The Grail of the Summer Stars

On July 13, 2018July 13, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

The picture does not do this puzzle justice, it is absolutely stunning! With beautiful colors, and an intricate and detailed image it was a challenging but super fun assembly. The quality was less than stellar, but the gorgeous artwork definitely made up for a lot of that, I absolutely loved this image!

Unfortunately this was one of those Ceaco puzzles with the splitting chipboard, image lift, and that doesn’t lay completely flat. This was a new puzzle right out of the box, so none of those things could be attributed to previous assemblies. That said, the fit was very good, and the reproduction was gorgeous. I fell in love with the image; no matter what the quality was like I was going to finish the puzzle to see it complete.

What astounded me about the image was that the more I assembled, the more tiny details I found. There were hieroglyphs on the pillars, angels on the balcony, and other things you don’t notice when you first see the entire image.

Even with the quality problems I’m still glad to have had the chance to assemble this puzzle. And there’s another one by this artist in my possession that I’m very much looking forward to doing. It’s a bit darker in color, but the hope is that it’s gonna be just as dazzling as this one.

From a quality standpoint I can’t really recommend this image from this brand, there really were serious issues with the chipboard used and how the image adhered to it. But if you find a puzzle with artwork by Kinuko Craft you might want to weigh the pros and cons; the art is amazing!

As an added bonus, this is what happened when I tried to take pictures. My furry baby wanted to say hi …..

What a sweet face this boy has! He looks sad, but that’s his “Mom, are you done yet?” face. He wanted to go outside and play. 💗

Which to do?

On July 12, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

I finished a puzzle yesterday morning, and then spent a great deal of time trying to decide which one was next. A decision didn’t seem to present itself, and then a lovely man in brown shorts dropped off a package at the front door!

After working the Cupcakes puzzle I was VERY interested in getting more of this series. Naturally, as one does, I ordered as many as I could find in one place. The nice man with the brown truck brought me 8 of them yesterday! Wooohooo!

In another chapter of today’s story, mom was coming over to bring me a prescription and timed it perfectly; 20 minutes after my delivery mom arrived carrying a Goodwill bag with recent thrift store purchases for me to check out. 😎

The dalmatians puzzle from the thrift store is intriguing to me, I’ve never done a Springbok family puzzle before and I’m interested to see how it goes. And it’s so adorable! The 12 shaped high heels are amazing looking, and I know they’ll be great fun. I want to do them both right now, but there is only one board to work a puzzle on in bed. Which to choose?

Hot Air Balloon Sunset

On July 11, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

My daughter took me puzzle shopping last week, and while I don’t normally care for hot air balloon puzzles this one was only 500 pieces and the colors were so pretty that I couldn’t resist it.

I’ve been finding a lot of these Milton Bradley puzzles lately, they’re pretty good quality and they have some really nice images to choose from. I especially appreciate the nice fit and variety of piece shapes. The feel of the pieces is smooth and pleasant, and I enjoy working with them. Good thing too, since almost all the smaller piece count puzzles I’ve been finding have been this brand.

The colors are quite striking and they all work together to make a beautiful puzzle; although there’s no mention of the artist anywhere on the box. This seems to be a theme lately, why are puzzle companies not crediting the artist? It isn’t just Milton Bradley, it’s been the case with several puzzles from different manufacturers. Not cool if you ask me.

How many hot air balloon puzzles have you seen or done?

I Forgot!

On July 10, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Yesterday I posted the Alice in Wonderland puzzle, but I forgot to get a picture of all the whimsies before I put it away. I usually take the picture of all the whimsy pieces before I start the assembly, but since this puzzle was unusual and had many multi-piece whimsies I decided to take the picture when I was finished. Obviously, I forgot.

One of my readers pointed this out to me in the comments, so I went back through the box and pulled out all the whimsies I could find. I can’t be sure I got them all, but I hope I did – they’re beautiful, and perfect for the puzzle.

This was the first Wentworth puzzle I’ve done that had multi-piece whimsies, they were very detailed and appropriate for the image. There were dodo birds, rabbits, lizards, the Cheshire Cat, and even the letters L and C – for Lewis Carroll. They made for a fun assembly!

I’ll do my best not to forget again, but no promises; my brain is aging even as I type this. 😉

Review: Alice in Wonderland

On July 9, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Alice in Wonderland by Royce B. McClure – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 250 pieces

This was an extremely entertaining puzzle to assemble, I love the image! I’ve seen many of Royce McClure’s images on puzzles, but I believe this is the first one I’ve assembled. The artwork is so detailed and beautiful, and the subject matter is so fun and funny – it really was a great puzzle to put together. I highly recommend it!

This was one of the 5 puzzles I ordered for myself last month. It was the only one that wasn’t on sale (although I did use a code to get 10% off), I’d had my eye on it for quite some time. The image is exactly my cup of tea – served by the Mad Hatter, no doubt – and I couldn’t resist finally getting it when I ordered the others on sale. I’m so glad I did.

As with all laser-cut wooden puzzles, the fit is quite loose. I’ve never worked a hand-cut wooden puzzle so I can’t speak to that fit (if anyone would like to send me one to try out, I wouldn’t say no. 😉 )

Besides the loose fit, the quality is exceptional. The wooden pieces are thick and have a satisfying “plunk” when they fall into place. I don’t know the process of how the image is attached to the wood, but it’s beautifully done from my perspective.

The quality of the image is exceptional, the characters and faces are gorgeous! I always enjoy having words to assemble, and each of the small sections of the scene was so much fun. It definitely makes me want to find more puzzles by Royce McClure – I absolutely adored his work, it’s so appealing and detailed.

If you have the chance, I definitely recommend Wentworth puzzles; it’s a whole different experience than working a cardboard puzzle, so much fun!

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