Review: Reese’s

On September 27, 2018September 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

Reese’s was an excellent quality, entertaining to assemble puzzle that surprised me. It was better quality than I was expecting, and not nearly as difficult as I’d anticipated. It made for a fun couple of days, and for some reason it also made me extremely hungry for peanut butter cups. 😏

I enjoy MasterPieces puzzles, they have a great catalog of diverse images to choose from, with very good quality and even better value. They have both grid cut and random cut puzzles, so there’s something for everyone. The quality of the chipboard is very good with thick pieces that fit together extremely well. Sometimes the fit can be a bit loose, but with this puzzle the pieces fit together snugly – so much so that I could lift the puzzle by one piece and nothing came apart!

I thought perhaps the image would end up being quite difficult with all the repetition of packages, but I found it to be much easier than I’d assumed. That doesn’t mean that it was an easy puzzle; it took just the right amount of concentration, but not so much that it became frustrating. I enjoyed diving in to all of that yummy chocolate and peanut butter!

The image reproduction was spot on, and the bright colors made it fun to work with. You just have to decide where you’re going to start and jump right in. After assembling the edge I started with the white packages (which I would NEVER do in real life, “white chocolate” isn’t chocolate!), but they were the easiest pieces to pick out. Then I went with the largest logo in the center, those pieces stood out as well…

I had a great time with this puzzle, I find shaped puzzles to be a lot of fun and they end up looking amazing when you’re finished. Check out some of the amazing shaped puzzles at Puzzle Warehouse, there are so many to choose from!

If you’re looking for a yummy puzzle to get you revved up for Halloween (best candy holiday there is), I highly recommend Reese’s. It’s wonderful quality, a great image, and was extremely entertaining to assemble.

I’m hungry for some reason…maybe some peanut butter and chocolate…🥜🍫

Details:

Title: Reese’s
Artist: MasterPieces
Brand: MasterPieces
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 22 x 22 in. (56 x 56 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Rounded box with flat bottom
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Very small amount
Piece cut: Random/rounded grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, highly 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.

Great Books

On September 26, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another stellar picture; again, my apologies. This is a great image with good quality; finding and assembling each book cover was really fun!

I just completed a collage puzzle, and they are absolutely my favorite type of puzzle to work on. White Mountain has so many to choose from, and the quality is good to very good depending on the puzzle. I wish I had more here in my to do pile, because I would start another one tomorrow if I had one in the house! They make me very happy, and even if they’re 1000 pieces it doesn’t seem as intimidating.

Hubby and I worked on this together, and we compared the number of books each of us had read. Funny thing was, we had each read the same number of books, but none of them were the same except for one! We have each read The Cat in the Hat, otherwise our taste in literature is COMPLETELY different. Opposites attract I suppose. 😉

Picnic Raiders

On September 25, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I assembled this puzzle after resting for several days from a car trip/medical procedure. Funny that it’s in the queue for today, since this afternoon is another 3 hour trip to a doctor, gee doesn’t that sound like fun? 😐

I don’t always like Buffalo puzzles, the pieces seem so uniform and uninteresting; I have to be in the right mood to work a larger piece count from Buffalo. Luckily the 300 pieces they have don’t give me the same feeling, and I very much enjoy them. This cute little one by Steve Read was adorable, interesting, good quality, and just the right amount of challenging.

The puppies are the best part of the image, in my opinion. Puppies make me happy, although Boston Terrier puppies would have been even cuter if you ask me. 😉

Sewing Notions

On September 23, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is such a fantastic picture that you can see my tv remote and the partial legs of my hubby. Sorry. It was a lot of fun though, even though it was more difficult than I thought it would be. Here’s what the image actually looks like…

51801COB

It was great quality – Cobble Hill puzzles usually are, and the fit was excellent. I find that most of their puzzles have an obvious piece shape in the finished image. You can’t really tell it from the angle of my picture, but the piece shapes are quite obvious in this puzzle. For me, it doesn’t detract from the assembly, it’s no less enjoyable; but if you want to frame and hang a puzzle it does take away from the look of the completed image.

Hubby and I enjoyed this puzzle much more than we thought we would, I think he likes coming to my rescue with a difficult puzzle – especially near the end. That’s his M.O., he loves to be my hero and help solve problems and make life easier for me. I love him dearly for it 💖; he’s a sweetheart, even though he would DEFINITELY not describe himself that way.

Do you ever work on puzzles with your sweetheart or a friend? Or do you prefer to be by yourself and put in every single piece?

Unseen

On September 22, 2018November 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

In honor of the official first day of fall, today’s puzzle is a spooky one I’ve been waiting to post since I finished it at the beginning of August. It’s “Halloweeny” and I’ve been keeping it till it was the right time. Fall brings Halloween (my favorite holiday), and therefore today is the perfect day for this puzzle!

This is the most difficult, challenging, and wonderfully frustrating wooden puzzle I’ve ever assembled. I bought it during the clearance sale at Artifact Puzzles; I’d been looking at it for a while, but the sale gave me the extra push to go ahead and get it. I loved the look of it, and was excited to be able to purchase it at half price. 🙂

There weren’t many whimsy pieces, but most of the pieces had connectors shaped like bones, so most of them were “whimsy-like”. I started with the skull, obviously, and it wasn’t too difficult. The rest of the puzzle was another story, and it sat on my puzzle board for several weeks before my son and I finally finished it.

I love the faces inside the eye sockets, they’re creepy and cute at the same time and in my opinion they make the whole image as wonderful as it is. The pictures on the website make it seem less difficult than it was, it showed a much lighter background that didn’t look as hard as it actually was. There’s a border of smoky filigree that you can’t really see on the puzzle because the chocolate background is so dark.

unseen

Once the skull was complete I was absolutely intimidated by the remainder of the pieces. They were all so dark and the connectors all looked so similar. It was a bit overwhelming for me, so I needed to give myself some time and distance. I put the board in my puzzle room; some days I would walk by and stop to put in a piece or two, sometimes a few weeks would go by before I even tried to put in any pieces.

When my son and I spent a few days together working on puzzles, he wanted to get this one finished. So we finished it together one day while watching M*A*S*H. It was so nice to spend time with him assembling it, and with someone else to help out and talk to it made it less overwhelming. We were both so proud when we finished!

We flipped it over once the pictures were taken, and my favorite part was this skull and crossbones with a top hat – so cute!

This puzzle was wonderful, scary, difficult, and ultimately a lot of fun. I’m so glad I finally purchased it, but I don’t think I’ll be assembling it again. It was such a challenge that I haven’t disassembled it yet, and am having my husband make me a special frame with plexiglass on both sides so that you can see the front and the back. I would never glue a wooden jigsaw puzzle, but hubby will make me a fantastic frame that will make it so it doesn’t need gluing.

I loved it – overwhelming challenge and all. ☠