Tag: 300 pieces

Skull “Beauty of Flowers”

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Skull “Beauty of Flowers” – Winston Puzzles – 300 pieces

My sweet, loving, darling husband got me this puzzle for my birthday this year – bless him. He knows how much I love the decorated skulls and what the Day of the Dead holiday is all about, what a thoughtful hubby I have. 💕

It’s just too bad this beautiful image was on this puzzle; unfortunately terrible quality wooden puzzles seem to be popping up everywhere. I wish that weren’t the case, but it is.

When I saw the box I suspected it wouldn’t be good, and unfortunately I was correct; beware wooden puzzles with no brand name shown! Although the puzzle was ordered from a website called “Winston Puzzles” there is no brand name on the box, there is no piece count, image name, or artist credit either. The website said this puzzle was 170-210 pieces; to get an accurate number I had to count them by hand, and they were off by quite a bit – there were 300 pieces. Sigh.

There are a bunch of whimsy pieces, but they have no relation to the image at all. They’re just shapes someone thought were cute or interesting; and because it’s a wooden puzzle they were able to cut them out. So disappointing.

As I was sorting the pieces I got a sliver of wood stuck in my finger, the puzzle wasn’t sanded or sealed properly. When I put the puzzle away after it was finished and photographed my board had little chips of wood everywhere all over the fabric, that has never happened with a wooden puzzle before. In addition, there were little bubbles underneath the image on the top of the pieces – it wasn’t attached to the wood correctly.

Many of the edge pieces didn’t connect at all, a BIG pet peeve of mine. It’s so frustrating to accidentally brush against pieces and have them come apart. I wish I had enjoyed the assembly more. It was a difficult image, and the quality of the puzzle itself made it even harder.

I do NOT recommend Winston Puzzles, please spend your puzzle budget elsewhere. There are many reputable wooden puzzle companies that make beautiful, quality wooden puzzles that you will enjoy much more.

I always appreciate the gift of a puzzle, whether wooden or cardboard, even if the quality isn’t up to my somewhat snobby standards. I love that he tried to find an image that I would enjoy, and truly do appreciate the gift, regardless of it’s quality.

Hubby has been informed, very gently, that there is a list of approved puzzle companies and should he have questions, he can always ask about a puzzle company in general. He knows how much I love jigsaw puzzles, and that even if they’re not always fabulous I absolutely appreciate the thought that goes into the gift of a puzzle.

I love my hubby to the moon and back – and he tried, that’s what counts. 💖

Rainbow Tarts In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Rainbow Tarts – Buffalo – 300 pieces

This puzzle is beautiful, fun, and relatively easy to assemble. That being said, there is a quality issue with it that’s quite disappointing for me, and I’ve already sent an email to the company about it.

There are rips in the image on the puzzle, as if it weren’t cut all the way through and when the pieces came apart they peeled off. I haven’t had a quality issue like this with a Buffalo puzzle before, and it’s a bit of a bummer for me as I really love the image.

Still, it shouldn’t take too long to finish, and the colors really are lovely.

Happy puzzling today my friends!

Review: Puppets & Marionettes

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews6 Comments

Puppets & Marionettes by Jay Burch – Pomegranate – 300 pieces

While this isn’t your typical Halloween image, for me the creepiness of the puppets in this artwork made me immediately think that it would be perfect for posting in October. Spooky, creepy, menacing, and just all-around disturbing if you ask me.

The quality of this Pomegranate puzzle was exceptional. I’ve done one or two puzzles by Pomegranate in the years since the pandemic and noticed immediately that the quality had gone down a bit. With the supply chain issues and the overwhelming demand for jigsaw puzzles at the time it wasn’t difficult to understand the reasons for the drop in quality; though I’m hoping for better days ahead with a return to their pre-pandemic excellence. Thankfully, this puzzle seems to be a return to their old quality standards; maybe wishes come true!

There were a very good variety of pieces and the pieces were wonderfully thick with a fit that was truly exceptional. The image reproduction was excellent as well, although the finish was slightly shiny. My only small problem with the quality was the amount of puzzle dust, but that’s a minor annoyance that doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment of the assembly.

From this picture it looks as if this section with the horse would be quite simple to find the pieces and put together, but in reality it wasn’t easy to find most of the blue pieces, and it looks quite dark in the finished image. I think if this had been a larger piece count it would have been quite a challenging puzzle.

There’s something truly menacing about the little boy puppet’s face, although pretty much every marionette shown seems creepy in some way when you really look at them. It’s probably not what the artist had in mind, but that’s how I see it.

The fit was truly exceptional with this puzzle. The thick pieces and the tight fit made for a satisfying and entertaining assembly. Plus, I got to take one of my silly stand up pictures!

Though it was a bit difficult at times, this was an entertaining assembly. The artwork makes me think of suspenseful movies, and if you opened a closet door and saw these puppets and marionettes looking like they do – yikes. Cue the dark music, something’s coming for you!

This puzzle is definitely recommended, great quality and lots of fun to put together. 👍

Details:

  • Title:                  Puppets & Marionettes
  • Artist:                Jay Burch
  • Brand:               Pomegranate
  • Piece count:     300 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 24 x 18 in. (61 x 46 cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               Excellent
  • Cutting:             Very good
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Very good, sturdy and thick
  • Fit:                     Excellent
  • Puzzle Dust:     Large amount of dust
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Excellent, highly recommended

My Favorite Color

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

My Favorite Color by Velvet Spectrum – Buffalo – 300 pieces

Boy, was I wrong about this puzzle – it was much easier than I anticipated, but not so easy as to be boring. It was such a good time! I started in the morning and was finished pretty quickly before midday. Great quality, beautiful image with such striking color – I absolutely loved it.💜

Started with the solid (ish) colors around the edges and worked in toward the center with the words. It wasn’t even close to as hard as I thought it would be. But it kept me absorbed and focused, and I ended up with this gorgeous image to share with you all. 💟

I can’t think of much else to tell you other than if you think you might enjoy this puzzle you should go for it. It was lots of fun and it’s so darn pretty!

Washing Time

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Washing Time by Jenny Newland – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

This one was a great puzzle with lots of puppies and kittens. It was relatively easy to sort and assemble, and didn’t take much time at all.

I’ve noticed that the smaller piece count MasterPiece puzzles, especially the ones with the EZ grip pieces are thicker and fit better than the larger piece counts they make. This one was no exception; excellent fit, great image reproduction and nice, thick pieces. All in all a fantastic puzzle that was a joy to put together.

This little kitten staring at the chicken, for some reason it makes me smile.

You know I just can’t resist a sad puppy face, it makes me want to sit down and give a very long belly rub and maybe some extra scratching behind the ears. 💖

The fit was so good that I was able to get a picture of it standing up with very little effort. Sometimes I have to work at it to get it to stand up just so; the thickness of the pieces and the great fit meant that no extra effort was required.

Tired of my stand up pictures yet? Hope not, cause I won’t stop taking them! 😎