#NuzzleNoses

On January 7, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

IMG_E4088 — #NuzzleNoses by Keith Kimberlin – MasterPieces (Insta Paws) – 500 pieces

Mom and I assembled this puzzle together, and it was really fun! I’m always thrilled by a thrift store purchase that is so adorable and so much fun to assemble. We loved this one❣

This is part of the Insta Paws series from MasterPieces, collages of some of the most adorable puppies and kittens around! Taken by photographer Keith Kimberlin, the images features sweet puppies and kittens doing all kinds of activities. It’s a very cute series, and I’d love to do more; here’s hoping the thrift stores around here help us out with that.

I enjoy MasterPieces puzzles, they’re a good quality puzzle for a great value and they have an excellent and diverse catalog with some great series – Memory Lane, Town & Country, Insta Paws, Space Savers, and many more. I like the feel of their pieces and the random cut makes a more interesting and sometimes more challenging assembly. It’s not a brand I usually purchase new, but love finding them at the thrift stores. They have so many great puzzles to choose from!

I’m a dog person, so my favorite sections of this puzzle are obviously the puppies, especially the little guy sleeping under a blanket, so cute! The kittens in the boots make me smile too. This puzzle is one of those fun ones with different backgrounds that make it easy to pull a section and work on it without having to keep looking at the box, they’re some of my favorite types of puzzles to do. It’s more satisfying for me to grab a section of pieces and figure out how they fit together without any assistance from the box or a poster – it makes me happy.

If this is an image that grabs you, I would definitely recommend this #NuzzleNoses; it’s a very nice quality puzzle with a beautiful image that’s pretty darn entertaining to put together. 🐾🐾

Arctic Kiss

On January 6, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This was a cute kids puzzle that I only assembled because I wanted to see how it glows. Unfortunately there wasn’t much as far as glow was concerned, so I wasn’t able to get a good “glow picture”. Oh well, it’s still a cute image.

The puzzle wasn’t the greatest quality, it’s a Ceaco puzzle, but we had hopes that because it was a specialty (Glow Zone) that it might be a little better quality. We’ve worked several special Ceaco puzzles with really nice quality – some with cork backing, one with velvet backing, and some with long strips of pieces instead of the average piece. The odd ones seem to have much better quality than the average Ceaco puzzles – at least that’s been our experience so far.

This puzzle, even though it was a glow zone puzzle, was about average Ceaco quality. The pieces are thinner, and although they fit together well the finished puzzle doesn’t lie completely flat. You can see in the picture above that some of the pieces stick up a bit. Still, the image is nice, and even though it’s not a premium quality puzzle, it was still entertaining to assemble.

I used to say I didn’t want to do any puzzles under 1000 pieces, and was pretty snobby about the brands of puzzles I would buy. I don’t buy new puzzles from companies whose quality isn’t up to my standards, but used puzzles are a whole different story. Now, as long as I can assemble the puzzle and enjoy myself doing it – that’s what counts. Who cares if the quality isn’t perfect? If we can buy 20 puzzles for the price of 1 at the thrift store, and we can enjoy ourselves assembling them, isn’t that what’s really important? I think so.

Summer Teatime

On January 5, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This puzzle made me stop and think. It isn’t an image I would choose to purchase new, but having gotten it from a thrift store I’m more willing to assemble it; it’s a lovely scene, but it isn’t an image that grabs me (hope this makes sense). I assembled it one morning because I wanted a smaller piece count puzzle, and oddly enough, once it was assembled the image seems more attractive to me. I had to stop and think why this was.

I suppose it’s a combination of things. First, the puzzle was EXCELLENT quality. Extremely thick, sturdy pieces that fit together wonderfully. The image reproduction is good, if a bit shiny; even with lighter colors a shiny finish causes glare when you’re working under artificial lights. (I have no natural light in my puzzle area) The pieces are EZ grasp, which added to the thickness of the board made for a wonderful tactile experience. Second, the entire assembly was quite fun and I enjoyed placing every single piece. The image makes for a good puzzle with some areas of a single color and some busier areas with flowers and berries.

Having worked with the excellent quality pieces which helped to make the assembly so fun, I took a picture and the image seemed more attractive to me. I was happy about finishing the puzzle and seeing the image assembled I thought “What a pretty picture!”. That isn’t what I thought when I first saw the puzzle box. I didn’t hate it, it just wasn’t a picture that made me suck in my breath and say “ooooh!” You know what I mean, you’ve most likely done it when you saw a puzzle that you loved.

I’ve become a bit less judgy since I’ve started doing reviews because many times a puzzle that was chosen for me to assemble isn’t one I would have chosen for myself. And almost every time I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the assembly and ended up seeing the image differently once I’d completed it. The same goes for thrift store purchases, mom buys puzzles that aren’t always ones that we’d normally purchase, but getting a puzzle at 95% off changes your perspective. 😉

If you get a chance to work a puzzle that might not ordinarily grab your attention, give it a try (especially a thrift store or swapped puzzle). It’s a nice change and you just may be surprised at how much you enjoy it!

Dear God, You Thought of Everything!

On January 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This is the last of 3 Dear God kids puzzles mom got at the thrift store. They were all complete, and all much more difficult than we bargained for. The line drawing quality of the artwork makes this puzzle a bit of a challenge. All 3 tested us a bit, and all 3 were completely adorable!

The pieces were a little thin and there was some image lift, but they fit together well and were relatively sturdy. We enjoyed these puzzles very much, and laughed at how difficult they were for us. We put together 2000 piece puzzles, how does a little 100 piece kids puzzle give us such grief?

It’s much more fun working on a difficult puzzle with someone, well I think so anyway. You can talk and laugh and help each other out, and even if it’s challenging you’re not as frustrated because there’s someone else to take off some of the pressure. That’s been my experience anyway. I love assembling puzzles with my mom, there’s lots of laughing and teasing – even some cussing, which is adorable coming from a “little old lady’s” mouth! We know how the other assembles puzzles and we’re used to working together. It’s the best!

Dance, Hug, Sing

On December 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another cute kid’s puzzle from the thrift store, but we didn’t even know we had this one! It was bagged separately in the box of another puzzle purchased. Freebie! Free is my favorite price. 😉

Excellent quality kids puzzle from Cardinal, and it was fun putting this together without the picture. Nice, thick pieces that fit together well with bright, fun colors – basically everything you’d want in a kids puzzle. It’s very well made and should last through many, many assemblies.

This was much nicer than the Troll hair puzzle. Ick! This puzzle has since been donated to a school, I’m sure they’re having a great time with it. It’s always fun to assemble kid’s puzzles for me, makes me feel like an expert puzzler! 😎