Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Great Old Ads

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Great Old Ads by Lois B. Sutton – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

I had such a good time with this puzzle! I chose it because even though it is a collage, it doesn’t immediately look like it’ll be an easy one – this image has more intricate sections and some softer colors and is a little bit of a challenge – but completely worth it.

This was a very good quality White Mountain, and if I was very careful I could have gotten a picture of it standing up. The most surprising to me was the image reproduction; when there is an image with older products, ads, etc. the reproduction can many times be fuzzy and difficult to work with. The reproduction on this puzzle, however, was excellent! There were one or two sections where it seemed much less crisp than others, but that was the artwork on the ad itself rather that the reproduction. On the ads with lots of small printed text you can read every word! (If your eyes are good enough that is).

Um, do you remember hamburgers in a can?? I certainly don’t! Of course my mom made as much from scratch as she could, for no other reason than it was less expensive to make things yourself. She would take ground beef, add a package of onion soup mix, cut up green peppers and mix it all up. She made them into patties with a hamburger press she got from Tupperware or something and those were our burgers. Even though I was NOT a fan of the peppers in my burger, it seems 100 times more palatable than one out of a can!

(Thankfully mom always used green peppers, so the color was easy to spot in my burger and I picked out as many of those little buggers as I could find! Yes, I was and am THAT picky.😋)

I like this section for some reason I can’t really articulate, other than it makes me think of my childhood. We didn’t drink Borden milk, or really use any of their products that I can remember; but it still makes me smile to see this.

How adorable is this? I love the matching aprons on mom and daughter, the little candle holders on the cake that also remind me of my childhood, and the dish itself on top of the image. I have several of my mother’s Pyrex dishes and I think of her every single time they get used.

Even though this was a more challenging image than many of White Mountain’s collages, it was so entertaining that it went together in less than 24 hours. When I know there’s a fun puzzle on the board I can’t help myself and keep sneaking back to it to put in just a few more pieces…

just one more section…

just empty this one tray…

just….

Check Please! In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Check Please! – Re-marks – 500 pieces

Things have been slow going for me lately, but I’ve got a good start on this one and it shouldn’t be long now. I love all the bright colors and big (but not too big) words to assemble. It’s a great image and it’s been so much fun so far.

Re-marks puzzles have always been in my favorites because they, like White Mountain, have so many fantastic collage images to choose from. And like WM there have been at times quality issues that I just have to deal with if I wanted to play with their puzzles. Thankfully, though, that hasn’t been the case recently. The Re-marks puzzles I’ve done since I came back earlier this year have been excellent, and other than a sometimes loose fit I have had no quality problems at all. Their cuts are random and fun for me to work, and this puzzle specifically has imaginative cuts that I’ve really enjoyed. I’m looking forward to finishing this puzzle, it’s been great so far.

Hope whatever puzzle you’re working on is as fun as this one is!

How to Live with an Idiot

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

How to Live with an Idiot by Lucia Heffernan – Buffalo – 300 pieces

Adorable image that was more fun to assemble than I’d anticipated, don’t you just love it when that happens? I do! You can always count on a 300 piece Buffalo (at least I think so) to be good quality and fun to put together.

I just love all these descriptors! Although I highly doubt that intense looking kitty would think of any dog as a frenemy, a cat with a look like that on it’s face thinks all dogs are the enemy – at least in my mind.

There was no desire to puzzle at all when I started this one, but as I went along it became more and more entertaining and I was happy to keep working on it even when I should have gone and taken a break. Loved this one!

Sewing Alphabet

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Sewing Alphabet by Krista Hamrick – Puzzle Twist (Something’s Amiss!) – 500 pieces

I know, I know – another mystery puzzle where the image of the whole finished puzzle isn’t shown. Why do I do this to us? Well, for me mystery puzzles are lots of fun, and this blog is about the puzzles I do, so if you’re not a fan, my apologies. But then again, I don’t apologize for loving these types of puzzles because they make me happy.

I’ve done only two of this brand before now, and I enjoy them very much. The quality is quite good all around, and their different categories of mystery means there’s plenty in the catalog to choose from: Something’s Amiss!, What’s Up?, Mixed up!, 4More!, Reveal the Color!, and Here or There?. This puzzle was Something’s Amiss!, where the image on the box is more than a bit different that the one you puzzle. On this particular image there were 30 differences between the box image and the puzzle for you to find.

It really isn’t much different than putting away the box and just using the pieces to assemble the puzzle, and that’s something I do frequently so I don’t find it that difficult. For some I know that they use the box image or poster often when they puzzle so it might be a bit more of a challenge. But don’t let that stop you from trying out one of these great puzzles, you can do it!

Have You Heard of Puzzle Chess?…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous11 Comments

A couple of months ago I learned about puzzle chess when I was doing some online window shopping for puzzles; I saw that Cobble Hill has a line of 100 piece jigsaw puzzles specifically designed to be perfect for the game of puzzle chess. Being intrigued, and loving to read and see and know as much about my beloved jigsaw puzzles as I can, of course I had to check it out.

I learned it’s a very simple game, the rules are few and easy to learn and anyone can have a game up and running in no time at all. So of course I wanted to play it, because it sounded to me like lots of fun – and I finally got the chance to play it last Friday with my bestest puzzle pal Penny when we met together for the first time. Wanna know something? I had a really good time and loved playing it with her, so I’m excited to tell all my tens of readers about it!

How long has puzzle chess been around? I have no idea. Like I said I only heard about it for the first time a few months ago. If you’re someone who participates in competitions you’ve probably seen it played, or at least know about it as there are competitions for it right alongside the regular puzzle competitions. The USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association has it’s rules and game play instructions on it’s website, so anyone can learn and play. Interested?

Want to learn puzzle chess? Here’s what you’ll need – a jigsaw puzzle, 200 pieces or less works best, a chess timer (or a chess timer app on your phone), and paper or something to cover up the pieces. Penny and I didn’t cover the pieces, but I’m telling you that’s part of the rules according to the JPA. Apparently the game can be one on one, or two versus two. Whatever you like.

To get ready turn all the pieces face up, separate the border pieces and cover the rest. Assemble the border together. Now you’re ready to begin. Place the chess clock where all players can reach it and set it for 30 minutes for each player or team. Whoever has the most time remaining when the puzzle is finished wins; or if your timer runs out before your opponent, you lose.

The rules (according to the JPA) are as follows:

  • Uncover the pieces, the first person to find a piece that connects to the border places it and hits their timer to start the clock
  • Players alternate placing pieces, all pieces must connect to an already placed piece or the border
  • You may only touch one loose piece at a time
  • Once a piece has been placed, stop your timer which starts your opponent’s timer
  • You may touch or try as many pieces as you want on your turn

So that’s it basically, five rules, a puzzle and a timer are all you need to play. Does it sound like fun? I thought so, so when Penny and I were making plans to meet for the first time ever I told her I’d love to try it with her. She agreed, and then I found an adorable 100 piece Halloween themed puzzle that was perfect for it.

Here we are, playing Puzzle Chess for the first time. It didn’t matter who won, we had a good time playing and that’s what was important to us. Neither of us are built for speed puzzling, that’s for sure. Being under the gun or the timer – it’s too much stress! Just a little bit of fun and a different way to puzzle, and happily we both enjoyed ourselves.

So that’s the game of Puzzle Chess. I think it would be a great game to play with anyone – a child, a senior, your partner, anyone who enjoys jigsaw puzzles basically. I’m definitely going to try and get hubby and my son interested, I think they’d enjoy it too. I’d better watch out though, they’re both WAAAAYYY more competitive than I am.

Still, it should be fun, and having fun spending time with my loved ones is what it’s all about. 💖