So... do you like puzzles?

Well, I do. A lot! I even have a huge 4000 pieces one framed in my living room, an incredibly detailed world map where I pin the countries I've visited.

I always have mixed feelings when doing one, thow: it's always fun to do them, but most of the time I won't want to frame them. And sometimes feels like a waste of effort: spending a ton of time doing them, just to have them ending in the box again. But well, the fun is still present, so it's a minor problem.

My main problem with puzzles is how much space they occupy, and for how long do they occupy it!

Solution? I had already heard about puzzle mats, and it seemed a great way to solve the problem! For those who never heard of it, it's basically a mat where you build the puzzle in, and you can just roll it and store it, and everything will stay the same.

Sounds a little too good to be true, right?

Been while since I did a puzzle, and started one with my girlfriend a few days ago. So I decided to give the puzzle mats a try and I ordered one; it seemd logical to try and avoid having my living room with a puzzle for weeks / months.
It arrived after a few days, and... not exactly impressed with what was in the box.

A felt mat, a tube and some velcro straps. I was hoping for some kind of magical cloth where the puzzle pieces would stick and stay! But ok, let's give it a try.

First part went more or less smoothly: pass the done parts (which weren't that many)to the felt mat.

Ok, time to put it to the test! Aparently, I just needed to aply the hard roll on top, roll the mat over it, and voilá: a perfectly stored puzzle, that one could take anywhere and resume the hours of fun!

I didn't even rolled it all the way, thow; strange sounds were heard during the procedure... and this is how one of the tops stayed:

So, a few options here:

• There's a learning curve
• I missed something and screwed up
• THIS MAT IS CRAP!!

I'm feeling a little bit more inclined to option 3; which is bad, because having a good storage and transport system would mean I could be doing puzzles way more frequently! Will probably give it another try, but not that hopefull on a decent outcome after this! 😅

Any one out there had tried this stuff? Any hacks to make this system work? If you know them, or have any puzzle hacks of your own... I would love to learn them!

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