Happy 70th Birthday Dad - MyPhotoPuzzle (1000 pieces)

Personalised puzzles have come a long way over the past few years - in quality, prices and number of images you can have. I was delighted to find this company which allowed me to have multiple images and the puzzle proved a fitting present to mark a special day. Quite a bit of dust from the cutting process, but the card was good quality and the pieces fit together well. Slight mishap with posting meant I ended up with a copy for my also! Bonus! 

Time taken: 3.5 hours 

Cafe Filberto - WHSmiths (1000 pieces)

At first glance I wasn’t too inspired by the image, seeing only a sea of blue, green and brown. However, once I’d got going it proved a rather nice puzzle. I started with the tiles and then moved to the bluey/green bits. My attention turned to the climbing plants and once these were finished the back of the puzzle had been broken and it was simply infill from then on. 

Time taken: 3 hours 

It’s been a while....Puzz 3D

Now, Puzz 3D were big in the 90s...I had loads...including the New York skyline which was quite something, and Big Ben, which was 4ft tall. So when I was given a whole bag to check it created a feeling of nostalgia. I soon remembered why I liked the brand. The attention to detail, nice feel of the foam pieces and even how some internal pieces still had an image on them are all plus points. Neither puzzle took very long, but these were the smallest of the collection - more to follow. 

Time taken: 1 or so each