Unicorns – Part 1

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments
Unicorns 1-2
Unicorns by Rose Catherine Khan- Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces

This is puzzle 100 for the year! I’m so glad that it was one that I enjoyed so very much. I can’t even express how much I loved these unicorns! They’re all so beautiful and colorful and I had the best time with them. 💗

These new sets that I bought are from Cra-Z-Art only, none of them say Lafayette Puzzle Factory like the previous sets. In addition, the colored backing has changed slightly so that it’s less slippery/shiny and made it easier for me to get good pictures without each one sliding off my board. Otherwise the quality seems the same; the pieces are on the thinner side, but they are sturdy and fit together well but slightly loosely.

The unicorns are all designed by Rose Catherine Khan, a new artist to me. I love the detail, the colors, and the fantasy of it all. Although fantasy images are not my usual choice, I certainly hope to see more puzzles with her artwork, I had such a great time with this one!

Unicorns 1-3

Purple and pink always make such a great combination! Is that because I grew up in the 80’s? Perhaps. Whatever. 😉 The colors of each of them are so beautiful! I’ve decided to name them all, because these unicorns with the long, flowing manes, gorgeous colors, and wonderful extras make me want to be silly and fun. The saddle on this one almost looks like a caterpillar on it’s body, and the longer hair at the hooves makes me think this is a female – so I have named her Cecilia, the Countess of Chrysalis. Cecilia was the runt of her litter, but she loves her shorter stature and thinks unicorns of every shape and size are beautiful no matter what. She likes to paraphrase Horton (he heard the Whos); “A unicorn’s a unicorn, no matter how small.”

Unicorns 1-4

This one makes me think of My Little Pony, only much more grown up and much more striking. This unicorn seems quite strong and manly to me so I have named him Angus the Able-Bodied. He is fierce, but fabulous – with iridescent wings that keep him aloft so that he can survey and protect his home. He likes moonlit walks on the beach, underwater basket-weaving, working out 3 days a week, and taking a spa day every two weeks to keep his mane in check and get himself a much needed pedicure.

Unicorns 1-5

This is my favorite of the three in this group, although I have to say that I think they’re all differing levels of fabulous. This unicorn also seems more masculine to me, and the long, fantastic mane has led me to name him Sampson the Stouthearted. The extra long hair/mane with what looks like strings of pearls is just amazingly gorgeous, and unfortunately also causes Sampson to be a little bit of a narcissist. He enjoys looking in the mirror, reading stories about himself in the newspaper, and spending time with his best friend Oliver the Owl. He’s a bit of a self-involved idiot, but he’s also brave and the first to stand up for those who are downtrodden. Mostly though, he’s lovely to look at.

I loved the artwork, I loved putting them together, I made myself laugh out loud at the silly stories I made up about them, and I adored each and every one of these shaped puzzles. Amazingly entertaining!

What’s Next?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling15 Comments

Question Mark

The birds are finished and put away, and today I’m deciding what’s next. There are a lot of mitigating factors that go into that decision for me; what do you do when deciding what’s next?

Do you have your to-do pile in order and just take the next puzzle on top and get assembling? I’ve tried to do that, but it just doesn’t work for me.

I have in my head usually the type of puzzle or a piece count that I want to do next, but normally those don’t end up being the next puzzle done. I may not be in the mood for a landscape, or I may not be feeling well enough to sit and put together a 1000 piece puzzle. It basically all depends on the day, and my mood, and how I’m feeling physically – along with a bunch of other considerations.

What’s next for you? How did you decide?

Building Facades

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments
Building Facades
Building Facades by Iralu – Cardinal – 500 pieces

Here we have another untitled image. Unfortunately, I was unable to come up with a catchy title and so I just gave it a descriptive one. What do you see here? Building facades. What should I call it? I guess…..Building Facades. *yawn* Sorry guys, my brain isn’t always firing on all cylinders.

This is one of twelves puzzles in one box from Cardinal. I knew when I purchased it that it wouldn’t be great quality – I’ve never seen one of these multipack puzzles with really good quality. Ever. But, I wanted these images; I love the artwork and decided that it would be worth muddling through the crappy quality to get to put these interesting and colorful images together.

I’ve now assembled puzzles of all three sizes from this multipack and I can report that the puzzles have differing levels of quality. The 150 pieces are the best of the bunch; the fit isn’t great, but it isn’t horrid either, and the piece thickness is fair. The 300 piece puzzles in this set are the middle range; thinner pieces than the 150 pcs., and the fit was about the same. The 500 pieces were the worst of the bunch; the fit was awful, the pieces were extremely thin, and the glare from the shiny finish was much more noticeable.

All of that said, I don’t regret buying this set. I knew it wouldn’t be great quality and I still look forward to assembling the rest of the images. Glutton for punishment? Perhaps. Puzzle addict and PADS sufferer? Definitely! 🧩💗

Lapping Up the Luau

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment
Lapping Up the Luau
Lapping Up the Luau – Re-marks – 100 pieces

This is one of those untitled puzzles where, here at My Jigsaw Journal, I get to choose a title that is silly, or ridiculous, or just one that makes me laugh. These usually require some thought, or a complete disregard of thought that has me coming up with an enigmatic or ludicrous title that doesn’t even make sense with the image (those are the really fun ones). In this case though, I decided to go along with the image and just choose a fun and slightly silly title that made me laugh….Lapping Up the Luau.

I mean, look at this little pupper with his/her lei and cool sunglasses; and the rubber ducky is too cute! Even if you’re not a dog person you have to see this image and smile, you just can’t help it. Lap up that luau little one, you deserve a fun day at the beach! 🕶⛱

These small boxes with 100 piece puzzles from Re-marks are just what a gal like me needs to cleanse the palate after a large puzzle, or to jump back in to puzzling when you’ve had a sustained break from it. They’re well made, good quality puzzles with adorable images that are truly entertaining to put together. I don’t know what else I could ask for!

With puzzles that are such a small piece count I always put away the box and just work the puzzle with my only clues coming from the pieces themselves. I think it’s not only entertaining, but it keeps my mind sharp so I don’t have to re-hone the puzzle skills later on with a larger puzzle that perhaps might frustrate me.

Unfortunately I think there’s only one of these left here that I haven’t assembled, which makes me a little sad to be honest. They’re so much fun to do!

Birds in Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments
Birds IP
Birds – Lafayette Puzzle Factory (Cra-Z-Art) – 500 pieces

Another 500 piece puzzle with separate shaped mini puzzles, this one is Birds. I didn’t want to do too many of these small shaped puzzles in a row, but needs must – sitting in my chair in front of my table just isn’t something I’m able to do at the moment; these puzzles are easy to do on trays or my white board while I’m in bed.

I also wanted to show you the colored backings; you can separate them by color so that you can put each group together or you can disregard the backing and just assemble them as a regular 500 piece puzzle using only colors and shapes.

The feedback on the previous sets (Cottages and Shoes) has been great, and I hope you don’t get too sick of them. I bought myself 6 new sets, and one of them has already been assembled, and….. Oh. My. Goodness. They’re so beautiful! They’re fun and interesting too; and more importantly they’re easy to do when sitting is too difficult for me.

This puzzle is different than most of the others in that instead of 12 mini puzzles there are 15 of them. Instead of four days of posts showing three puzzles each day there will be five days of posts. I hope everyone enjoys the pretty birds! 🦜🐦