Month: September 2018

Review: World War I Posters

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment
This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.
World War I Posters
World War I Posters by Mark Karvon – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

World War I Posters was great fun; I love a good collage, and this is definitely a good one! There’s something about the look of these vintage posters, it was as much fun as I’d hoped, and it’s one I highly recommend.

White Mountain puzzles have, in my opinion, the best catalog of collages around. From candy and toys to books and games, beer and wine, and much, much more they have a collage for just about any taste. Their puzzles are grid cut, with thick pieces that have a good variety of shapes. A finished 1000 piece White Mountain puzzle is larger than average so make sure you have enough work space before you begin. I enjoy the bigger puzzles, it seems almost like a more impressive accomplishment when you’re done. Click the link above to see all their puzzles currently in stock at Puzzle Warehouse. (I like to check out the out of stock puzzles as well, if they’ve got an awesome collage or two that I like I can enter my email and be notified when they’re back in stock.)

This puzzle in particular was a lot of fun to assemble, I think partly because many of the posters are less well known. A couple of my favorites are shown below…

The daylight savings poster had me doing research – I had no idea the bill was passed to save on fuel during the war! The liberty poster is just beautiful, there’s something about her face that’s captivating. I wanted to assemble her first, and found my eye always returning to look at her as I was completing other sections of the puzzle, she always had my attention for some reason.

I very much enjoyed assembling and reading each of the posters in this collage; having so many small sections to assemble made the 1000 pieces seem less intimidating to me. And if you only have 10 or 15 minutes to sit and puzzle you can find and complete an entire poster or two and feel like you’ve made progress, I love that about collages!

From the first 2 edge pieces I clicked together, to pressing down on the final piece, I had more fun with this puzzle that I’ve had in a long time. The quality was very good, the image is perfect for puzzling, and it’s one I definitely recommend. Two lady liberties way up!🗽🗽

Details:

  • Title:                  World War I Posters
  • Artist:                Mark Karvon
  • 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:                   Average
  • Fit:                     Very good
  • Puzzle Dust:     Moderate amount
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   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.

Jungle Friends

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment
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Jungle Friends – Ravensburger – 200 pieces

Even though this puzzle had 2 missing pieces it was still fun to assemble – I had a great time with it actually. 👍

Mom has quite the knack for finding awesome puzzles like this one at the thrift stores. I’m kinda missing all those awesome finds these days, she’s in the process of moving and doesn’t have time to go thrift shopping. (Besides, if she came home with more puzzles I think my dad’s head might explode – they still haven’t finished packing all the ones we already own!)

I enjoy kids puzzles very much, I’m a “grownup” but putting together a kids puzzle makes me just as happy as any adult puzzle ever could. Sometimes it’s not the puzzle, it’s the puzzling. ☺

Country Cottage

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment
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Country Cottage by Dominic Davidson – Ravensburger -1500 pieces

Horribly photographed, but quite a fun puzzle. I long for the days when I could assemble a 1500 piece puzzle without having an anxiety attack. 😕 Great quality puzzle, and I had a great time with it. That surprised both myself and mom – at the time (2+ years ago) it wasn’t really the kind of image I enjoyed assembling.

Turns out, many times I’m completely wrong about whether or not I will enjoy a puzzle. Sometimes I see the image and think, “Oh man, that’s going to be so much fun!”. Then once I start the assembly I’m completely disappointed by it. Other times I think “Ugh, that one’s gonna suck.” and it turns out to be great fun. Seems to me I can’t trust the fickle old lady brain in my head, I should just get to assembling and let it play out.

Unfortunately the picture I took seems to be another one where I was in the process of falling over, I apologize. But I want to stand up for myself again and say that these older pictures were ones I took on my phone to text to both my mom and daughter. When any of us finish a puzzle we text a picture to each other; they’re not always the best quality. When I assembled and finished this puzzle I hadn’t yet started My Jigsaw Journal, and I had no idea that I’d end up publishing these photos. This is what it’s supposed to look like…

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It’s a beauty! The puzzle was excellent quality, the image is beautiful and calming, and it was one of our better thrift store finds. You can’t beat 99 cents for a 1500 piece Ravensburger! 🤑

In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment
Cow Parade in progress
Cow Parade in progress

So I’m working on another 1000 piece puzzle, but wasn’t feeling well enough to go sit in the puzzle room at the big board. But because it’s such a cool collage, I was able to start working on it in bed, on cookie sheets. This is what I’ve done so far on the trays. The cows are so fun, aren’t they?

This puzzle is a collection of some of the cows designed and decorated by artists all over the globe for CowParade, the world’s largest and most successful public art event. Over $20 million dollars have been raised by charitable organizations all over the world by the auctioning of the cows. Wow!

I absolutely love the look of this puzzle, each of the cows is so interesting and beautifully decorated. Some are funny, some are cute, and some are just cool. They have some awesome names, too! It isn’t shown in this picture, but one of them is named Jacques Moosteau – I bet you can’t wait to see him. 🐮

I’ve finally gotten myself out of bed if only for a little bit, and am working this on my big puzzle board. It’s going well; even though the edge was a bit of a cowtastrophe 😉 at first, and I’m having quite a good time!

Engineering

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment
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Engineering – Professor Puzzle – 150 pieces

I love the idea of these puzzles, four small piece puzzles each highlighting an area of STEM education – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. I found all four of them when mom and I went shopping together. They were all very entertaining, and even though they’re very tiny hubby and I had a lot of fun with them. 🙂

These are the first jigsaw puzzles I’ve done from this brand, although I did review a set of their brain teaser puzzles last year. I was very impressed with the quality of this puzzle! It has been my experience that it’s difficult to get good quality with such small pieces, but Professor Puzzle seems to have worked it out. The pieces are a very good thickness, and fit together well. There is no variety in piece shape, but with only 150 pieces to work with it didn’t bother me much at all. The image reproduction is good, with sharp lines and a matte finish.

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As you can see, I wasn’t kidding about the very, very small pieces. I laid them all out on a paper-lined cookie sheet and put it in the master bathroom. Hubby enjoys having something constructive to do, and he gets very involved in the puzzles when I leave them for him to work on. (He got so involved with this one he said he sat there until his leg fell asleep! 😉 )

Each puzzle comes in it’s own test tube, with a small poster that also serves as a label on one side, with an engineering quiz on the back…

We found them at Barnes & Noble, and I have to say they were great fun! Hubby enjoyed every one, and was a little bummed when we finished the last of the four. If you’re looking for a challenge, just like the look of them, or if the small pieces intrigue you – I highly recommend any of these puzzles. 👍

Stay tuned for the remaining 3 – they were all entertaining but Mathematics was my favorite; hubby preferred this one, Engineering.