Trick or Treat!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Trick or Treat! by Dean MacAdam – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

Trick or Treat! Ain’t she an adorable puzzle? This image is just so fun I absolutely had to get it for myself, and even though it’s quite a busy scene with lots of little things to see and people to assemble it was more entertaining than I’d even hoped. If you can’t tell already I absolutely adored this puzzle and can’t recommend it enough. 🧡🖤🎃🖤🧡

The quality was fantastic and I couldn’t stop running my hands over the completed sections. The hand feel is amazing and every other thing I look for in a quality puzzle was even better than anticipated. The fit was exceptional, the reproduction is bright and crisp and stunning, variety in piece shapes, thick chipboard – it was all premium quality. But what else can you expect from this brand? Ravensburger is my favorite for many reasons, and this puzzle was spectacular.

The artwork by Dean MacAdam was a joy to assemble – and I started with this lovely lady here. Those polka dots stood out; all that pink in a sea of orange and black was easy to find and put together and there’s just something about her makes me smile. Perhaps it’s the stunned look on her face.

It’s just too cute, that’s all I can say about this little skeleton puppers named Wally. Too friggin’ adorable!

Mr. Creepy here needed his picture shown, it is Halloween after all so we need just a little bit of spooky. Why is it that clowns seem so damn creepy to me? Do they seem creepy to anyone else?

I had a great time putting this puzzle together, and I hope to get to another Dean MacAdam puzzle very soon. Penny has graciously sent me a copy of Goldilocks Gets Caught!, and it looks like it’ll be a little easier than this one was but still very entertaining. His artwork makes for very fun puzzling and when you add that with a quality brand you get great puzzles like this one.

Happy Halloween everyone! Stay safe, and enjoy! 👻🦇🎃

*Anyone besides me looking forward to Halloween candy being on sale for half price tomorrow? Time to stock up!🍬🍭🍫*

Stained Glass Cat

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Stained Glass Cat – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This one I thought would be more difficult than it turned out to be, which was a blessing because I had NOT had enough coffee when I started it. Luckily though I consumed enough of it while working on this gorgeous Halloween image and we got there even more quickly than I’d hoped.

Another great quality MicroPuzzle, I have never been disappointed in their puzzles. There’s something about working with the tiny pieces for me that makes it so engrossing and entertaining that I can barely walk away from them. There is no variety in piece shape, but it’s only 150 pieces so it doesn’t seem as boring as it might with a larger piece count. Other than that the quality is quite good and they’re always fun to assemble.

Be careful out there on Devil’s Night everyone! (I know that it is mostly just a Michigan thing, but that’s where I grew up, so October 30th will always be Devil’s Night to me.😈)

Check Please!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

Check Please! – Re-marks – 500 pieces

This beauty was one I got secondhand from Penny, and I couldn’t love it more! Even the sorting of this puzzle made me happy, the piece shapes were so interesting – even the border pieces were unique and fun. I absolutely adored this assembly, and when I got down to about two trays worth of pieces, maybe 100 or so left, I had to leave for an appointment. When I got back home to my surprise there were only about 17 pieces left because my youngest son had spent a bit of time working on it! (That makes me so happy, you have NO idea!)

Great Re-marks quality, especially the piece shapes, and I loved it from the first piece to the last. Wish there was more to say, but honestly it would just be another few paragraphs of the same thing told in slightly different ways – that’s no fun to read in my opinion.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVED IT!!

Coffee Klatch In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

Coffee Klatch by Graffi*tee Studios – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

After completing a VERY disappointing holiday image what I was longing for was something bright, colorful, and entertaining; thankfully this coffee klatch puzzle was here and just waiting to be assembled. It’s a good thing I stocked up on smaller piece counts the last time I went puzzle hunting at the local discount store.

It’s odd, I was actually looking forward to the Christmas Wasgij? that I had picked out, and shockingly it’s the first time I felt let down by the brand. There was nothing wrong with the quality of the puzzle itself other than a bit of a loose fit – it’s the image that was all wrong. Most Wasgij? images (at least the ones I’ve done so far) have been fun and funny, full of bright, interesting characters and things to see; the one I assembled though was too light, with an image I found tedious and annoying to complete. I haven’t given up on the brand, Jumbo makes great puzzles, I just didn’t care for this holiday image at all and it left me craving an image that was colorful and fun. That brings me to today’s puzzle which is full of neon and colors that are anything but pastel or just too pale.

This one is only 300 pieces so it shouldn’t take too long to finish. The colors are what drew me to this puzzle and I’m hoping it’s as much fun to do as it looks.

Hope you’re having fun with whatever you’re puzzling today!

Halloween Library

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

Halloween Library by Caitlin Betsy Bell – Unknown Manufacturer – 1000 pieces

For such an adorable image, I was surprised at how much I wanted to quit working on this assembly before it was finished. But because I kept changing my mind about whether or not to keep going, it eventually got to the point where finding each piece got quicker and quicker; and by then there was no way I was going to let this cutesy little puzzle beat me!

Oddly there was no puzzle brand name anywhere on the box that I could find. If there was one, I’d be telling you to pass this brand up and that your puzzle budget is better spent elsewhere. The pieces are thin, with a plain cardboard backing that had many hanging chads. The fit was odd, loose and spongy, and even when you found the correct piece you weren’t always sure whether or not it was placed properly. The image reproduction was good, but the finish was overly shiny – and with such a dark image it was a giant pain in the butt to work with under indoor lighting. Overall, if you can’t already tell I was unhappy with the quality of this puzzle.

When I bought this puzzle I think I was taken in by the quality of the box if you can believe it. The box is sturdy and well made and feels premium – almost like a Pomegranate box. I saw a cute Halloween image, felt the gorgeous box, and stopped paying attention. I should have kept looking and reading to be sure it was worth it. I know better now, and hopefully won’t make that mistake again.

Halloween being my favorite holiday, it was a little bit upsetting to be let down by this puzzle, but in the end I got what enjoyment I could out of it, and was proud of myself for completing the entire image. Yay me!

I sorted by color, and worked the puzzle in the same way; started with purple, then green, dark orange, light orange, and white. Once that was done what was left were about 200-300 pieces that were black or this ugly greenish-gray color…

The choice to have the cats, bats, and shelves all the same color just about had me pulling out my very gray hair! In this small section you can see how difficult that color choice made the assembly. Yikes. Double yikes. It ramped up the difficulty level of the puzzle by quite a few points in my opinion. Loved the rest of the palette, but I sure did wish at the very least that the kitties had been some other color.

I very much wanted to like this puzzle because the image makes me smile and I love Halloween, but the poor quality and difficulty level had me almost giving up on it. Even with the less than stellar quality it was enjoyable in the beginning working with the brighter colors, and at the very end I was proud of myself that I kept going when it got rough.

If you see this puzzle out there in the world be warned – it’s harder than it looks, and it’s one of those fly-by-night companies that don’t even have a brand name so they didn’t seem to put much into producing a well made puzzle.