A Christmas Story

On December 11, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

We love A Christmas Story here at our house, so this was a fun assembly even though it wasn’t the best quality puzzle. Ralphie and the gang are always welcome here!

Normally Ceaco puzzles are not my cup of tea. We have found several Ceaco puzzles that were apart from the norm with very good quality. One was backed with thick corkboard and had a lot of whimsies, which was super fun and an excellent buy at the thrift store for 99 cents! We also found a Ceaco puzzle backed with red velvet!

This puzzle, however, was a run of the mill Ceaco. The pieces were on the thin side and the image was quite shiny and difficult to work under lights at night. A majority of the puzzle is the dark green Christmas tree, and the gloss on the pieces made it difficult to distinguish shades and and shapes when working at night. It was a random cut puzzle, which did make it more interesting to assemble, so that was a plus.

All in all, our love for the movie outweighed the quality of the puzzle, and we still enjoyed the assembly. “You should see how it looks from out here!” 😉

The Earth 3D

On December 9, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

My very first 3D puzzle! I must admit I’ve never been interested in doing a 3D puzzle, it just seemed odd to me. It was so much fun!!

Mom found this at a thrift store for $2.00. Since it was only 540 pieces I decided we should give it a try, and we both loved it! The plastic pieces feel very nice, and it fits together quite tightly. We had a great time together assembling it, with lots of giggles and laughter.

I would definitely do another 3D puzzle. I was completely wrong, they are much more fun than I thought!

Birthday Party

On December 5, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

Thrift store purchase. The quality was, uh, not up to snuff. Yikes. There were only 2 different piece styles and the thickness of the pieces was extremely thin. The finish of the image was shiny and gave off quite a bit of glare.

Looking back on it, I’m surprised I even finished this puzzle. The image isn’t one I would normally choose, and the quality was quite poor. If someone gave it to me now I don’t think I would even start it.

Once it was completed we gave it away – lesson learned. I am now a jigsaw puzzle snob (according to my mother) and this isn’t a brand I like or recommend.

Stonehenge In A Nutshell

On December 1, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Interesting jigsaw. My first from this company, and I would say the quality is satisfactory; piece thickness was good, image reproduction was slightly fuzzy but I believe that was the artist’s rendering.

This puzzle is grid cut, with basically only 2 piece shapes. It was the first time I was unable to assemble all the edge pieces first. Most were a solid color, except the sides and certain parts of the bottom edge with writing. I connected what I could, and had to wait until the puzzle was almost complete before I was able to finish the edges.

Nevertheless it was a fun, informative puzzle. Lots of information about Stonehenge and it’s construction. Plenty of words to assemble, and there wasn’t really much wasted space or large areas of sameness that would make assembly difficult – especially with only 2 piece shapes. Excellent thrift store find!

Songbird Garden

On November 20, 2016June 7, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

Started and finished this puzzle today. I love the colors, and it’s been a while since I’ve done a 500 piece puzzle. It seemed unbelievably easy compared to the puzzle I’m currently working on 😉

I enjoy Buffalo Games puzzles, the fit is always very good, and there’s no guesswork as to whether a piece fits or not. They also have the unique zig zag shape that I haven’t seen in any other puzzles. It was very nice to be able to pull a bunch of pieces for a small section and be able to finish it quickly without having to look at the box or picture for assistance.

I apologize for the picture, the photo editor on my computer got upgraded, and the crop feature isn’t working properly (or more likely I don’t know how to work it properly) I wanted to crop and straighten it, but it keeps cutting off the top of the puzzle. Grrrr!

Very nice puzzle, with lovely artwork. I haven’t come across this artist before, and I enjoyed the image and colors. Fun, easy puzzle – it’s nice to do something quick and easy for a change. I’ve been kinda snobby about 500 piece puzzles, I prefer 1000 or more pieces. But I’ve changed my tune. It’s nice to work on a smaller puzzle that you can just enjoy and put together leisurely. I’ve already started my next 500 piece puzzle, a shaped Wizard of Oz puzzle. Hope to have a completed picture for it soon!