Review: Birthday Candle

On January 26, 2020January 26, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews2 Comments

This image was too funny to pass up, how could you walk by this puzzle on the shelf and not give it a try? That face!

I’ve found that the newer Sure-Lox box means better quality, so I was confident buying this puzzle. I’ve been impressed with the new quality, especially on their 300 piece puzzles. The chipboard is thick and both the fit and the image reproduction are excellent – look at the bright, beautiful colors, and the sharp focus on the cat!

I decided to sort and assemble this a different way, and documented as I went. It was put together at night when sleep wouldn’t come – as per usual these days. Insomnia = lots of puzzle time.

Birthday 1

After the edge was complete I started with the the cupcake and candle, and it went together quickly. I love the colors, it’s all so bright and cheery.

Birthday 2

Next to be assembled was all of the background; it took a little more time and since I put the box away I was only using the colors to find my way. Shapes were of no help because all of the pieces were ballerinas. It didn’t make it too difficult with this image though; the colors were all the help I needed.

Birthday 3

Next I put in all the pieces with both cat hair and background color. Assembling the puzzle this way, from the outside in was quite entertaining and although it doesn’t lend itself to most puzzle images it was fun to try it on this one.

Birthday

All that was left was to fill in the cat, it was the most difficult part, obviously. After the eyes, nose, and mouth the whiskers were the next to be put together; they were brilliantly white and easy to pick out. Once those were all done all that was left was just fur, which is notoriously difficult; but because there were only 300 pieces to begin with there weren’t that many pieces left, so it went pretty quickly.

The image was great fun, the background colors made it interesting, and I loved the process of assembling in from the outside in and documenting it as I went. Hopefully you, my readers, liked it as well. Meow! 😽

Details:

Title: Birthday Candle
Artist: Stephanie D. Roeser
Brand: Sure-Lox
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 26 x 18 in. (65 x 46 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: No variety, all one shape
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Farmers’ Market In Progress

On January 24, 2020January 24, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

Farmers Mkt IP — Farmers’ Market – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

If I didn’t have a puzzle blog this puzzle wouldn’t even be on my board right now! But I do have this blog, and my aim is to post every day so I try to be sure to always have something to show. My pattern is to post completed puzzles for two days in a row and on the third day post whatever’s in progress and on my board. Today is in progress day, so I had to get my butt out of bed yesterday evening and get a puzzle going!

I’ve been feeling awful for the past two days and other than finishing the Aimee Stewart puzzle on my board (only had about 100 pieces left to fill in) I haven’t done a thing but lay around in bed trying to rest. Last night I realized that today was the day I post an in progress picture and I had nothing in the works; thankfully I was feeling a little better and wide awake, and was able to leave my snoring husband in bed to start work on my next project.

It was going to be a 500 piece Milton Bradley puzzle that I’d already picked out, but on seeing the pale and indistinct pieces I decided that image probably would be better suited to a day when I’m feeling 100% (or whatever percentage I’m normally working with 😉 ). Back in the box that one went, and I found this Farmers’ Market puzzle that I’d gotten at the thrift store last month. Three hundred pieces and an easy image was just what the doctor ordered for this partially healed blogger.

It didn’t take too long to get about half of the puzzle done, it was quick to sort and to assemble. I was doing well and could have spent more time at the table, but then I would have been too close to finishing. If I had gotten much more done I wouldn’t have been able to tear myself away until it was complete – and then there still wouldn’t have been a puzzle in progress to post about today!

Momma’s Me Mood*

On January 17, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

I started this early in the morning before leaving to spend some time with family on New Year’s Day, and finished in the late afternoon when we got home. First day of the year, two puzzles completed; they were only small ones, but they were both entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I did something I NEVER do and bought one of those multipacks of puzzles. Usually I find the quality is really awful when you have many puzzles in one box, but I couldn’t help it – the artwork was so interesting, colorful, and completely different from what you normally see. I had to brave the questionable quality of 12 puzzles in one box from Cardinal, I just couldn’t pass them up; artwork like this is not something you normally find in a multipack.

The asterisk by the title is because although the artwork is by Iralu, the title is by my daughter. I couldn’t find the real title online (I’m not great at web searches to be honest), so I asked for some help in giving this image a name. I think it’s a perfect name for this puzzle, and I hope she’s feeling creative because none of the puzzles in this multipack have titles. 😉

I was surprised at the quality of this 300 piece puzzle, it was better than I thought it would be – at least as far as the chipboard goes. It was thicker than I’d assumed and fit together quite well. It may not be the same for the other piece counts in the box, but at least the four 300 piece puzzles are fair/good quality. In my book that’s a bonus!

Follow Your Nose

On January 8, 2020January 8, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Follow Your Nose is chock full of delightful doggie faces and it made for a truly entertaining assembly. It didn’t take long to put together, and I would love to assemble it in a larger piece count as well, it would make for a fabulous 1000 piece puzzle!

Many times I’ve said that, “It would make a great 1000 piece puzzle”, and almost every time I’ve never seen that image in a larger count. It makes me wonder why so many images are only in a certain piece count; wouldn’t it be advantageous to make each one into different piece counts to reach a larger number of consumers? Honestly, I have no idea how licensing works; when you sell artwork to a puzzle company is it only for use once, on one puzzle? Or does licensing have nothing to do with it, and it’s the puzzle companies who makes all of these decisions?

I have emailed the VP of Sales, Marketing, and Product Development at Buffalo Games to hopefully get answers to these questions, just for my own “piece” of mind. Stay tuned to see if I can get this information for all of us puzzle nerds. 🤓

Back to today’s puzzle! My daughter bought me four Buffalo 300 piece puzzles a few weeks ago, and I’ve enjoyed every single one – from Doug the Pug to this gorgeous collage. I always feel better when I have a few smaller piece count puzzles around, it lessens my anxiety. It means I’m not surrounded by only 1000 piece or larger puzzles, and that if I need to get my puzzle on there are plenty of little ones around to feed my habit without the stress of opening and sorting a larger one.

Nose 1

While all of the puppers in this puzzle were cute, these two were my favorites, and they were right next to each other. Both of my sons love Corgis, so I’m a little biased towards them – if my boys like them, then I do too 😉 And the German Shepherd (hopefully I got the breed right) is just so sweet with the adorable puppy dog eyes and that nose; he’s off the charts on the cuteness scale!

These 300 piece Buffalo puzzles were all great quality: thick pieces that fit together well, a good variety of piece shapes, and excellent image reproduction – I highly recommend every one! They made me smile, relieved some stress, gave me lots to do when I couldn’t sleep, and helped me deal with my extremely severe case of PADS.

Although, these puzzles make me want to stock up with many more, so perhaps the PADS is flaring up again. Win some, lose some 🤷‍♀️

Tropical Paradise 14

On January 2, 2020January 2, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Got up early in the morning because I couldn’t sleep, and finished this puzzle before hubby left for work. Pretty good!

I’m loving these wonderful little 300 piece round puzzles with such interesting images. They’re a lovely, quick puzzle when I’m not feeling well enough to start a larger one, and the colors and patterns make for such an engrossing assembly.

Perhaps it’s a good thing that so many people don’t assemble anything smaller than 1000 piece puzzles, that leaves more wonderful little gems like these for me to find and put together! 🙂