The 50 United States of America

On April 28, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Yup, another kid’s puzzle and another new company! It only took a few minutes to assemble this one, but it was so cute!

Lafayette Puzzle Factory is a new one for me and I know they do adult puzzles too – I’m looking forward to trying one. The pieces of this puzzle were on the thin side but are extremely sturdy which is excellent for a kid’s puzzle. The colors were amazingly bright and pretty without being over the top and the pieces fit together very well. I’m very impressed with the quality!

This is an excellent informational puzzle as well, it shows the 50 states and their capitals-it even shows something extra in a few states, something they’re well known for. Oranges from Florida, grapes from California, farms in Iowa, etc. I will admit though that at first I had no idea what they’re showing in Nevada and I had to really look at it to figure it out!

Great first puzzle from this company, if the adult puzzles are as well made I’ll be a happy puzzler! 🙂

Stamp Collector’s Dream

On April 21, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Oh my goodness was this puzzle ever awesome! If you read this blog regularly (although not very many do) you know I love collage puzzles. I’ve been wanting this puzzle for a long time now, and mom found it at the thrift store. YESSSS!!!!

Unfortunately it is missing an edge piece in the lower left corner; but although a bummer, it did not diminish my enjoyment of this puzzle – love love loved it! This is like the matchbook collage, it’s like having a hundred little mini puzzles to assemble and connect. So fun, and so hard to walk away from! Charlie Girard does an awesome job with his collages, they’re always entertaining. 🙂

White Mountain isn’t currently selling this puzzle, but it is still available from some online retailers like Amazon and eBay – or you can see if it’s hanging around at a thrift store near you.

I finished this one in a day 😮 Good thing I can bring my small puzzle board into my bedroom so I can work on it while resting. I just can’t resist a collage, they’re so difficult to leave alone. One piece always leads to another and then you know you need to take a break, but the last piece you put in has a weird color or shape and you know exactly what piece goes there and you just have to remember where you saw it, and then, oh cool, this section connects over here and……………and then, uh, where did the day go?

Jiuzhaigou Park

On April 17, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

That’s a name and a half, but also a gorgeous image and a enjoyable puzzle! I finished this one in an afternoon of watching Netflix and resting in bed. It was a bit of a challenge, but it worked out great and I think it’s a beautiful puzzle. 🙂

I haven’t done a Big Ben puzzle since I was little, I remember my grandmother having a Big Ben puzzle or two and working on them with her. I don’t really recall anything about the quality of the puzzles I did with my grandma, I just remember enjoying helping her. Big Ben puzzles have been around for a long time!

This is of course a newer Big Ben puzzle and the quality is excellent! I was surprised at how nice the pieces are, I saw the name Milton Bradley and assumed (incorrectly) that the quality would be lacking. The pieces are thick and sturdy with a beautiful image reproduction and matte finish. There are a variety of piece shapes and the fit was nice and tight without being difficult. I enjoyed the quality almost as much as I enjoyed the picture.

I assembled this puzzle from the middle out, which isn’t the way I normally do a puzzle. But for this picture I started from the sun behind the mountain and worked outward from there. The flowers in the foreground were the last thing I assembled – I usually leave the more plain sections for the end but for this puzzle I did most everything backward! It doesn’t really matter how I got there though, because I enjoyed the assembly and that’s what really counts. 🙂

Woodstock

On April 11, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

Love this image, but oh my was this time consuming and difficult!

When the picture is fun I don’t usually mind if all the pieces are ballerinas, but that is NOT true when there is just flat color everywhere! There are about 200 pieces that are just red. No different shades, nothing to break up the color, just red. Yikes. The same was true for the blue, white and green pieces, but in much smaller amounts.

I love having words to assemble, even larger ones – so that was fun. Even the guitar, hand and bird weren’t too terrible even though they were are flat color with no shading. But oh my the red background 😮 I refused to give up on it though and I got it finished!

I like the quality of Andrews & Blaine puzzles, but from now on if there is a lot of flat color in the image I won’t be attempting it. I’m proud and it wasn’t horrid, but it took so long and sometimes I thought I’d never get it done. The fit was looser than I’m used to with the Andrews & Blaine puzzles, so I had to take care and sometimes had to really look closely to be sure whether or not a piece fit. It made it a bit more challenging and took a lot of time. But just like with any puzzle, the more you whittle down the pieces you have to choose from the faster it goes. It got going faster and faster and that was exciting; plus all the pieces were there – bonus! I worry with the thrift store puzzles sometimes, but no need to worry on this one.

I love the image and the blocks of color but I’ve learned my lesson and unless there are different piece shapes I’m staying away from artwork like this one. This is one puzzle I’m super proud of completing though, that’s for sure. 😎

King Dog

On April 9, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Who couldn’t love a face like that? One look at this puzzle and we just had to get it and get it done!

300 piece puzzles are fun to put together in an afternoon, or even less time if you’re working with someone else. This puzzle was no different, and we just loved this adorable dog! The pieces weren’t too bad, and it was a large piece puzzle, so the finished product was much larger than we anticipated (18 x 24). That’s alright though, it seems like more of an accomplishment – look at this big puzzle we just finished!

Like I’ve said before, if you really love the image the puzzle is fun to put together even if the quality is less than amazing. The quality of this puzzle wasn’t too bad at all, so the assembly wasn’t a chore. I’m a bit of a puzzle snob, so when I see a puzzle I’ve had quality issues with before I tend to turn up my nose, but I also try to give every puzzle a chance. I’m not always successful, but I’m getting better at it.

It’s especially nice for me when I’m working on a puzzle that may be more difficult or time consuming to stop and work on a smaller or easier puzzle. I’m working on an extremely time consuming 1000 piece puzzle that I absolutely REFUSE to give up on – so it was very nice to spend the day over at mom’s where we were able to start and finish this puzzle in no time at all! This royal pup was too cute!

I love seeing all the different puzzles mom (black belt thrift shopper) finds at the thrift stores around here. They’re not all my cup of tea, but a lot of them I try anyway and find out that it was way more fun than I anticipated. 🙂