Colorful Crayola

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Colorful Crayola – Buffalo – 300 pieces

I know, this one’s a little trippy to look at. Sorry. But it was lots of fun to put together, and it makes for an impressive finished image, doesn’t it?

There is absolutely no clue where I got this puzzle from, but it was a new, never been opened Buffalo. Right out of the box I could tell there was a quality issue with this beauty – some of it’s makeup was scraped off!

It was only on a few pieces, but some of the image seems to have been abraded off somehow. Honestly, I know how most problems with quality happen, but I’m a little bit at a loss for this one. I’ve seen how sometimes the color can come off while you’re applying glue, or how the image comes up because it isn’t applied to the chipboard correctly – this is different. It looks to have been scraped across the top of the puzzle, which doesn’t make much sense to me. Plus, if you scroll back up to look at the complete puzzle you can see that these are from all over on the puzzle, not just in one spot. Anyone out there have any suggestions as to how this happens to only a few pieces?

Anyway, even with this one problem the rest of the puzzle was the typical excellent Buffalo quality, and in particular the fit was exceptional. I don’t usually do the same brand one after another, but this was a much nicer fit than my previous puzzle (Aimee Stewart’s Carnival Costumes).

Yup! You guessed it – The Stacey Stance! This is the first puzzle I’ve been able to do this with since my fellow puzzle blogger Penny named this silly picture pose after me. I was VERY excited to be able to do this one, now that it bears my name and all. 😎

As an added bonus, my youngest, who seems to be more interested in helping out with puzzles lately came in to help me finish up this puzzle this morning. He left the last piece for me, but I think next time I may let him get that honor.

We both loved the look of this gorgeous, and very different puzzle image.

Carnival Costumes

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Carnival Costumes by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

This gorgeous thing was on my board for almost four days, but it didn’t matter how long it took because it was so much fun from start to finish!

It was the typical Buffalo quality, very good. Thank goodness my favorite puzzle artist has chosen to work with companies that actually give a crap about the quality of their products, I don’t think I could bear it if her work was only found on Ceaco puzzles, or something even worse. Luckily though, she works with Buffalo in the US, Schmidt and Ravensburger internationally, and probably more. In fact, I’ve got a package on the way to my house from the UK (as I’m writing this, by the time you read this the package will have arrived) with three Aimee Stewart puzzles from Schmidt that I wasn’t able to find in the US from Buffalo.

Usually Aimee Stewart images are chock full of little things you don’t really notice until you’re putting the puzzle together, but this image is very different. It’s costumes, and only costumes – what you see is what you get. They all look so glamorous from far away, but actually when you look at them close up some of them are kind of ugly! Each different outfit was fun to assemble, and the way the colors work together is absolutely stunning.

I loved this image the first time I saw it, and I still love it now. Fantastic puzzle with a fantastic image that made for a quite a few days of fantastic puzzling. 💖

Fantasy In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Fantasy – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

As you can see I’ve finally gotten started on the 1000 piece puzzle that I sorted last week, but unfortunately yesterday didn’t go as planned, and I didn’t get very far. Today will be better, I’m sure of it.

Hope your current puzzle is going well, happy puzzling my friends!

Liberty Leading the People

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Liberty Leading the People by Eug̩ne Delacroix РProfessor Puzzle Р50 pieces

While my daughter and I were loitering around the bookstore she found this little 50 piece puzzle in a tiny little box, how could I not give it a try for only $3.99? It’s another of those fine art puzzles where the only way I would ever assemble it is in a mini puzzle; I can’t imagine how difficult this very dark and indistinct image would be to assemble in a larger piece count like 500 or 1000 pieces.

I know I’ve seen the image before, but honestly I didn’t know the name of the image or the artist. I wish I’d looked around where my daughter found this little guy to see if they were any more fine art images to choose from. There’s a blurb on the back of the box that tells about the artwork. A key figure in French Romanticism, Eugéne Delacroix painted Liberty Leading the People to commemorate the July Revolution of 1830, which dethroned King Charles X. The painting suggests that the people of all classes came together to rally against royalist oppression and fight for a better society.

It’s a great quality puzzle for one so small, and I love that it isn’t all ballerina pieces like many mini puzzles. The main shapes are these…

Other than the edge pieces these are the only shapes there are to work with. I found it interesting, and even though these were the only shapes it wasn’t boring to put this puzzle together. They were a good thickness, very sturdy, and fit together well. Although the backing was the sharp, white paper that I don’t care for, with only 50 pieces it wasn’t too bad to work with. The image reproduction is lovely, as far as I can tell with such a dark image. Overall I was impressed with the quality of this little puzzle, and would love to find all the rest of the mini fine art puzzles in this series.

Momma always told me when a puzzle is very big or very small that you have to give perspective, to place something next to the puzzle to let you really appreciate the size. It’s a small puzzle, that comes in a very small box. Isn’t it a cute little thing?

The Golden Trio

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

The Golden Trio – Wentworth – 225 pieces

This was an excellent assembly that made me very happy indeed. I wish they included the name of the artist on this one, but I couldn’t find it anywhere, the artwork is so beautiful – it made for an interesting and enjoyable build.

Wentworth puzzles are excellent quality, and I’ve never had an issue with them at all. The pieces always come in a cloth bag, but this wasn’t the usual burgundy cloth bag that their puzzles come in…

This of course is the crest for Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with the official school motto – Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus, which I’m sure everyone knows is Latin for “Never tickle a sleeping dragon”. I love that all the Harry Potter puzzles have this bag to keep all the pieces safe and sound.

Plenty of great whimsies in this puzzle; Harry, Ron, and Hermione of course, along with Crookshanks, Hedwig, Scabbers, and Fawkes. A golden snitch, a time-turner, and a potion too, along with some beautiful flowers. They really went above and beyond for these whimsy pieces. I can’t wait to see if the other puzzles have different figures, and if so, what will they be?

I took my time with this puzzle and let it come together naturally over a few days. There was no sorting at all on this one, as the irregularly shaped edge would have made it next to impossible to start with the border. I turned all the pieces over and just started assembling, sometimes the chaos of pieces all over the board is just what I need. Most of the time I enjoy order and sorting helps with that, but every once in a while I just dump out the pieces and get going – that can be a fun change of pace for me.

I absolutely adored this puzzle with it’s beautiful artwork, the intricately cut whimsies, and the challenging cut of the pieces. It was a wonderful assembly and I’m certain I’ll be doing it again.