Category: Jigsaw Puzzles

Phenomenal Women

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Phenomenal Women – African American Expressions – 500 pieces

This was an entertaining, good quality puzzle that was a little more challenging can I gave it credit for, but enjoyable all the same. African American Expressions is a company whose puzzles I haven’t seen before, but it was well-made and a great image to put together.

All around I would give this puzzle a “very good” in the quality department; the chipboard is thinner than that of a premium puzzle but very sturdy, the fit is very good, there are a very good variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction is good. I was pleasantly surprised, usually a company that makes things other than puzzles doesn’t do so well in the jigsaw puzzle department, but this seems to be an exception.

It looks as though they only make 500 piece puzzles, and obviously they feature only African American artwork – they’ve got quite a few beautiful images that I would love to assemble.

Now I know that if I run across one of their puzzles that they have good quality and I won’t hesitate to buy them again.

Literary Dogs

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Literary Dogs by Kathryn Freeman – Artifact – 302 pieces

This very long puzzle was so entertaining to assemble that I kept forgetting to do other things; things like taking a drink, getting up and moving around, talking to my family, etc. With such an interesting border and so many adorable dogs I just kept getting sucked into the assembly – don’t you love it when that happens? I do!

Such a wonderful quality puzzle from Artifact, it was a joy to put together. Lately I’ve been putting together more puzzles with unique borders, and I have to tell you that they are so much fun. 😍 It’s hard to see when you take a picture of the entire puzzle, so I’ve taken some closeup shots for you.

Not only are there whimsies in the body of the puzzle itself, but there are animals frolicking all across the top as well. I love that you can tell the breed of several of the dogs just by their shapes.

The books include quite a few animal-related stories: Lassie, Old Yeller, Moby Dick, White Fang, etc. There are the classics as well; The Hobbit, Of Mice and Men, Anna Karenina and more. Books and dogs – this puzzle was right up my alley!

Love the heart on the side of the big black and white dog (I’m unsure of the breed), and the tableau of animals romping along the top of the puzzle are so cute!

You can see that many of the whimsy pieces were attached to the top border, and some were by themselves. I can’t overstate how much I enjoyed this – it made for a wonderfully absorbing and entertaining afternoon of meditative puzzling.

Bake Someone Happy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Bake Someone Happy – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This was much more difficult than I thought it would be, and I didn’t even attempt to put the edges together at the beginning – this one was worked from the inside out. You go where the puzzle leads sometimes and that where I was being lead.

This is the companion puzzle to Secret Ingredient: Love and the subscription box came with a set of four jigsaw puzzle piece shaped cookie cutters. Both puzzles were baking themed and each had a recipe on the back…

Both recipes call for using your cookie cutters – and I can’t wait to use them. (I pretty much love everything with puzzle shapes.) And if that apron were available with all those puzzle pieces on it, I’d definitely get one of those too.

My recipe for sugar cookies is a bit different and hubby loves it so I’ll probably use that recipe, but I’ll definitely be trying out the new cookie cutters with it. All we have to do now is wait for a day when I’m feeling good enough to bake – here’s hoping! 🍪

Pixels & Pizza

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Pixels & Pizza by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

Gee, I wonder if Stacey had any fun putting together this Aimee Stewart puzzle…of course she did! It’ll be no surprise to anyone that this was a fantastic puzzle that I adored assembling. It wasn’t any easy one, but the challenge was fun and there were so many small details to discover; another fantastic image by my absolute favorite jigsaw puzzle artist!

The quality was only good/very good – because there were quite a few bent pieces. Part of it was most likely that it was cut during the early part of the run while the fit was still quite tight and put into a box that only just fits all of the pieces. It didn’t break apart as easily as it should and when it was boxed some of the pieces were bent. It wasn’t a huge problem for me, it happens, but there were probably 10 or so pieces with bent tabs – so I’m letting you know.

There were no other issues with the quality; the fit was very good, the image reproduction was excellent, and the usual Buffalo variety of piece shapes. Overall I enjoyed the puzzle immensely, despite the problem with a few of the pieces.

Any other oldies like me out there that had a big ‘ol boombox? Mine looked somewhat like this, but it had two cassette players, that way you could make mix tapes and record from the radio, etc. There were no MP3 players, and we didn’t carry around phones that could hold your entire music library – we had to work a little bit harder for our music. You young’uns don’t know how good you have it!

Get off my lawn! 👵

Wow. These certainly take me back, remember when if you wanted to play a video game you had to leave your house and find someplace with an arcade game? I do! Times certainly have changed in just my lifetime. Sigh. I’m feeling positively ancient.

This actually made me laugh out loud – the button that says “Save Ferris”. 🤣 I graduated high school the year Ferris Bueller’s Day Off debuted in theaters, but if it had been available I definitely would have worn that button at school! Love it. 💜

Every time I complete an Aimee Stewart puzzle I immediately want to start another one. The colors, the details, the overall look – they are so entertaining to put together!

Marvel Comics Presents

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Marvel Comics Presents – Buffalo – 500 pieces

If you’re wondering whether or not my son picked out this puzzle for me – he did. Of course he did. It was much more challenging than I’d assumed it would be, but it wasn’t too terribly difficult. There was a LOT of red and blue and figuring out which panel they belonged to isn’t as easy as you might think.

The usual good quality Buffalo puzzle, although the fit seemed a little more loose than usual. Otherwise I have no complaints about it at all.

This is a visual representation of what is happening in my menopausal brain when the hormones hit – She-Hulk wants to punch someone. Preferably a man. Not for any particular reason, just existing…or speaking…or breathing. You ladies know how it is. 😇

I love all these nonsense words for when a punch or kick is landed. Btam! Beeyok! Throk! Ftok! Does it remind anyone else of the old Batman tv show from the 60s? (I know, I know – Batman is a DC character, not Marvel – don’t come for me) I remember when they were punching the bad guys that there would be a Kapow! or a Zlonk! or some other ridiculous words on the screen. The tv show was off the air by the time I was born, but I distinctly remember watching it in reruns.

Since I don’t read comic books, this is not the image I think of when you say The Incredible Hulk. The image I have is of Lou Ferrigno from the late 70s tv show. My sisters and I always used to make fun of the fact that he got so much bigger, all except for his waist – his pants never came apart and there was always plenty of fabric to cover the man bits. Ah well, suspension of disbelief was required then I suppose; something I wasn’t usually able to achieve. I’m too logical, and that BS didn’t really work for me.

All in all this was a good quality puzzle with a fun image to assemble. I can’t really ask for much more!