Dog Tales

On April 26, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

I had a great time with this collage – these are my favorite sorts of puzzles – lots of words, many colors, many textures, they are never dull!

The piece shape is quite obvious in the finished puzzle, which is annoying if you want to frame and hang it, but doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment of assembly as far as I’m concerned. Otherwise the quality was quite good; thick pieces, nice fit, and beautiful colors.

These are a few of my favorite bits… Dog Tales 1

This tiny puppy squaring off with a very big bear – how adorable is that? I don’t know the book or anything about it but the cover is fantastic.

Dog Tales 3

This poor guy looks like I feel sometimes, ugh. He makes me want to sit down next to him and give him a nice belly rub. 🙂

Dog Tales 2

And of course, any book cover with a Boston Terrier is gonna make me happy. My Buddy is a Boston so the breed itself is one of my favorites, and they have such wonderful expressive faces. So adorable! If that’s a French Bulldog, I don’t even care – it looks like my Buddy. 😉

Pencil Collage Revisited

On April 25, 2019April 25, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles11 Comments

Pencil Collage by Maureen Rupprecht – White Mountain Puzzles – 1000 pieces

I’m not sure why, but this puzzle’s been on my mind the last few days. It was finished almost 3 years ago, and was really a joy to assemble. I haven’t touched a jigsaw puzzle since Sunday morning, and I’ve been thinking about certain puzzles I’ve done and really liked – perhaps just trying to get my groove back.

This puzzle stands out for me, I was almost afraid of it and put it off for quite a while because it was supposed to be very challenging. I found it to be highly entertaining to assemble and not nearly as hard as it was supposed to be. The fit was so tight that I could pick it up and stand it on it’s bottom edge!

I still haven’t started a new puzzle yet, but looking at this one makes me want to find one with lots of words like this pencil collage. Or perhaps I’ll get a few of the educational kids puzzles done, they’ve got a bit of wording and at only 24 pieces it’s not too much of a commitment. 🙂

Travel America

On April 22, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles10 Comments

No, the “smoky” look isn’t the picture, it’s the actual puzzle. It had very odd coloring in my opinion, but I’ve seen a lot of odd things in puzzles in my time. 😉

This puzzle wasn’t as entertaining as I’d hoped, but they can’t all be fantastic. The quality was fair; the pieces were thick enough and fit together extremely well. But the image reproduction was fuzzy and smoky and altogether weird. I’ve never really come across a puzzle like this from any brand. Interesting.

Travel America 1

The artwork made for quite a challenge, everything was so muted and smushed together.

Travel America 2

There were a lot of blue pieces, but luckily there were plenty of things to break up the monotony. The grid cut was offset, so you couldn’t rely on piece size to see if they lined up, which made the ocean sections a bit more challenging.

I’ve never worked a puzzle with this odd coloration before, it was….something.

Herb Farm Friends

On April 10, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This is a beautiful puzzle, but the flowers were such a PAIN! I knew they would be going in, and at times had to do a little internal cheerleading to keep myself going. When it was all said and done it’s a pretty image that was both entertaining and highly frustrating. 😉

This Cardinal puzzle actually had some whimsies, but they were awful to work with on my white board – they kept sliding around and making me crazy. My fabric covered board was occupied with another puzzle, perhaps I should have waited to assemble this one on the fabric board. Hmm.

Herb Farm Friends whimsies

I appreciate that extra work that goes in to making whimsies in a cardboard jigsaw puzzle, but these whimsy pieces added to the frustration if I’m being honest. The pieces that surrounded them almost never connected until you got 2 layers out, and there was much accidental touching of the pieces that made everything come apart. I’ve worked some cardboard puzzles with whimsy pieces that connect around the figural piece to keep things together, it would have been nice if these had been designed that way as well.

I’d love to tell you this was a fun puzzle, but although I enjoyed parts of it, the majority of my time was spent being frustrated with both the image and the whimsies. 😐

American Diner

On April 2, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve done a White Mountain puzzle that wasn’t a collage, and I’m not gonna lie, it was a little weird at first! This was very entertaining though, and it got done quickly – not being able to sleep is a good thing if you need help getting enough puzzle time. 😉

Steve Crisp’s artwork makes for fantastic puzzling, if you haven’t assembled one of his puzzles I absolutely recommend you give them a try. They’re beautiful, detailed, colorful, and just altogether great fun.

American Diner 1

I love this dancer, she looks like all she cares about is enjoying herself and dancing – she reminds me of me. 💃💃

American Diner 2

Look who’s on the wall – Marilyn, Elvis, and James Dean! I didn’t notice them on the box image, it was fun to see it up close in the finished puzzle. Jailhouse Rock Elvis was sexy! (I was a weird kid in the 70’s and 80’s and LOVED Elvis just as much as George Michael, Journey, and many others – I make no excuses 😎)

I really enjoyed this one, if you come across a copy it’s definitely recommended!