Category: Jigsaw Puzzles

Sweet Treats

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Sweet Treats by Tatiana – Buffalo – 500 pieces

I had the best time working on this puzzle – the bright colors, the excellent reproduction, the wonderful fit – just a fantastic quality puzzle with such beautiful artwork!

This is a puzzle with hidden images in it, there is a list on the poster of ten things to find in the puzzle once you have completed it. Full disclosure, I only found 9 out of the 10 and had to use the answer key (also on the poster) to find the last one. Many of the things weren’t too difficult to find, but a few of them required a little more attention than others. The first one was shown on the cover of the box, can you find the kitten…

The puzzle on my board just before this one was a White Mountain of very poor quality, and even sorting this one was a joy comparatively. Working on this beautiful puzzle was like a breath of fresh air after slogging through one that was frustrating because of quality issues. Image reproduction was an big problem with my previous puzzle, but this one was stellar.

Everything is so crisp and clear that you can even read the words on this scale! Great quality puzzle from Buffalo, and the image was so bright and beautiful that it was a joy to put together.

💖Every 🧩Single 🧩Piece 💖

Space Flare

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Space Flare – Wentworth – 80 pieces

This Mini Mindful puzzle from Wentworth sure does make a person slow down and focus completely on the puzzling – of course I loved it!

The repetitive tessellating pieces made for a challenging but fantastic assembly; the geometric shapes were so fun to work with. The “extra difficult” puzzles from Wentworth are very entertaining, and even in such small sizes give your gray matter a little bit of a workout!

As usual the puzzle itself is beautifully made, an excellent quality puzzle all around. You can see from the picture above the stunning image reproduction. Gorgeous 😍

Once I put together the obviously easier sections (shown above), the difficulty level ramped up significantly. We worked on it in the bathroom for a while, you can also see in the picture above how the light is much poorer than it is in the puzzle room.

My daughter came over to visit and while sitting in the puzzle room with me she asked my son to bring out whatever puzzle was in the bathroom so she and I could work on it together. At first she was NOT happy about which puzzle was there, she was hoping to work on Casual Friday but hubby and I had already finished that one. She was a trooper though and got into it after a few minutes, eventually we had a great time working on it together. I love that she wants to work on puzzles with me when she’s here. 💕

There are quite a few more Mini Mindful puzzles here to be done, and after seeing how entertaining this puzzle was I am very much looking forward to the next ones!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Cardinal – 48 pieces

My youngest son decided it was time for me to put together one of my kids puzzles that have been hanging out at the bottom of my puzzle shelves way in the back – and of course he chose TMNT. He tells me this is from the 2012 version of the show, in case anyone was wondering. 🐢

*In case you were wondering if I was wondering – I wasn’t. But he loves to talk about the things he’s interested in, and I’m his mother, so I listen.*

In addition to providing all the information I learned about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he even helped out with the assembly right from the beginning! I’m sure the fact that it was only 48 pieces was a consideration, but he was genuinely excited about this puzzle and I was happy to have his assistance.

I was quite impressed with the quality of this puzzle, it came in a 6 pack of kids puzzles of varying piece counts (all from Nickelodeon shows) that I paid $1.49 for. I was expecting much lesser quality, but was happily surprised that the pieces were thick and fit together well, and the image reproduction was very good.

It was a bargain at even twice the price. Cowabunga dudes!

Ice Cream Bars

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Ice Cream Bars by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

Here’s another puzzle that I was very much looking forward to, but it had very disappointing quality. It’s been a while since I’ve done a White Mountain puzzle, and they can be hit or miss – this one was a miss, unfortunately. I wanted to enjoy this, and I did – just not as much as I’d hoped. Oh well.

The image reproduction on this was was quite blurry in some places, and there were quite a few pieces not cut all the way through. The fit was good, not as tight as some WM puzzles can be, but good. The chipboard was a good thickness, and the finish was a bit shiny, but not too much so; it was mainly the reproduction that caused me so much trouble.

So let’s look at some of these ice cream bars and wrappers up close…

Apparently sex sells, even ice cream bars.

I wanted to show the difference in clarity – the Dairy Queen cup is quite clear and the surrounding wrappers were quite muddled and blurry up close – I’m not sure I was able to capture it in the picture though. Perhaps the artist used actual vintage wrappers or pictures of them and they’re just what they looked like. I can’t be sure, but it was frustrating to have some of the image be so blurry in places.

Six Klondike bars for $1.49? Wow. Just wow. And you can also see in this picture that the words are quite clear and the image of the boy and the ice cream bars is fuzzy and indistinct.

The overall quality of this puzzle was quite a letdown; I was hoping for an entertaining collage with good quality that I could just relax and enjoy – this puzzle wasn’t it. ☹

Cozy Bathroom

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Cozy Bathroom by Olga – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This was a large piece puzzle by Ravensburger, and both the quality and the image made for a wonderful puzzling experience. The pieces felt amazing in my hands, the artwork is stunning, and the fit was exceptional – loved it!

When I work on a puzzle like this it reminds me why Ravensburger is one of my favorite brands of cardboard puzzles; the quality far surpasses most other puzzle companies and they have such a broad range of images in their catalog to choose from. And there’s something about the larger piece puzzles of theirs that is even more satisfying to work with – I just adore them.

This beautiful painting on the wall doesn’t seem very detailed when you see it close up, but you know exactly what it is – an homage to a Monet painting. Gorgeous!

There was something about this tableau in the corner of the image, it’s absolutely beautiful. I don’t know about anyone else, but whenever I see someone bathing on tv or in the movies and there are lit candles everywhere my first thought it how much of a pain in the a*s it would be to light them all in the first place. Or clean up after them when wax spills onto tables or other surfaces. Candlelight is lovely, but sometimes it doesn’t seem as though it’s worth all that work.

Stunning image, fantastic quality, and a wonderful all around assembly; this puzzle is very highly recommended. 🛀👍