Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Winter City

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Winter City by Karla Gerard – PuzzleTwist – 500 pieces

Like a Wasgij or What If? puzzle, the puzzle inside the box doesn’t match the image you see on the outside – so I do not show any spoilers. Sorry, you don’t get to see the finished puzzle. In this puzzle there are 32 differences between the box image and the puzzle, sometimes small things and sometimes very big things.

I don’t find these too difficult, it’s just like assembling a puzzle when you put the box away and don’t use it for help. They’re still great fun though.

PuzzleTwist has a bunch of different categories of puzzles; in this one, Something’s Amiss, things are different on the actual puzzle than what you see on the box image. The first puzzle of theirs I did was called Reveal the Color; the image on the box was black and white, and the puzzle was not only in color, but the color revealed a hidden image as well. Very cool!

I had a good time with this one, my only problem was the amount of puzzle dust. I received this puzzle secondhand from my pal Penny, so it had already been sorted and assembled once. There was still quite a bit of dust. Otherwise it was an excellent puzzle that was hard to walk away from. The fit was very good, the image reproduction was beautiful and there was wonderful variety in piece shape.

PuzzleTwist has created a character called “Maynard”, he’s hidden in many puzzles. He’s very small, about the size of the knob end of a puzzle piece, and he’s not always easy to locate. If you can’t find him though, there are hints on the PuzzleTwist website for each puzzle; and if you still can’t find him, there is a picture revealing where he’s hidden. This is Maynard….

He’s very cute, don’t you think? While looking up this puzzle on the PuzzleTwist website I read about Maynard, and there was a link to the page where you could find hints to help you find him. I’d never heard about this before, and so I went to the hint page. I only read the first hint and found him in my puzzle pretty quickly. To be honest, it makes me want to get some more of their puzzles just to find if he’s hidden in them!

I think Maynard is adorable, and love that he’s hidden in their puzzles. I couldn’t find much info about him on their site, only hints for where he’s hiding in certain puzzles. I wish there was a page with a little information about how it began and which kinds of puzzles he’s hiding in, etc. I’d like to know more!

Wanna hear a weird coincidence? My nickname among friends in high school was Maynard. There was a commercial back in the 80s for Malt-o-Meal (hot breakfast cereal similar to Cream of Wheat) and the tagline was “Good stuff Maynard!” which I was constantly quoting because I found it funny. My friends started calling me that, it was our little inside joke. When the whole senior class got personalized shirts – the name on the back of mine was Maynard. 😎

Christmas Cookies

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Christmas Cookies by Allied Products – Majestic Puzzles (Springbok) – 500 pieces

Another puzzle sent by a puzzling friend, you can never have too many of those! I always appreciate it when someone thinks I’ll enjoy a puzzle and sends it along, it’s just so thoughtful and I love that. 💙 Christmas puzzles aren’t my favorite, as you all know, because they all seem so alike and the images are just not my pile of pieces. When there’s a different one though, it usually finds it’s way to me – just like this one has.

This puzzle had great quality, the pieces feel like a Springbok but without the super tight fit. That would probably be because they’re part of the Springbok line (which I did not know until writing up this post). Looking at the pieces it seemed as though it might be a difficult assembly, but it turned out it was more fun than I thought it would be. It was a great puzzle that went together quickly.

I started with the yellow, blue, and the sugary red mitten; then filled in all the green. I don’t usually have in process pictures, but for some reason I felt like documenting part of the assembly for this one.

This puzzle was so much fun to put together, and is a beautiful finished image – I love cookie puzzles!

The Seven Chakras – Day 7

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

The Seven Chakras by Phil Lewis – Liberty Puzzles – approx. 94/661 pieces

This is the 7th chakra, Sahasrara, and it is the crown chakra. It was the second of these puzzles that I assembled – because of that fantastic color, it jumped right out at me. Absolutely gorgeous!

Today’s word is dazzling, this image is truly dazzling – the colors are perfection. Phil Lewis is an artist from Boulder, Colorado, where Liberty Puzzles is located. What a fantastic marriage of artist and puzzle maker! Another of his images is one of my favorite puzzles, Sugar Magnolia. (One of these days I should make a list of my top 10 or 20 puzzles ever assembled, that would be an interesting exercise, wouldn’t it?)

Dazzling! I love the images with deeper colors, because it’s more difficult to see the piece shapes in the finished puzzle unless you flip it over. I find that I prefer darker images in wooden puzzles because it’s harder to see the piece shapes, then it seems more like artwork than a puzzle – at least from the front. But even when the pieces are very evident, it’s the enjoyment of the assembly that matters most to me. And these seven little puzzles have given me so much joy!

For all of these puzzles the piece shapes are almost invisible, so I wanted you to see the amazing shapes and cutting by flipping them over. It’s always so interesting to see intricately cut wooden puzzles from the back don’t you think?

We have the final three yoga poses, what looks like the sun, and our chakra symbol inside. The lotus was the easiest multipiece whimsy for me to assemble, good thing it’s one of the first ones I did. I’m not sure I would have gotten that lion put together if it had been first – it was much more difficult! (And we all know what happened with the eagle 😳)

I had the best time putting all of these puzzles together, and am so thankful for my sweet, sweet husband who gave me this beautiful gift.

You may come off like a tough guy to rest of the world, but you’re the most thoughtful and kind man I know, and you would do anything to make me happy. I love you to puzzle pieces! 💖🧩

The Seven Chakras – Day 6

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

The Seven Chakras by Phil Lewis – Liberty Puzzles – approx. 94/661 pieces

I mean, what is there left to say? Today’s word from the thesaurus is striking; this is a striking image, and the puzzle that goes along with it is complex and amazing.

This is the 6th chakra, Ajna, and it is the third eye chakra.

These puzzles are wonderful to work with – compelling even – and the quality is amazing. They’re more expensive than some, but in my mind they’re worth every penny. I know they’re not for everyone, and they’re not in everyone’s budget. But I don’t feel bad about asking for this for my birthday, it makes me happy. Once a year on my birthday or for Christmas isn’t too much to ask for a little bit of joy. 😊

I must confess that although it looks like there are pieces that will make an eagle, I wasn’t able to figure it out. I got the bottom half of it assembled, but couldn’t get the entire thing constructed. There is definitely an eagle there somehow, I just couldn’t figure out the whole thing. I’m blaming pain and exhaustion and my doped up brain; being on painkillers 24/7 seems to have whittled away at my intelligence.

To be honest I felt a little defeated by it. It was a bad day. But I’m not giving up!

I may pull out this puzzle (I’ve stored each one separately wrapped up in tissue paper) and give it a go on a day where I’m feeling like all cylinders are firing. If I figure it out I’ll post it, I promise. And if after several tries it still isn’t coming together – I can always email Liberty to see if they can give me some help. 🦅

Even without a multipiece eagle there were still plenty of whimsies to pull and show. I really do love these puzzles. 💟

*EDIT*

After corresponding with Liberty Puzzles, there are two updates to this puzzle and the story of the whimsy I couldn’t assemble…

Update #1

Update #2

The Seven Chakras – Day 5

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

The Seven Chakras by Phil Lewis – Liberty Puzzles – approx. 94/661 pieces

This is the fifth chakra, Vishudda, the throat chakra. Isn’t it beautiful? I absolutely adore the look of this one, it’s …. breathtaking. In my opinion Phil Lewis creates unbelievably magnificent art. 🦁

I need to find different adjectives to describe these puzzles; when I look at them the only word that comes to mind is stunning. You’ve heard that already – a lot. I’ll pick a new word each day for the rest of the puzzles.

Spectacular. That’s our word for today. This one is spectacular; the detail, the color, everything about it. You can see in the detail of this image why each puzzle deserves it’s own post. I couldn’t just show a picture of all seven of the puzzles together and bypass the amazing detail in each image. This is one of my favorites; but honestly, they’re all pretty …. spectacular.

So much detail and care put into the piece shapes and making both regular and multipiece whimsies. What a great team they have at Liberty Puzzles! Three more yoga poses, more bits and baubles.

The piece shapes themselves and the design of each puzzle are as much a piece of art as the image itself.

When looking through the pieces after first opening the puzzle, I found the “leg” and said it must be part of a larger character, but after hubby looked at it for a bit he showed me that it was someone laying on the floor with their legs up (shoulder stand?). Very cool!

The lion whimsy took me FOREVER to figure out. I knew he was there, but working out how it all went together required a bit a brain power (which I am sometimes lacking). It’s something else though, isn’t it? The use of negative space here is ….. spectacular. And boy, was I proud of myself when it finally clicked – I figured it out!

Each of these puzzles is truly amazing! I feel as though my use of exclamation marks is getting excessive when writing about these puzzles.

But, damn! They’re so incredible! 😎