Golden Age of Disney (Section A)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Golden Age of Disney (Section A) – Trefl – 1500/13,500 pieces

This went together VERY quickly, and my son and I both thoroughly enjoyed it! This was my first Trefl puzzle (cardboard), and I’m impressed by it. This giant 13,500 piece puzzle looks as if it will be enjoyable, entertaining, and beautiful once it’s all together. Thanks again to my Enabler-in-Chief, Penny – this was an excellent choice for my 10th blogiversary puzzle!

The pieces are quite small, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It makes it easier to assembling a large piece count like this one without needing to have a special space to puzzle. The finished section measures approximately 19 x 27 in. (48 x 68 cm) which is about the average size of a 1000 piece puzzle. It also is a plus when storing the completed sections, as you need much less room; and once you’ve been working with the pieces for a few minutes you almost forget about how small they are, it just seems normal. The chipboard is thick and sturdy, and the pieces feel almost soft in your hands – it’s quite nice to work with. The fit is excellent, and overall I’m quite happy with the quality.

I started with the largest and brightest section, and then started filling in the twinklies around what was done – that seemed easier than trying to do them first or separately on their own. Even though it’s been 10 years I still remember the twinklies from the Memorable Disney Moments puzzle, and these are much nicer to work with in my opinion. The background isn’t all one color, and there doesn’t seem to be as much of it – at least for this section. Still, the twinklies in this puzzle don’t seem to be as daunting somehow. And honestly I’m absolutely loving working with smaller sections that can be done in just a few days.

Heart hands and Mickey’s signature in the twinklies, very cute!

This was the last section to be assembled. It’s just so quaint and sweet and it reminds me of my childhood watching Disney cartoons on tv with the whole family. Now a family watching tv together would be what was “quaint and sweet” regardless of the program being watched, it just doesn’t seem to happen much anymore. Oh dear, my age is showing. 👵

Trefl’s new puzzle sets are all designed to work together, so I could potentially complete this puzzle and the other 9000 piece Disney puzzle of theirs that I have and they would all fit together. There are two other Disney puzzles they have made that are 6000 pieces each and of course they are adorable as well. If I had all four puzzles they would total 34,500 pieces in 23 sections that could be put together however I wanted. I don’t know that it’s something I want to do at the moment, but the potential is always there.

I’m having a great time so far, and I’m so glad Penny gave me the suggestion to do another big Disney puzzle, thank you my friend!

What’s In Progress?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

What’s in progress at your house? As I’m typing this up there’s nothing on the board, but I’ve sorted my next puzzle; it’s a secondhand puzzle from Penny that I already know is missing a piece. As I like to say, my job is to put together all the pieces until there are none left – even if that’s only 999 pieces instead of 1000. There is still plenty of fun to be had in building a puzzle even if there is one piece or more missing.

Penny put this one together and sadly found that a piece had gone awol. I still asked for it because a) it’s a brand I’ve never tried before, b) not everything needs to be perfect in order to be fun, and c) it’s gorgeous!

I’m so looking forward to working on it later. 😍

Fireworks

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Fireworks by Robert Swedroe – Rose Art – 500 pieces

Funnily enough I fully expected this puzzle to take a couple of days, in fact I was counting on it; but as is usual when I find a puzzle enjoyable it went together much more quickly because I couldn’t keep myself away from it. It’s too much fun and I am physically drawn to it because I need joy in my life. 🥰

This was supposed to be the last puzzle before I started the 13,500 piece Golden Age of Disney puzzle to commemorate my blogiversary; I figured it would be a bit of a challenge, would most likely take a couple of days, and it would be done the day before the anniversary of the blog – perfect timing, right? Wrong! Even though it was chosen to give me the perfect amount of down time before the big puzzle began I just couldn’t keep myself away from it. No self control at all! That’s alright, I’ll spend that extra day going over everything and re-checking blog posts. There’s always something puzzle-related for me to do, and if I start getting that itch there’s always a mini puzzle available. 🧪

The quality of this Rose Art puzzle was better than expected, and even though the fit seemed a little “soft” for lack of a better word it still stood up in the Stacey Stance…

Honestly this one surprised me, I didn’t think it would stand up at all. I had to be careful how it was picked up, but once it was safely off the board it wasn’t a problem. These pictures still make me happy after all these years.

These are just two little bits of the overall image, but for some reason I found myself drawn to them. I’m not sure how the artist creates his collages, but however it was done it’s gorgeous. The yellow one on the right looks almost like it could be a bottle cap, doesn’t it?

This was my first puzzle with artwork by Robert Swedroe, and boy would I love to get my hands on some more. This kind of image makes me so happy; it isn’t the usual puppies and kitties or landscapes – the bright, bold colors are just my speed. I’m definitely on the lookout for more of this artist’s work. Stunning!

*He’s got some amazingly difficult-looking images available from Schmidt puzzles, but they look like lots of fun too!*

Interior

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Interior by William Ireland – Liberty Puzzles – 527 pieces

This puzzle was so much fun! Usually painterly images like this aren’t my pile of pieces, and perhaps with a cardboard puzzle this wouldn’t have been as entertaining, but put that artwork on top of a Liberty Puzzle and I am all over it!

It’s my first time with artwork by William Ireland, and there’s something about his art that draws me in. There must be something about it, because normally I would never choose something like this for puzzling. I’m not sure if it’s his use of color or perhaps the symmetry – something made me stop when I saw this, and kept me thinking about it long enough to decide to order it.

The whimsies were gorgeous, of course they were. They always are, and as usual I didn’t find all of them when the pieces were laid out on trays.

There were several multipiece whimsies, the grandfather clock and birdcage for example, that I was able to find and assemble, but also several of them I wasn’t able to get them all on my first look through all the pieces. Opening up a Liberty Puzzle for the first time and finding all the wonderful shapes and whimsies is almost a magical experience for me. Mom and I used to spend so much time on that first look-through, it’s special; we never took it for granted and I try not to get jaded and remember how much fun there is in just looking at the pieces and seeing what the designers came up with.

There’s so much to see from the back, and thankfully I got an excellent image of it. Even now, just as I am writing this up I found something that I hadn’t noticed before – what looks like a fishbowl has smoke coming out of it leading up to the beautiful fish shape. How did I miss that before?

This really was an enjoyable assembly, and I consciously tried to make it last as long as I could. I forgot though that my son has gotten more and more interested in puzzling, and goes into the puzzle room when I’m not there to work on them. When I got up this morning the puzzle was almost entirely finished, even though last night there was almost a whole tray of pieces left to put in. Oh dear. He’s getting better at it and doing much more than he used to – it makes me so happy!

The Junk Journaler’s Desk In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

The Junk Journaler’s Desk by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

There’s just something about an Aimee Stewart image that makes me unbelievably happy. It isn’t just the colors, it’s how they work together, and how so many seemingly disparate things come together to form such a cohesive and pleasing image. Not only is it pleasing to the eye, they’re almost always extremely fun to assemble.

When I was working on this yesterday I was thinking to myself how you couldn’t really tell what’s what on most of the pieces; and then after going through them only once to pull out some pieces I began to recognize colors and textures and have more of an idea where they might go and which pieces would fit together with them. Every time I went through them I got more and more familiar with them and where they belonged.

It’s one of those images where you could use the poster or box image, but I also find it entertaining to just let the pieces take me where they may and eventually it all fits together.

I’m having such a good time that I overdid the puzzling yesterday and am already feeling it this morning. Here’s hoping my pain meds and a few cups of coffee get me back to the board and this gorgeous puzzle quickly!