsOut
Pieces: 1000
Size: 48.3cm x 76.2cm
Product Code:  67636

I love romantic fantasy art. 

Usually comprised of a beautiful woman in a stunning landscape, these artworks are often a sight to behold. 

While there are many talented artists, one in particular that I admire is Nene Thomas, who has released many of her artworks as prints, cross stitch charts, and lithographs (among other things). You can purchase some of her work at http://nenethomas.com/

In conjunction with SunsOut, Nene Thomas has gifted puzzlers with some of her work in jigsaw puzzle format, including the above design.

Orchids is a stunning (and somewhat challenging) puzzle which, as you can see, contains a lot of similar background colours. I have to admit that it took me quite a while to complete this one, over a space of several days. That said, the end result is absolutely beautiful. The colours are vibrant and the quality of the unusually- shaped pieces is excellent.

I will more than likely follow this puzzle up with some other puzzle collaborations by both Thomas and SunsOut.

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.