Dinosaur

On February 10, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

Here’s another small children’s puzzle that mom and I assembled on our visit/puzzle day. Melissa & Doug make excellent puzzles for children and they have some really interesting educational and fun images.

The colors seem a bit muted here, but it was still a pretty puzzle and an entertaining assembly. The fit is almost seamless and the pieces were wonderfully thick. Melissa & Doug are primarily focused on children’s games and toys and they have a very nice selection for children of all ages.

They also carry a small line of adult puzzles, but I don’t believe I’ve assembled any of them yet. We’ve not found any of their larger piece count puzzles at the local thrift stores, but I’m hoping for the chance to try one someday.

Melissa & Doug, I wouldn’t say no to one of your adult puzzles to review; I love trying out new companies! 😉

Review: Vintage Signs

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

My first new puzzle purchase of 2018, and it was absolutely as much fun as I’d hoped. Collages are my favorite kind of puzzle, I love being able to assemble one small section at a time, and it’s satisfying to connect the sections together.

This Re-marks puzzle was very good quality; although they are shiny the pieces are thick and they connect together very well. The piece shape is quite obvious in the finished image, but for me that doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment of the assembly. The shine was a little annoying under the lights – even though the image isn’t dark it was still difficult at times to see the pieces properly.

I feel a little bit better now that I’ve successfully completed a 500 piece puzzle, and after a couple more I hope to get back to doing 1000 piece puzzles and maybe even higher piece counts.

Details:

Title: Vintage Signs
Artist: Re-marks
Brand: Re-marks
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 16 x 20 in. (40 x 50 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: All 2 prong 2 hole pieces, but good variety within that shape
Finish: Shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

The Ballet Class

On February 8, 2018February 8, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Very cute Ravensburger that we were hoping was complete, unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Still Mom and I enjoyed ourselves assembling it, and isn’t that what counts the most?

I love working Ravensburger puzzles, they’re my favorite manufacturer. Their puzzles are excellent quality all around and are the best to work with in my opinion. And if I ever have a problem with one of their puzzles they have always made it right immediately with excellent customer service. The pieces are thick and feel good in your hand, there are always a nice variety of shapes to work with, the image reproduction is excellent, and they fit together very well. They’re the best in the biz!

Even with this puzzle being over 34 years old, it is still in excellent shape. I could tell by the condition of the box that it was a well loved puzzle, but I was pleased that the pieces themselves were still holding up wonderfully. If only all the pieces were there – bummer.

Still, it won’t deter us from continuing to shop at the thrift stores, there are too many fabulous puzzles there at such good prices. If you want to stop my mom from shopping the thrift stores you’re going to have to wrestle her car keys from her – good luck with that! 🙂

The Story of Heidi in the Alps

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

I got a bee in my bonnet about getting all the children’s puzzles in my house assembled so I could donate them and get them out of here; so I spent some time in front of the tv catching up on my shows while assembling 9 puzzles one after another. It also helped me build my stockpile of posts back up, so I have a little cushion now in case I need it again. 😁

These two puzzles were only 12 pieces each and went together extremely quickly, but they’re beautifully made puzzles of excellent quality. Almost every puzzle I assembled this day (7 out of 9) were Ravensburger puzzles and every one of them was wonderful quality. I appreciate companies that put effort into their puzzles for kids, and the best that I’ve found are Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, and Eurographics.

When I assembled the second puzzle in the box I struggled to remember the name of the boy in the story. I know I read it as a child, and I remember the movie Heidi with Shirley Temple, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the boy’s name. (I’m sure I just dated myself with the Shirley Temple reference, but that’s mostly how I remember the story of Heidi) I had to give up on my memory and look it up online, his name is Peter.

Jigsaw puzzles are great for helping children develop problem solving skills, fine motor coordination, spatial awareness, pattern recognition and many other essential skills. I highly recommend puzzles as gifts for children, they’re fun and educational and might even start someone off on the road to enjoying jigsaw puzzles for the rest of their life!

Rainbow Beach Huts

On February 6, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

IMG_E4193 — Rainbow Beach Huts by Peter Adderley – Cardinal – 500 pieces

This puzzle with it’s bright blocks of color was a fun assembly, and three generations of women in my family completed it together. If you’re a daily reader of this blog you have already seen part of this puzzle, I took a picture of our 3 hands putting in the last pieces of this puzzle for my National Puzzle Day post. 😉

The pieces were a bit thin, the finish was very shiny, and the fit was such that if you accidentally bumped the puzzle you’d upset many pieces. Not the best quality, but not the worst I’ve had either. On the positive side, the image reproduction was very nice and there were a good variety of piece shapes to work with. Cardinal puzzles seem to be a bit hit or miss with their quality in my opinion. I’ve worked some very nice quality Cardinal puzzles, and had some that are not good at all. Brands like this we only buy from thrift stores; when the quality is an unknown we prefer not to pay retail, even if we really like the image.

I’ve mostly been working with smaller piece counts since I’ve been recuperating; it’s been difficult for me to sit and puzzle for any length of time. Mom and I have mostly been doing puzzles between 200 and 500 pieces when I’m visiting at her house. It goes much faster with more than one person, and it’s helping me get back into the swing of things.

We only got halfway through this puzzle the first day (we completed 2 others first), and so we finished it the next day with the help of my daughter before we went on a field trip to buy puzzles (I bought 6 😇). I enjoy images with bright colors that are easy to sort, and this one was an excellent image to puzzle – good fun was had by all!