Category: Jigsaw Puzzles

Skull “Beauty of Flowers”

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Skull “Beauty of Flowers” – Winston Puzzles – 300 pieces

My sweet, loving, darling husband got me this puzzle for my birthday this year – bless him. He knows how much I love the decorated skulls and what the Day of the Dead holiday is all about, what a thoughtful hubby I have. 💕

It’s just too bad this beautiful image was on this puzzle; unfortunately terrible quality wooden puzzles seem to be popping up everywhere. I wish that weren’t the case, but it is.

When I saw the box I suspected it wouldn’t be good, and unfortunately I was correct; beware wooden puzzles with no brand name shown! Although the puzzle was ordered from a website called “Winston Puzzles” there is no brand name on the box, there is no piece count, image name, or artist credit either. The website said this puzzle was 170-210 pieces; to get an accurate number I had to count them by hand, and they were off by quite a bit – there were 300 pieces. Sigh.

There are a bunch of whimsy pieces, but they have no relation to the image at all. They’re just shapes someone thought were cute or interesting; and because it’s a wooden puzzle they were able to cut them out. So disappointing.

As I was sorting the pieces I got a sliver of wood stuck in my finger, the puzzle wasn’t sanded or sealed properly. When I put the puzzle away after it was finished and photographed my board had little chips of wood everywhere all over the fabric, that has never happened with a wooden puzzle before. In addition, there were little bubbles underneath the image on the top of the pieces – it wasn’t attached to the wood correctly.

Many of the edge pieces didn’t connect at all, a BIG pet peeve of mine. It’s so frustrating to accidentally brush against pieces and have them come apart. I wish I had enjoyed the assembly more. It was a difficult image, and the quality of the puzzle itself made it even harder.

I do NOT recommend Winston Puzzles, please spend your puzzle budget elsewhere. There are many reputable wooden puzzle companies that make beautiful, quality wooden puzzles that you will enjoy much more.

I always appreciate the gift of a puzzle, whether wooden or cardboard, even if the quality isn’t up to my somewhat snobby standards. I love that he tried to find an image that I would enjoy, and truly do appreciate the gift, regardless of it’s quality.

Hubby has been informed, very gently, that there is a list of approved puzzle companies and should he have questions, he can always ask about a puzzle company in general. He knows how much I love jigsaw puzzles, and that even if they’re not always fabulous I absolutely appreciate the thought that goes into the gift of a puzzle.

I love my hubby to the moon and back – and he tried, that’s what counts. 💖

Meditating Skeleton

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Meditating Skeleton by Ryoko – Artifact (Ecru) – 81 pieces

What a fantastic puzzle! It was easier than I thought it would be and went together very quickly. Although it was assembled in May of this year, I kept it on the back burner to post on my favorite holiday – Halloween. I absolutely loved this puzzle❣

LOVED IT!

Looking at a well cut wooden puzzle from the back always makes me smile, so I like to take a picture from the back when it’s possible so perhaps you’ll get a smile out of it too.

These are such fabulous whimsy pieces. Don’t you just love that spine? I do!

Happy Halloween to all my friends, family, and posse members! ☠🎃☠

Grin & Bones

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Grin & Bones – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This is such an adorable Halloween puzzle, it was much harder than it looks! Still, it’s bright and colorful and was highly entertaining to assemble.

I’ve never had an issue with MicroPuzzles quality before, but this puzzle had a printing issue. Things happen, no manufacturing process is ever perfect so I don’t find it to be that distressing at all. I’ve emailed the company and have alerted them to the problem in the hopes that they can resolve whatever issue caused this. They offered their apologies and a replacement puzzle, but I don’t need a replacement, and asked that they not send me one as that wasn’t why I contacted them.

You can see below the dark substance/color across part of the lower portion of the image (across the porch of the house)…

I’ve had similar issues like this with other puzzle brands, and though I’m not sure what causes it – it really didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the assembly. I’m not one of those people who immediately wants a refund or a replacement. If that is something that you do, I’m not disparaging that at all – you’re well within your rights to ask for those things if you wish – I’m just saying that it isn’t normally what I do.

If I assembled the puzzle and enjoyed myself, that’s enough for me. I have so many puzzles already here, and almost never assemble cardboard puzzles more than once. If I received another copy of this puzzle I wouldn’t even assemble it, it would be wasted on me.

I let the company know about the problem; they were apologetic and offered a replacement and told me they would look into the issue – which is all I wanted. If I can help in some small way to make sure others get good quality puzzles then I’m a happy puzzler. 😎

MicroPuzzles has always provided me quality mini puzzles that I enjoy assembling, and my opinion of the brand and their puzzles hasn’t changed. I love them!

Happy Socktober

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

Happy Socktober – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

How fun is this image? So fun! After exhausting my supply of Halloween puzzles I was thrilled to get this month’s subscription box from MicroPuzzles with two more puzzles for my favorite holiday; plus the gift in this month’s box was a perfect compliment to to this puzzle…

Puzzle socks for Socktober! They don’t quite match the colors of the socks on the witch in the middle of the image, but they’re close enough. I don’t normally wear socks here in sweaty, sunny Florida, but how can I part with these? I love everything puzzle related, even these socks that I will wear only rarely.

Even though there was a different micro puzzle in progress in the master bathroom, I had to jump in and immediately get going on this one. As I’m typing up this post the date is October 1, but by the time you’re reading this it will be very close to the end of the month. There are puzzle posts already typed up and scheduled for most of October already, so there’s no waiting on these two holiday puzzles – they need to be assembled quickly in order to be sure they’re ready for posting before Halloween.

Although this is a brightly colored image, it isn’t an easy one to assemble. The two sets of striped socks on either side were much easier to find and assemble than the puzzle socks in the middle, so obviously that’s where I started. The middle bit with the darker background and the socks with four different colored puzzle pieces made for a much more challenging assembly.

Still I absolutely loved it, and was so excited to have some more Halloween puzzles to put together. The quality that MicroPuzzles has makes for fun puzzles that I usually enjoy very much. This one was no different in the quality department, but the image made me so happy that it made for even more entertaining puzzling than usual. I had the best time.💟

Happy Socktober my friends!

Horror

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles15 Comments

Horror – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

This collage of horror book covers was so much more entertaining to assemble than the Stephen King covers puzzle that I posted last week. The quality was much better, which made for a more satisfying experience – loved this one!

I usually tell you how many books of those shown that I’ve read; and you’ll be able to tell that horror isn’t exactly my genre when I let you know that I’ve only read 4 out of the 55 books shown. Yikes, it make me seem like an illiterate troglodyte, doesn’t it?

Whatever. Even if I am, my mom said I was adorable and my family loves me – so there! 😜

Typical Re-marks quality; random cut with a variety of piece shapes, good image reproduction, very good fit, and a slightly shiny finish. Pretty good, all around – and it made for a great assembly that went quite quickly.

I haven’t read this book, but I loved the cover – doesn’t it seem perfect for Halloween? Spooky!

Haven’t read any H.P. Lovecraft either, but I know he’s quite popular in the horror/sci-fi genre; and I’ve even seen an episode of Supernatural about him. Plus, look at that creature – yikes! I think it’s called Cthulhu. Do you think Mr. Lovecraft just banged his face onto the keyboard to come up with that name?

Now this one I HAVE read, it’s by my favorite author; it’s one of my favorites of his too – though I wouldn’t classify it as a horror novel. Suspense, sure. Thriller, yep. But not really horror in my opinion. Still, it’s a great book.

I enjoyed this puzzle from the first piece to the last, and highly recommend it if you can find it. When I purchased it the cashier told me this particular puzzle was selling out very quickly. No wonder, it was such fun!