Review: Night Village

On October 23, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Night Village by Karla Gerard – Artifact Puzzles – 164 pieces

I finally treated myself! I’ve wanted a wooden jigsaw puzzle for a very long time, and I decided it was time, I deserved it! (I could say it was a reward for the 1 year anniversary of the blog, but honestly it was just because I finally decided I wasn’t going to wait anymore to get myself a wooden jigsaw puzzle 😉 )

Artifact puzzles are very reasonably priced compared to many other wooden puzzle companies in my opinion. Many companies are $100 or more for even a small puzzle! And if you’re looking for the “Rolls Royce of Puzzles”, Stave puzzles are the most expensive I’ve found. The smallest puzzle starts at over $800 for a 100 piece, and if you would like a 1000 piece Stave puzzle, be prepared to spend almost $7000!!!! 😮 Even if I were a millionaire I don’t know that I would be able to spend thousands of dollars for a puzzle! My small puzzle cost only $38 dollars. That may seem like a lot to some, and perhaps it is; but I really wanted to treat myself and I make no apologies, I’m worth it!

First of all the box feels luxurious, the pieces are wrapped in tissue paper inside a beautiful blue box with a magnetic clasp. And for me, I loved the smell of the pieces. They smell like Michigan to me. I know that sounds bizarre, let me explain. I grew up in Michigan, and in our house we had a wood-burning stove. The smell of these puzzle pieces reminds me of the smell of our house in fall and winter when we had the woodstove going. It smells great and makes me feel nostalgic.

I chose this image because it’s colorful and fun, and I like the shape of the pieces. On the website artifactpuzzles.com you can see a preview of the pieces that each puzzle contains; so you can choose a puzzle with pieces that you’ll like. I didn’t want regular looking pieces, and I wanted an image that would be fun to do over and over. I chose Night Village; it met all of my requirements. If you want to treat yourself click on the link above and see what they have, there’s a wonderful catalog of reasonably priced puzzles to choose from.

The assembly was a joy! Somehow I found the willpower to wait two whole days before I started working on it because I wanted to put it together with my mom on our weekly visit/puzzle day. We had the best time, and it was just so damn cool working with the wood pieces for the first time! I love the way they fit together, I love the feel of the pieces as they “plunk” into place, I love the image itself and the interesting piece shapes; in short – I loved this puzzle! 😍

If anyone is looking for a gift for me…..there’s a link 2 paragraphs up, pick out something fun! 😁

You can really see the piece shapes from the back

Details:

Title: Night Village
Artist: Karla Gerard
Brand: Artifact Puzzles
Piece count: 164 pieces
Size: Approx. 7 x 9 in. (18 x 23 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: 1/4″ thick wood
Cutting: Excellent, laser cut
Image: Excellent
Box: Excellent box with magnetic clasp
Fit: Normal/Average (I’m not sure this applies)
Puzzle Dust: 2 tiny bits of broken off wood, did not affect the image at all
Piece cut: Random cut – amazingly detailed and intricate
Piece shapes: Designed specifically for this puzzle (awesome!)
Finish: Matte finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Excellent, most highly recommended

Disney Panorama of Friends

On June 25, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another cool thrift store find, a new company to try out, and a super fun image for Disney fans. Three for the price of one!

When we assembled the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle last week I wanted to bring a kid’s puzzle or two for children to work on if they were bored. Turns out it was a great idea, because adults and children alike were working on the puzzles – maybe I inspired someone! This puzzle was the one everyone was helping with; the bright colors, familiar characters, and excellent quality made it the favorite of the day. (Besides the big kahuna of course) 😉

I was impressed with the quality of this puzzle. The pieces were extremely sturdy and fit together well, the image reproduction was bright without being over the top, and the finished puzzle lies flat and is seamless. Excellent quality for a children’s puzzle!

If you read this blog regularly you know I don’t really talk about the boxes puzzles come in unless they were awful or really cool. The box this puzzle came in was not good at all. It was slightly curved which isn’t a problem, but was made of thin cardboard and the attached top had 2 places where it was to be opened. Not the best idea for a kids puzzle if you ask me, the one we bought was ripped on the top. I prefer a box that has a separate bottom and a top so that you don’t have to damage the box to open it and it makes it a little more difficult to lose a piece. The box wasn’t ideal for a children’s puzzle, and especially one that was such good quality – the puzzle will last, but what about the box?

Box issues aside, this was an excellent puzzle. I looked on their website and Cardinal Games has a good catalog of children’s puzzles and even some adult puzzles in 300, 500, and 1000 pieces. I’m interested to see what the quality of the adult puzzles is like, perhaps my black belt thrift store shopper will be able to find one for us to try. 😎🛒

Cars

On June 16, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was the last of three 150 piece puzzles in the box, and by pure coincidence the new Cars movie is being released today! Perfect time for this puzzle, don’t you think?

Thankfully all the pieces were accounted for in this puzzle, and it was another quick and easy assembly. Lightning McQueen was easy to pull pieces for, and after he was finished the rest of the puzzle kind of falls into place. Pull the trees and sky, then Mater and Fillmore, and finally Guido and any filler or background pieces left over. Quick and fun, and not too bad quality-wise.

The pieces are thin, but there was no image lift on this puzzle, the pieces fit together well, the image reproduction was very nice, and it’s not so difficult that it would be frustrating for a child. The pieces are small for a child’s puzzle, so I wouldn’t recommend it for very young children, perhaps 6 years or older; the recommendation on the box say ages 6-99.

Disney – Pixar movies were the ones released when my children were young, and hopefully they have good memories of watching them with their parents. As soon as the movies were released on VHS (yes, I’m that old), we all piled in the car and went to the store to buy a copy. We watched them together as a family, and I have wonderful memories of spending time with the kids – laughing at the jokes and getting emotional at the sad parts – but enjoying just being with them and watching them discover the wonder of Disney movies. Perhaps they will one day share these movies with their own children and create new and wonderful memories too. ❤🎞

Disney Princesses

On June 15, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another puzzle with missing pieces unfortunately. In addition, someone managed to spill ink onto some of the pieces – ouch.

I’m not sure if this puzzle was a favorite and assembled more often than the others, or if the quality was lacking. The pieces fit together well enough, but in addition to being quite thin there were several pieces with the image lifting up as you can see above. The colors were more muted than most of the other puzzles in this collection, but still pretty. I can’t definitively say that quality is the reason for the image lift, as I didn’t see that problem with any of the other puzzles in this box. I try to err on the side of positivity if I’m not sure, and so I’ll say that most likely this was the puzzle most loved and assembled which accounts for the extra wear and tear.

The assembly was quick and easy, in fact I assembled all 3 of the 150 piece puzzles in the same day. They were small enough to assemble on a cookie sheet and I was able to be in bed resting but still get some puzzling done! 🙂

Mom and I had to travel to a doctor’s appointment this week, and were discussing movies we would have liked to see in the Memorable Moments puzzle. Doing this princesses puzzle made me wonder what criteria was used to decide which movies to include – I think Sleeping Beauty would have made a gorgeous section! And mom and I both agreed that The Aristocats would have been great too – we both loved the movie and it had such wonderful songs and music (important criteria in our family), and those adorable kittens would have made for a delightful section as well. But there have been so many great Disney movies, I don’t think you’d ever make everyone happy with your choices unless every single Disney movie was included – how big would that puzzle be? 😮

This puzzle won’t be going to my grandson’s house since it’s missing pieces and damaged, but it’s Disney week and I wanted to add it to the blog because two of these princesses are in the giant Disney puzzle. Poor Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) was left out, but at least she made it here to My Jigsaw Journal. 😎

Mickey Mouse Soccer

On June 13, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I had a Mega Puzzles box of 8 Disney puzzles in the car to deliver to my honorary grandson, and I just rediscovered them today. (I really need to clean out the backseat of my car 😐 )I realized that I haven’t done them to be sure all the pieces are there, and as an added bonus I’ll be able to do Disney puzzles all week leading up to Saturday, assembly day! As a matter of fact I’ll probably be able to do 3 or 4 of the puzzles in one day!

The box is supposed to have 4 puzzles of 150 pieces, 2 that are 300 pieces, and 2 that are 500 pieces. I normally only post a kid’s puzzle about once a week, but I’m super excited about Saturday and having these puzzles to do this week will be an excellent lead up to the big day!

I am surprised at how small this puzzle is, it’s 150 pieces but only 7 x 9 inches! It’s a nice image, I like that it isn’t all syrupy sweet (not that there’s anything wrong with that, syrupy sweet is adorable too!) and it’s a puzzle that specifically a boy would like. It didn’t take long to assemble and is a great start for Disney week here at My Jigsaw Journal. I didn’t have the idea until after I posted The Grinch on Monday, but I think he may be part of the Disney family. If not, it’ll be The Disney Rest of the Week! 😉

The pieces are quite thin, but I’ve found that is usually the case when you have multiple puzzles in one box. Despite the thinness, they weren’t bad to work with. There is a bit of shine on the pieces making glare an issue when working under lights, but they fit together well, and the image reproduction is very good.

Kid’s puzzles are fun to do, you start and finish the same day and even though they’re small or have a small piece count they’re still enjoyable. Well, for me they are, I’m still a little kid at heart❣