Fuchsia Faerie

On February 17, 2017December 28, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I was looking for something on Amazon, and saw this puzzle in the “you might like” section of the page. Something about it drew me in and I ordered it that day! I’m glad I did. 🙂

I had never even heard of this puzzle company before, so that was interesting to me and I saw that the puzzles were manufactured in the Netherlands which usually means good quality. I was right! The pieces are wonderfully thick and have a linen wrap which feels good in your hands. The fit is excellent which is one of the most important factors for me and the image quality is exceptional. And this is the first puzzle I’ve ever seen where the standard 2 prong 2 hole shape is the shape with the LEAST number of pieces. There were many more pieces of the more interesting shapes and I loved that! It is a grid cut puzzle, not a random cut, but there were more of the other shapes than the standard 2/2 piece.

I enjoyed this assembly very much and finished it quickly for a 1000 piece. It sucked me in and I just had to keep going. The faerie was beautiful, and it was easy to get started by pulling the pieces for her hair, and all the dots along the border, then the sequined bodice, rest of the border, etc. The pieces fit together so well that it was easy to assemble a small section and pick it up to move it into place. This puzzle was awesome from start to finish!

I want more Purrfect puzzles! This could be bad. 😐

Thursday 02-15-17 80% Done!

On February 16, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, World's Largest Puzzle Progress3 Comments

I did my best to get a good picture, and this was the best I was able to take. I thought about standing the board up against the wall, but that’s how the whole Jungle Book fiasco happened. So here’s the best I could do for now, Hakuna Matata!

This section was fun, and just gorgeous! I loved every minute of the assembly, and I’m kinda sad that it’s over with to be honest. This section took 15 days, which isn’t bad considering there were some medical issues going on and some days I wasn’t able to do much puzzling at all. Some days I took trays of pieces to bed with me and worked on it laying down in another room! 🙂

I’m loving this whole puzzle so much, but I’m dreading being completely finished. I still have no idea what to do with the completed puzzle, none whatsoever. 😦 Any suggestions? Please help!! I know when all 10 sections are complete I’m going to want to assemble them all so I can take lots of pictures of my accomplishment. But if I don’t figure out what’s going to happen with the finished puzzle I may end up having to disassemble the puzzle back into 10 sections. The very thought of that makes me cringe!

Next up……. Beauty and The Beast, isn’t it lovely?

4005556178261-det-11-internet-typ-72-rgb-1200

It will probably be a day or two before I’m able to start working on Beauty and The Beast. The Lion King is still on the board so we have to carefully get Simba and friends taken off and stored, and there is still sorting to do. I am really looking forward to this one, I’ve been looking forward to it since September! I’ve saved the ones I thought would be the most fun for last and here we are – I’m so excited!

Couples

On February 15, 2017December 28, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another collage – of course. (And another cockeyed picture where you get to see my bedspread 🙂 ) I really enjoy collages, and White Mountain always does them so well. Couples and Valentine’s Day, how sweet! Almost as sweet as the day after when all the candy is 50% off!!!

This was really fun artwork, there weren’t only human couples there were plenty of fun things that make a great pair – chips and dip, cookies and milk, ebony and ivory piano keys, apple pie and ice cream, etc. Also there were a lot of non-human couples like Bert and Ernie, Buzz and Woody, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Yogi and Boo Boo and so many more.

This is another one that is fun to do with others with lots of laughing and talking about the couples and figuring out who or what things are. And as always, if you’re not sure who or what things are you can check it on the White Mountain website where they have an answer key.

So many great finds at thrift stores! 2 or 3 days worth of puzzle for 99 cents, you just can’t beat that! For mom and I it also leads to buying puzzles online. She finds a cool puzzle at the thrift store, we assemble it and love the quality or artwork and then we end up looking up other puzzles by that manufacturer or artist and buying a bunch online. Yes, we have gone slightly insane, but on the other hand we are adorable and puzzles isn’t too terrible an obsession/addiction, right?

Yarn Party

On February 12, 2017December 28, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another thrift store puzzle, this one hadn’t even been opened yet! This was my first puzzle from Karmin. Although I’ve seen the name before, hadn’t worked a puzzle from them.

I enjoyed this puzzle, even though I was unimpressed with the quality of the pieces. They were quite thin and easily bent, there was a large amount of puzzle dust both in the bag and in the box itself, and there was quite a bit of glare from the coating on the pieces. Luckily the puzzle wasn’t overly large and I was able to carry it on the board to a place in the room where I could take a picture of it without all the glare bouncing off of it.

That being said, still enjoyed myself. The image was cute, the piece shapes were interesting and not everything has to be perfect all the time. Even though the pieces were thin I still had fun putting the puzzle together and found that I enjoyed the assembly in spite of the quality! Sometimes I’m too in my head and I should just relax and have fun, right?

Confection Street

On February 5, 2017December 28, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Today is my Grama’s birthday. Since she’s been on my mind, especially since last week’s National Puzzle Day post I decided to do a post on this puzzle. It belonged to Gram. My mom decided to keep this puzzle of hers to assemble and glue. Mom did most of the assembly, but I did help and I glued and helped frame it.

Charles Wysocki’s artwork is a favorite, so this was an obvious choice to keep and it is a mosaic puzzle which was interesting to us, we’ve never seen that before. This is a Milton Bradley puzzle made in the 70’s. While doing research to find the name of this image I found that Milton Bradley made a few of these mosaic puzzles. I can’t imagine they were popular or a good seller, because OH MY GOODNESS was it horrible to work!

The pieces are in square shapes as you can see from the picture above, and nothing clicks together. This may seem like a good idea in theory, it looks like a mosaic tile work, how fun! NOPE. Every piece just lays next to the adjacent piece and heaven forbid you bump the table or the puzzle itself! We had to be extremely careful, and even the gluing was a chore and required both of us.

While we enjoyed the artwork and the pieces were thick enough, those were the only good things about this puzzle. A mosaic puzzle is not a good idea in my opinion, there needs to be some way to attach the pieces together or it just becomes a chore and is not fun at all. Fun is the reason we do puzzles in the first place!

This was a puzzle that belonged to Grama though, and that’s why we assembled it. My mother and I both love puzzles because of her, what a great gift! Thanks Gram, Happy Birthday!