Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Just Add Water

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Just Add Water by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

I was pretty disappointed in the quality of this puzzle, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t also satisfying to assemble. There was fuzzy image reproduction, the fit was too tight, so much puzzle dust and lots of hanging chads. The thing is….I knew that was a possibility when this puzzle was purchased.

White Mountain puzzles, for me, aren’t a premium quality puzzle. There have been issues with fit, image reproduction, and delamination. BUT – as far as My Jigsaw Journal is concerned – they have one of the best catalogs of collages around. Collages make me extremely happy, so I put up with the less than outstanding quality. It’s just how it is. For me. You may not think it’s worth it, and that’s fine too.

When the bag was opened, I thought at first that there wasn’t much puzzle dust, but I was wrong. Much of it was still attached (barely) to the pieces, moving them around to sort brought about the dust storm. There were long thin pieces of backing, small bits, and plenty of it stayed on the pieces creating what I call hanging chads. Disappointing.

Within a few moments of starting to assemble the edge the tightness of the fit showed up – 10 pieces put together and the straight edge was curling up because of it. I expected the fuzzy image, so that wasn’t a surprise. Even with all these problems, because it was a collage with an image that was pleasing I still enjoyed myself and finished this puzzle pretty quickly.

So, who’s ready to reminisce/talk about drink mixes?

Ok, never heard of this one. And for the record…..EW! You probably can’t read it because the wording in the image is fuzzy, but it says “fortified corn starch beverage mix”. I’m gagging a little bit. Ick.

Any root beer drinkers out there? I don’t care for it myself, but if I did, one has to wonder how it would taste being made from a mix. It’s a “soft drink” right? It would be like getting a package of powder and adding water to make Pepsi or Coke with no carbonation. I acknowledge that as far as fussy eaters go, I’m one of the best – but this sounds horrible to me. Thoughts from anyone who enjoys root beer?

This one brings back memories. We mostly had kool-aid or flavor-aid on those occasions when we were allowed to drink sweet stuff; but when there was a really good sale (and mom could add a coupon) every once in a while – we got to have Country Time lemonade. My sisters and I loved it, probably because it was rare that we were allowed to have it. And what is it about pink lemonade that makes it so much cooler than regular lemonade? Whatever it is, we loved this. Though if I had it now, it would probably seem awful and way too sweet.

Very tight fit = puzzle standing up picture. It makes me happy. No apologies, excuses, or explanations. 😎

A Christmas Story

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

A Christmas Story – Ceaco – 300 pieces

There hasn’t been a Ceaco puzzle on my board in quite some time. **Flashback to the terrible, awful, very bad, horrific 12 days of Christmas advent calendar of 2019😱**

Anyway, this puzzle was a Christmas gift from that same year, and it’s taken me a while to get to assembling it. But even though I still have beef with this brand, I am NEVER ever ungrateful for puzzles that I receive as gifts. It isn’t so much about the actual puzzle itself, but more that someone cared about me enough to pick out something they thought I would like and appreciate. And if the brand isn’t a favorite or the image isn’t exactly what I would have chosen for myself, it is still loved and appreciated by me. Always.

This movie is a favorite in this house; we start watching it on Christmas Eve, and have it playing in the background most of the day on Christmas. All of my children adore this movie, and it makes a momma happy when your grown kids want to watch a movie with you. Everyone’s tastes in movies are very different these days, but this movie will bring us all together for a couple of hours – what’s not to love? 💖

If you’re a regular reader here you may know how much assembling words makes me happy. You’ll be surprised to learn that the letters in this puzzle were the very last things to be put together. Each letter is quite large, and if I had pulled all the pieces it would have been close to half of the whole puzzle! So I started with the pieces that were all red, then the red pieces with a bit of the border that surrounds the images from the movie and any pieces with a face on them.

After that, I let the pieces take me wherever they went and ended up waiting until the very end to get those words put together. Once all that was left were letters it was much easier to find whichever piece I was looking for.

This puzzle was really enjoyable, it’s a great image too – and not as easy as it looks. A good time was had, and I am so grateful for the gift. (I love you Baby Princess 💕)

Imagination

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Imagination by Robert Williams – Mr. Bob Puzzles – 525 pieces

Oh my. This puzzle. What a FANTASTIC image for puzzling! I had the best time putting this one together, and I’m sorry that it isn’t still being produced because it was an amazing assembly and I loved every single piece. 💖

Even though I picked it out myself, sort of, (told hubby which images of Mr. Bob’s puzzles I liked best), when it arrived I was a little scared of the image and thought it would be really difficult. It was put away for a while, then – well, you know. Finally, it was pulled out from it’s place in the to-do pile and….HOLY GUACAMOLE was it fun! I was completely wrong about how difficult it would be. It turns out this is, in my humble opinion, a perfect image for a jigsaw puzzle.

You may not think so looking at it, and to be honest neither did I at first. To me it is beautiful art, but I thought it would be an extremely demanding assembly, especially with the deceptively difficult cut of Mr. Bob’s puzzles. It wasn’t. It was the perfect amount of challenging. I know I am repeating myself, but this puzzle was the best, most entertaining puzzle I’ve done in quite some time. Click the link above to check out their website if you’re interested, they have many unique images that you won’t see anywhere else, and they are excellent quality wooden puzzles.

As usual, it began with pulling all the whimsies while laying out the pieces. There were some special ones in this puzzle – hubby asked them to put the name of my blog in the whimsies! (He must have remembered when they cut my name into a puzzle and I said “Wouldn’t it be cool to have the name of the blog cut out in puzzle pieces?” What a sweet, thoughtful husband I have!)

Having thick wooden pieces means that you can cut out wonderful shapes; and part of the fun is seeing them – and the interesting shapes of the pieces around them. Mr. Bob’s logo and his silhouette are cut into every puzzle, along with a whimsy of Australia. The rest of the whimsies are different depending on the image of the puzzle itself.

When using lasers to cut wooden puzzles the only real limits are the designer’s imagination. (Plus, they can cut out fun things like the name of a puzzle blog!)

How cool is that? So cool! But I have to tell you that even without these words in the puzzle I would still be in love with it. The colors and textures, the movement, the lines running through it, the fabulous quality, the perfect amount of challenge – everything worked together to make for the most pleasurable puzzling this professed puzzle geek has had in a quite a while.

Love, love, LOVED IT! 😍

Mr. Bob’s Puzzles has grown significantly since I reviewed two of their puzzles two years ago – almost to the day! It seems like much more time has gone by; through our email correspondence I feel as if I know Mr. Bob himself personally and we’re old friends. After my reviews I gave suggestions to improve their products, and it was unbelievably well received; they truly wanted to make the best puzzles they could.

I encouraged him to put more of his own artwork on his puzzles: because I adore his digital art, it is most definitely my pile of pieces! This puzzle is one of his creations, and it made for such a fun assembly that I couldn’t stop gushing to him about it. I’ve done several of Mr. Bob’s puzzles, and the ones I’ve enjoyed the most have been the ones with his artwork; Save the Whales, Art City, and now Imagination joins the club.

Last year Mr. Bob’s Puzzles received an order for 53,000 custom puzzles from a major Australian corporation as gifts for their staff – it called for renting a new, larger space, establishing a bank of laser cutters, and a production facility to cope with the higher output. They got them all produced and shipped in about three months – on time and on budget. Bob tells me that it amounted to cutting around 8,000,000 pieces (approximately 375 miles of laser cutting)! 😮

Well done everyone at Mr. Bob’s Puzzles, you’re going places! And we knew you when…

Giraffe With Bubblegum

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Giraffe With Bubblegum by Coco de Paris – Cardinal – 300 pieces

These images by Coco de Paris are just too adorable for me to pass up. The first one I did was mistakenly titled “Bulldog with Butterflies” but those of us in the know realize that is most definitely NOT a bulldog, it is a Boston Terrier. My Buddy was a Boston, their faces are just so recognizable. Fortunately they got the title of this one correct, I am certain that is most definitely a giraffe. 🦒

I’ve seen a dozen different puzzles by this artist with animals painted atop the pages of a book. Some are hilarious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful; but they all look like they’d be entertaining to assemble.

Unfortunately, this was just fair quality for Cardinal. There were quite a few bent pieces, and some warping; but the fit was good and the image is nice. I cannot speak to the quality of the other puzzle images, just the two that I’ve put together so far. The “bulldog” puzzle was good/fair, and this one was just fair.

But as I’ve said before, what constitutes good quality for me isn’t necessarily what is most important for you; the only way to know for sure is to try it yourself. So if these look like puzzles you’d enjoy assembling, please don’t let my “review” keep you from giving it a try. Reviews are always subjective; they are one person’s opinion – not gospel.

Somehow the eyes look happy to me. Maybe because some poor, overworked optometrist made them a GIANT pair of glasses so they can see just how big their bubble gets?

Jamie the Polar Bear

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Jamie the Polar Bear by John Francis – Wentworth – 15 pieces

This was the first of the kids puzzles from Wentworth that I assembled; it was delightful to work with the large pieces and bright colors to put together this adorable ice skating polar bear. Funny though, he doesn’t look like a Jamie to me; he looks like a Michael – but his parents call him Mikey. Then again, who am I to challenge the artist? He says Jamie, so Jamie it is.

It’s a good thing I have some young children in my life to gift these puzzles to, otherwise it would just be idiot me with kids puzzles that were ordered because I failed to make sure what exactly I was purchasing. I’m not that upset with myself though, these are the first premium wooden puzzles for young kids that I’ve ever tried, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to put them together. (I’m not counting those wooden puzzles in a wooden tray that are mass produced, although those can be good quality as well)

The whimsies are very cute, although I might be worried about the snowman’s pointy nose if I were a mom. But, if my children had this beautiful puzzle when they were little they would only be playing with it when they were being supervised by an adult. Because these puzzles can last for years if they’re taken care of and treated well. The cardboard box they came in might be a little worse for wear after a while, but the puzzle will definitely last.

I took a picture of one piece from each of the puzzles to show the size. EXTREMELY large just about covers it, don’t you think?