Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Main Street – Day 3

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 83/500 pieces

Aren’t these great old buildings? I love the way they look, it makes me want to do another Americana themed puzzle. Problem is they eventually start all resembling each other; breaking each building up into it’s own small puzzle makes them more entertaining to assemble in my opinion.

This house is FANTASTIC! Obviously a retired sea captain lives there, it’s just so unique and interesting to look at. Wouldn’t it make a great bed and breakfast? I think it would be so much fun to stay there.

This is the second building in this set that is the same as the Christmas Town puzzles. This is altered though, as you can see by clicking the link for Christmas Town Day 4. I remember specifically loving the name Rufus E. Dunclutter, it isn’t one you’d easily forget. LOL

Balloon World In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Balloon World by Royce B. McClure – Wentworth – 40 pieces

If you couldn’t already tell from the title, you’d know by the whimsy pieces that this is an image of hot air balloons. It’s so bright and colorful, and although it isn’t going to take me long I’m very much looking forward to it.

Normally images of hot air balloons aren’t really my thing, I feel as though it’s overdone and have seen way too many; but for some reason this one speaks to me today and I think it’ll be fun. Here’s hoping.

I tried to go puzzle shopping at the bookstore yesterday, but there wasn’t really anything interesting in a smaller piece count (which was what I was looking for specifically). I didn’t buy anything at all! 🤯

Main Street – Day 2

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 83/500 pieces

I really enjoyed these little buildings, they were so much fun to put together. Have you tried any of these sets before? There are plenty to choose from, and even if you usually only work larger puzzles you may find that these are entertaining at assemble as well.

The artist, Joseph Holodook, has quite a few images out there on puzzles besides the ones I’ve done in these sets of mini puzzles. Most of the ones I’ve seen are on MasterPieces puzzles, but there are a few other brands as well. He mostly paints Americana and Christmas images, and the detail in his work is amazing.

Whether old or new I do love a bookstore! Everyone in the street has a book, is reading one, or is buying or selling a book – this is my kinda town. Even the dogs are looking at a book cover! The quaintness of this image was so sweet. 📚💚

This big barn wasn’t as easy to put together as you might imagine, at least not for me; but I got there in the end. I love the words on the side of this one “We build shack to chateau” and “Don’t be a woodchuck, use a professional Romanchuk”.

Main Street – Day 1

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 83/500 pieces

Normally one of these sets of twelve shaped mini puzzles would be shown over four days, with three puzzles per day; but I’m stretching it out to six this time to give myself a few extra days to get more puzzles back in the queue. 😎

If you’ve been a reader here for a while you’ll know that each of these sets has colored backing applied to each small puzzle, twelve different colors so that you can sort them into each mini puzzle if you like. Or if you’d rather work these as a 500 piece puzzle you can disregard the backing and just start solving. The pieces are a good thickness with a nice variety of shapes that fit together well. Sometimes the colored backing isn’t cut all the way through leaving several pieces attached, but that doesn’t bother me much. The finish is a bit shiny, but not too terrible to deal with. Overall I find these to be good quality puzzles that are highly entertaining to assemble.

The detail in each of these houses/shops is amazing and they could all be their very own larger piece count puzzles. The colors are bright and fun and the Americana theme is entertaining to assemble. I’d love to go into an old-timey hat shop – wouldn’t that be something to see?

Does this look familiar to anyone? It did to me so I searched my site for the artist, and guess what I found? Check out Christmas Town Day 2, see anything interesting? There were three buildings in the Main Street set that were the same as in Christmas Town, but this is the only one that is EXACTLY the same with zero changes. The other two are the same building but in a different season with changes to the people and things on the outside.

I’m imagining what an antique shop would be like a century or more ago, what treasures would it hold? There would probably be more than a few things that we wouldn’t even be able to identify what they were used for – that would be fascinating!

I had such a good time putting these puzzles together, now all I have to do is buckle down and write up the next five posts for this set. Here’s hoping I don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome from all the typing. ⌨

*Side note – I checked out Cra-Z-Art’s website and found three new sets that I don’t have! Guess who’s going online shopping very soon????🛒💸*

Teal Lake In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Teal Lake by Andy Russell – Milton Bradley (Big Ben) – 500 pieces

Although I started this puzzle yesterday afternoon, every time I sat down to work on it later in the day someone or something interrupted. It was just one of those days apparently.

This was a thrift store purchase, and other than a slightly loose fit I’ve been quite happy with the quality so far. The finish is matte so there hasn’t been any glare issues under the lights, and the hand feel is soft and very nice.

Andy Russell is a new artist for me, and his work reminds me a bit of Eric Dowdle; the rounded but almost symmetrical and precise shapes made me think of his artwork immediately when I saw it. It will be interesting to see if this is as difficult as I sometimes find puzzles with a Dowdle image.