Review: Playing Cards

On March 21, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

Playing Cards by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

Playing Cards was a challenging collage that took a little more time than normal, but was really fun! The finished image is very pretty and would look great framed in a game room. I chose this puzzle to review, it just struck me when I saw it and looked like so much fun – and it was. 🃏

White Mountain puzzles are very good quality that can sometimes be hit or miss, but I had no issues with the quality of this puzzle except for the box image. There are 3 different places on the box image that were covered up, I really can’t stand that! If there’s one slightly covered up section it’s not so bad, but 3? Why?

In one corner was the “made in the USA” logo covering almost half of one card, the bottom center had the words “1000 piece puzzle” covering the bottom third of several cards. The top left corner had a sticker with White Mountain’s “happiness guarantee” that covered almost the entire corner card. I can’t speak for all puzzlers, but if the entire image were an inch smaller all the way around there would be plenty of room for all the extras and we could still see the entire image. Having the picture blocked in several places was extremely frustrating, especially for such a fun collage.

In my opinion, White Mountain has the best catalog of collages around; they are colorful and interesting, with subjects ranging from neon signs to fine wines and everything in between. (Collages are my favorite!) They also have fine art, historical, landscapes, educational maps, and much more. The quality is very good with thick pieces that fit together well, and good image reproduction. Click the link above to see all their beautiful puzzles currently available at Puzzle Warehouse.

There was a LOT of red in this image, which made it a bit of a challenge, but once I worked the other colors I had enough to work off of. There were so many interesting old cards to see and assemble, and lots of fun newer ones too. I love a collage – thank goodness there are so many great ones to choose from. 😎 This puzzle is definitely recommended.

Details:

Title: Playing Cards
Artist: Charlie Girard
Brand: White Mountain
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 24 x 30 in. (61 x 76 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Fair, image blocked in several places
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

Paw Patrol (1)

On March 20, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Mom found this box of 3 Paw Patrol puzzles, 49 pieces each at the thrift store. She cannot pass up a Ravensburger at the thrift store, I think it may be physically impossible for her. Since they’re going to be donated to the school my daughter works for we always assemble them to be sure no pieces are missing; all 3 puzzles were complete. 🙂

Ravensburger puzzles are premium quality and their kids puzzles are no exception. The pieces are thick and sturdy, fit together wonderfully, and the image reproduction is crisp and clean with bright, fun colors. With this box of 3 separate puzzles you also get posters of each of the images to help with assembly since the box top images are small. Also, the backing of each puzzle is different so that you can separate them easily; one is the traditional blue chipboard of a Ravensburger, and the other two have symbols added to each (triangles, circles).

The puzzles themselves are basic and easy to assemble, but it doesn’t matter to me – I love assembling puzzles no matter the size. I do have to confess that I’m always happy to put together a bunch of kids puzzles not only for the enjoyment; I can assemble a BUNCH of them in a day, so they’re helpful in making sure that I’ve always got a good backlog of puzzle posts for the blog. 😇

These puzzles are cute, fun to put together, and excellent quality. If you’ve got a little one in your life who loves Paw Patrol I highly recommend these puzzles. Two little old ladies had fun putting them together!

Loose Change

On March 19, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

This was one of the more challenging puzzles mom and I have done lately. It’s also the first 550 piece White Mountain that I’ve assembled. Looking at it now, I’m completely surprised at myself for suggesting that we do it – it was really difficult!

Luckily the border was relatively easy to assemble, although it took about an hour to assemble it wasn’t that bad. If it hadn’t been for the border we probably wouldn’t have kept going; but we’d already invested some time and didn’t want to lose all that work.

The majority of the coins were pennies, but there were some gold and silver coins mixed in there that helped get things going. First we separated out the bright gold coins, put them together and placed them approximately where they belonged; we did the same with the silver coins. Then we had many places to work off of, it made it a little less daunting with all those pennies!

The quality was really good, sometimes White Mountain quality can be hit or miss but this puzzle was very good. All pieces were separated, with no fuzziness or hanging bits of paper. The pieces were thick and fit together well, although there were a few pieces with some image lift. Overall it was very good quality. I’m looking forward to finding another 550 piece White Mountain puzzle to compare the quality.

I’m proud of us for sticking with it and getting it done, but it’s definitely not an image I would pick for myself. It sure was fun putting in those last few pieces though!

Gentlemen

On March 18, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is the companion to yesterday’s puzzle, Ladies. I don’t know exactly what it is about these images that draws me in, but whatever it is they were both excellent quality puzzles that were great fun. I’m so glad I was able to get these before they were discontinued because they didn’t disappoint and are more beautiful than I expected.

Once I finished Ladies I couldn’t wait to get going on this one! The image is relatively easy one to assemble, but not so easy that it’s boring. I loved the embossed accents on some of the items, but am pretty bummed that I wasn’t able to capture the accents in a photo.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of these puzzles, the pieces were thick and fit together very well. I’d love to get the rest of the Home Collection, these were such great quality and so much fun and the images are beautiful! Both of these puzzles are already glued and waiting for me to find a some gorgeous matching frames.

I loved this puzzle❣

Ladies

On March 17, 2018March 17, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I absolutely adore this image, and I bought it specifically to glue and frame. The first time I saw it I thought that it, along with it’s companion Gentlemen, would be perfect framed and hanging in the master bath. As an added bonus, it was excellent quality and wonderfully fun to assemble!

I usually have a LOT of puzzles hanging out on my wishlist at several stores so I can look at the list, go back and look at the puzzles, and keep an eye out for price reductions, etc. I’ve had both Ladies and Gentlemen on my list for quite a while and when I went over the list one day I found that they had both been discontinued – oh no! Even though I wasn’t really planning on placing an order that day I knew I didn’t want to let these get away from me. I’m so glad I got them!

This was the first Clementoni I’ve gotten new. I’ve assembled one other, but it was a thrift store purchase; I was excited to see what the quality was right out of the box and I wasn’t disappointed. The pieces were thick, had a variety of shapes, fit together very well, and the image reproduction is fantastic! These puzzles are part of the Home Collection, and have an added feature of enhanced images with glossy detail that really make them stand out. Unfortunately it isn’t something I was able to capture in the picture, but it’s beautiful and gives the puzzle a little added pizzazz.

This puzzle was so much fun to assemble that I couldn’t walk away from it, and once it was done I couldn’t wait to get going on it’s companion. It’s too bad that they’ve been discontinued because I’d love to get the rest of the collection. If you come across one of them I highly recommend you give it a try, I absolutely loved it!