Review: Hot Air Balloons

On November 6, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews3 Comments

This picture just doesn’t do this puzzle justice, the colors are so bright and beautiful! You know how I love a collage, so imagine my happiness at finding such a colorful, interesting image. 😍

This was my first Hennessy puzzle, I was impressed and enjoyed it very much! The quality was very good, with thick pieces that fit together well, a random cut that kept things interesting, and lovely image reproduction. The colors really are something! In general the quality is very similar to Cobble Hill puzzles; the chipboard used, the cut of the pieces, and the fit are all very much alike.

There were some pieces not completely separated from each other, and the piece shape is quite evident in the finished image – which isn’t great if you want to display the puzzle after assembly. Having only assembled one Hennessy puzzle, I cannot say whether this is typical of this brand or is just because my puzzle was cut with a die that was becoming dull. I always try to err on the side of positivity, so until I work more puzzles from this brand I will say it was most likely a puzzle from the end of a run.

Hot Air Balloons was so entertaining to put together! It’s a bit surprising because I normally stay clear of hot air balloon puzzles. There are so many balloon puzzles, and the images for the most part seem so similar – they’re just not my thing. I’ve done a few, and they were fun to assemble; but when looking at puzzles to purchase I usually skip right over the hot air balloons. This image, however, is very different. And a collage! 💖

These are 3 of my favorites, but honestly, I loved them all! Each background was so different, each balloon was so fun – for me this is a perfect image for puzzling, and it made me very, very happy. Every time I look at it I start singing a song in my head from The 5th Dimension (from the late 1960’s) ….. 🎶Up, up and away in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon🎶

Hot Air Balloons is definitely recommended, I absolutely adored it!

Details:

Title: Hot Air Balloons
Artist: Vida Random
Brand: Hennessy Puzzles
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 19 x 27 in. (49 x 68 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Good
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Sophia’s Doll House

On October 25, 2018October 25, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Sophia’s Doll House was the puzzle that jumped out at me while mom was showing off her latest thrift store haul. The beautiful colors and interesting scene looked like so much fun, and luckily it was!

It’s been a while since I’ve assembled a MasterPieces puzzle, and I had forgotten how enjoyable the extremely random cut of the pieces is. It always takes me a few minutes for my brain to get into “random gear”, especially if I’ve just finished working a grid cut puzzle. It can be frustrating for some, and it is sometimes for me too; but once I figure it out and everything starts coming together it makes for such an entertaining assembly.

Although it’s not really a collage, the many rooms of the dollhouse made the assembly seem as though it was. It was the best of both worlds for me; a collage of dollhouse rooms, and just a regular domestic scene from a playroom around the edges. I loved it!

These were my favorite 3 rooms to assemble. They’re so adorable, and the interesting wallpaper in the many rooms made for an easy sort. There are framed pictures of dolls in almost every room, and the pretty frames around them were fun to put together.

If you don’t mind a random cut, I highly recommend this puzzle. I had the best time with it, and it didn’t scare me (that much) that it was 1000 pieces. The fit was lovely and the entire scene makes for a wonderful assembly. 👍

Review: Cow Parade

On October 13, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

Cow Parade was a wonderfully entertaining puzzle that made me happy with each piece that I put into it. The collage aspect made it so much fun for me, and the interesting artwork on the cows was beautiful (and sometimes very funny).

Cobble Hill Puzzles are very well made, and I find their quality to be very good. The pieces are a good thickness, with an excellent variety of shapes that fit together well. The image reproduction is excellent, with bright, beautiful colors and crisp lines. The finish is linen-covered, which has a great feel in your hands. Even their boxes are covered with linen and have a luxurious feel to them. Click the link above to see at the Cobble Hill Puzzles currently available at Puzzle Warehouse, they have an excellent catalog of puzzles to choose from. (check out Red from their rainbow collection of collages in 7 different colors – I want them all!)

The fit can sometimes be loose, making it difficult to move smaller sections around, but I don’t find it to be too much so. The piece shapes can be very prominent in the finished image, which is not optimal if you wish to display it; but I find that it doesn’t make the assembly any less fun. Most times, applying glue to a puzzle can lessen the appearance of the piece shapes.

This puzzle is a collection of some of the cows designed and decorated by artists all over the globe for CowParade, the world’s largest and most successful public art event. Over $20 million dollars has been raised by charitable organizations all over the world by the auctioning of the cows. Wow!

It was such great fun, I enjoyed learning about the charity/art installation, and I loved assembling every single cow. They all were beautiful in their own way, but these are my favorites…

Jacques Moosteau, he made me laugh out loud! The writing is so small that it’s difficult to see the information for each of the cows; the title, artist, and city of display was listed near each one.

This gorgeous head of hair is worn by Woodstock, he’s got quite the outfit on, and I love the rose colored glasses!

This interesting beauty is Homage to Picowso’s African Period, perfection!

This one was so much fun to assemble, the bike made it larger and a bit more challenging than his other friends. He is Lait Triporteur, which I found means basically Milk Scooter (a triporteur is the name for the 3-wheeled cargo bike shown). I learned a new word in addition to having a great time!

I specifically chose this puzzle to review, because I’d had my eye on it for a while; it was on my wish list at Puzzle Warehouse for quite some time – it just looked like so much fun. I was hoping that it would be, and I was absolutely right! I love to find puzzles like this for review, ones I think will be entertaining and well made that give me the chance to let others know about them.

Cow Parade was a great quality puzzle that was extremely entertaining to assemble. I found it to be about medium difficulty, there aren’t as many plain white pieces as you’d think. I absolutely loved it – and it’s highly recommended. Moo! 🐄

Details:

Title: Cow Parade
Artist: Cow Parade Holdings
Brand: Cobble Hill
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 27 x 19 in. (68 x 49 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Good, sturdy
Fit: Good, slightly loose
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Matte finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, highly recommended

I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

Bookmarks

On October 12, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Even though this puzzle was missing a piece it, it was still great fun. Each bookmark was entertaining to put together, and it made for an excellent all around puzzle.

I didn’t use the image on the box to help me with the assembly – so only shape, color, and patterns were used to solve it. I sometimes enjoy challenging myself by putting the box away and solving the puzzle with no help from the image at all. I don’t always know which puzzle is going to lead me to attempt it without the image; usually it’s the more difficult ones, but sometimes it’s fun collages like this one.

Charlie Girard puts together some amazing images that make for wonderfully fun puzzles, that’s why he’s one of my favorite puzzle artists. His collages make me so happy! I’ve done many of his collages, but there are still many more I’d love to get my hands on. 🙂

These are some of my favorite bookmarks from this puzzle…

I wonder what my choice of these 3 bookmarks says about me. Thoughts? 😉

Fairytale Fantasia

On October 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

And now we’ve come to the end of the oldies but goodies, this is the last of the puzzles from over 2 years ago that I’ve never posted about. It’s been great fun going back and remembering all these puzzles!

It’s odd to me that I can remember specific things about each of the puzzles from back then, but I can’t tell you how old I am without doing math in my head first. What did I have for lunch yesterday? I have no idea, but I can tell you many things about this puzzle I did about 2 1/2 years ago. Weird old lady brain! 👵

This shelf, for me, was the easiest of the Aimee Stewart shelves that I’ve assembled. Glorious Vintage, Fantastic Voyage, World of Books, etc., these were all much more of a challenge in my opinion. I enjoyed them all, but this was the least difficult; Glorious Vintage required the most brain power, all that green had my head spinning!

For Fairytale Fantastia all the books, the beautiful colors, and the whimsical characters made this puzzle a joy to put together, and one of my favorite shelves by this artist. If I’m being honest, pretty much all puzzles by Aimee Stewart are in the favorites category (except for her Neuschwanstein image, Castle Dream. It’s just not my cup of tea/pile of pieces). 😉

And as usual, the quality of this puzzle was as excellent as the artwork. Ravensburger pieces have a wonderful feel in your hands, the “softclick” technology provides a great fit, and the image reproduction is amazingly done. No wonder they’re one of my favorite puzzle brands!

I wish there were more Aimee Stewart puzzles here at the house that I could dive into; but, alas, I’m Stewart-less at the moment. All this reminiscing has me in the mood for her awesome use of colors and whimsy – and looking at her artwork always makes me a little happier than I was before. ☺