About Us

Happiness is over 35 years of making puzzles for you!

Welcome to KidPuzzles.com! We are Marvin and Margaret. We live in Corvallis, Oregon and we personally design and make every wooden puzzle on our site! Yeah...We know it's hard to believe, but it's true! We love our life. Sometimes it can be hard working for yourself, but there are a lot of things we like about it, too. We love where we live. We feel lucky to have our wonderful families and terrific friends. We like to ride our bikes and go for walks along the river. We cross-country ski in the winter and make frequent trips to the ocean year round. We sell our kid's puzzles primarily at Art Fairs throughout the Western United States, so traveling is a big part of our yearly experience too!

We started as a young family making toys and puzzles for our own children in the early-mid 1980s. One thing led to another and our hobby grew into what we do for a living! Now our kids are grown, but we still love working with children and people, like you, who support them.

We love getting to know our customers! They come from all walks of life, but all have one thing in common: an unwavering dedication to children in their lives. They know that the "puzzle-making stage" is a unique time in their child's life and take advantage of it with a passion. We love how connected our customers seem to be with their children!

We try as much as we can to give back to organizations who helped us out when we were a young growing family. Over the years, we have been able to donate 677 puzzles valued at over $17,400 to a local organization providing necessities (puzzles included!) for low-income families in our area. We were happy to do this because we used their services when we were a young family in need of help! Their Name is "Vina Moses". We think they are a wonderful organization. If you would like to read an article about what they do every year at the Holiday time, here is a link to an article written on December 20, 2012.

Because of your support, we have been able to extend our donations to many other organizations that are doing remarkable things for those less fortunate than ourselves. Some of these can be found in our Services section of our links page. Please check them out...Maybe you might find one that inspires your support!

We hope that everyone who experiences our selection derives some of the same joys that we do in making and sharing our handmade wooden puzzles! We are proud of our emphasis on design, safety and quality in the puzzle-making process. We would like to continue this emphasis while exploring new forms of expressing our inspirations through the art of puzzle making!

Happy Puzzling!

Marvin and Margaret

OUR PUZZLES ARE CPSIA COMPLIANT AND SAFE FOR KIDS!

We are proud to say that our products have been fully tested and we are CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) compliant. All of our puzzle materials are certified safe with respect to content of lead and toxic materials.

All of our water-based finishes are esentially VOC (volatile organic compounds) free. They are earth and user friendly. They are non-toxic to our customers (children) as well as ourselves in the application process!

We cut our puzzles from a maple-faced laminate with a recycled (wood by-product) core. It is laid up with a Soy Glue binder. This is less toxic to the user (and the environment) than other more toxic glues.

OUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

We have strived to maintain a small ecological footprint since we started cutting our puzzles on a peddle-power scroll saw in the mid 1980's. Here's our progress:

• We cut our puzzles from a maple-faced laminate with a recycled (wood by-product) core. It is laid up with a (user and environmentally friendly) Soy Glue binder.

• Backing boards for our puzzles are also made (using an eco-friendly Dry Press Process) from recycled wood byproducts.

• All of our water-based finishes are earth and user friendly. They are non-toxic to our customers (children) as well as to ourselves in the application process!

• Our puzzles are made to last. Many people tell us that they have kept or passed on puzzles we've made. This means they stay out of landfills, and in the hands of generations of deserving children.

• We use low-draw LED lights in our shop, do a lot of our puzzle-making process by hand, and have converted our power tools to low draw. We strive to minimize our demand on the power grid in making your puzzles.

• We generate close to 97% of our total electrical consumption with solar panels on the roof of our house and shop.

• The remainder of our shop power comes from an investment we made in wind-powered electrical sources.

• We get as close to 100% usage of our raw materials for our puzzles as we can. We donate wood scraps for children to use in their art projects.

• For shipping, we use predominately in re-usable (and at worst-recyclable) packaging. Although we rarely use packing materials (if we do use them), we only use re-used materials.
  

• We donate puzzles to an organization dedicated to fulfilling the needs of people less fortunate than ourselves.

 

PS: Want to get to know a little bit more about us and our puzzles? Here's a link to an article written about us in our local Corvallis Gazette Times newspaper in December of 2010.

Please note and be aware; There are pictures of us in the article. In case you want to keep your fantasy of what we look like, you may choose to ignore!