I thought this puzzle would be easy. Nope. It was actually quite difficult! But in a calming way, I didn’t at all mind the extra time it took. Not only does it have fun, irregular shapes (with some whimsy pieces, but they’re all hearts or butterflies, so not much variety there) and an irregular border, but there are these extra shapes you lift out of the puzzle once it’s done, to create a cut-out pattern around the edge. See the last two photos in the sequence. I thought at first that the cut-outs weren’t included, but realized pretty quick they’re part of the puzzle, you fit them into place and then remove them for the final look. However for once I bagged up those pieces separate at the end. I think it might be fun to re-assemble this puzzle someday, without the cut-out pieces included, to see if it’s that much harder to do.
About halfway through I realized there was a repeating pattern- the piece cut is completely symmetrical, mirrors itself left-to-right and top-to-bottom. So having done one edge or corner, it’s quicker to assemble the others, as they fit together in exactly the same way. In fact, at the end I amused myself by switching around four butterflies in the center:
So in that regard it will go faster a second time around, because I already know the pattern now, but if I assemble without the cut-out pieces in the mix, maybe that will level out the difficulty again. We’ll see, someday. I enjoyed putting this together more than anticipated. The odd shapes were fun. And figuring out how the curvy edges go around the irregular frame. There’s a diagram included in the box that shows what shapes to lift out to make the patterned border, but it only shows the interior ones. There’s pieces that fitted into the outer edge that you lift away also (or don’t include in the first place). I removed those for the next-to-the-last step, you can see. I’ve never done a puzzle like this before, and I quite liked it.
Final size 26.5 x 19″. (Because of the irregularity inherent in doing a shaped puzzle, the photos don’t all line up perfectly to each other).















2 Responses
> a thrift store find
Every time I see puzzles in the thrift store, I think of you!
At first I thought doing it without the cut-out pieces would be a lot harder, but on second thought maybe not. If it’s a straight edge or a curly one doesn’t really matter too much, as long as you know it’s an edge.
That’s where I get most of them from, nowadays. Just yesterday I added another 9 to my collection!