Tag: 500 pieces

Main Street – Day 2

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 83/500 pieces

I really enjoyed these little buildings, they were so much fun to put together. Have you tried any of these sets before? There are plenty to choose from, and even if you usually only work larger puzzles you may find that these are entertaining at assemble as well.

The artist, Joseph Holodook, has quite a few images out there on puzzles besides the ones I’ve done in these sets of mini puzzles. Most of the ones I’ve seen are on MasterPieces puzzles, but there are a few other brands as well. He mostly paints Americana and Christmas images, and the detail in his work is amazing.

Whether old or new I do love a bookstore! Everyone in the street has a book, is reading one, or is buying or selling a book – this is my kinda town. Even the dogs are looking at a book cover! The quaintness of this image was so sweet. 📚💚

This big barn wasn’t as easy to put together as you might imagine, at least not for me; but I got there in the end. I love the words on the side of this one “We build shack to chateau” and “Don’t be a woodchuck, use a professional Romanchuk”.

Main Street – Day 1

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 83/500 pieces

Normally one of these sets of twelve shaped mini puzzles would be shown over four days, with three puzzles per day; but I’m stretching it out to six this time to give myself a few extra days to get more puzzles back in the queue. 😎

If you’ve been a reader here for a while you’ll know that each of these sets has colored backing applied to each small puzzle, twelve different colors so that you can sort them into each mini puzzle if you like. Or if you’d rather work these as a 500 piece puzzle you can disregard the backing and just start solving. The pieces are a good thickness with a nice variety of shapes that fit together well. Sometimes the colored backing isn’t cut all the way through leaving several pieces attached, but that doesn’t bother me much. The finish is a bit shiny, but not too terrible to deal with. Overall I find these to be good quality puzzles that are highly entertaining to assemble.

The detail in each of these houses/shops is amazing and they could all be their very own larger piece count puzzles. The colors are bright and fun and the Americana theme is entertaining to assemble. I’d love to go into an old-timey hat shop – wouldn’t that be something to see?

Does this look familiar to anyone? It did to me so I searched my site for the artist, and guess what I found? Check out Christmas Town Day 2, see anything interesting? There were three buildings in the Main Street set that were the same as in Christmas Town, but this is the only one that is EXACTLY the same with zero changes. The other two are the same building but in a different season with changes to the people and things on the outside.

I’m imagining what an antique shop would be like a century or more ago, what treasures would it hold? There would probably be more than a few things that we wouldn’t even be able to identify what they were used for – that would be fascinating!

I had such a good time putting these puzzles together, now all I have to do is buckle down and write up the next five posts for this set. Here’s hoping I don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome from all the typing. ⌨

*Side note – I checked out Cra-Z-Art’s website and found three new sets that I don’t have! Guess who’s going online shopping very soon????🛒💸*

Teal Lake In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Teal Lake by Andy Russell – Milton Bradley (Big Ben) – 500 pieces

Although I started this puzzle yesterday afternoon, every time I sat down to work on it later in the day someone or something interrupted. It was just one of those days apparently.

This was a thrift store purchase, and other than a slightly loose fit I’ve been quite happy with the quality so far. The finish is matte so there hasn’t been any glare issues under the lights, and the hand feel is soft and very nice.

Andy Russell is a new artist for me, and his work reminds me a bit of Eric Dowdle; the rounded but almost symmetrical and precise shapes made me think of his artwork immediately when I saw it. It will be interesting to see if this is as difficult as I sometimes find puzzles with a Dowdle image.

Main Street In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – 500 pieces

Just barely started on this set of shaped mini puzzles, it’s the last set that I have yet to assemble – which is a little depressing. I’ve enjoyed all of the different and amazing sets they have available and it’s a bit sad that there aren’t any more for me to do.

Still, at least this one’s here to enjoy, right?

Happy Beads

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Happy Beads by Elspeth McLean – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This gorgeous image was even more fun to assemble than I thought it would be. Great quality, beautiful colors and interesting designs – absolutely adored it! 🧡💛💚

Elspeth McLean is a new to me artist, who actually hand paints everything you see here, they’re just completely stunning little works of art, and it makes for really fun puzzling as well. Very smart of Ravensburger to partner with her to make such detailed and fabulous puzzles. This is my kind of artwork.

There is just so much intricate detail, and even though when you look closely you can see little differences in the size of the dots and lines it still looks almost perfect. Her use of color and the beautiful designs she creates are just so striking, and I can’t wait to get more puzzles with her artwork.

The fit was really quite good for a Ravensburger puzzle. Normally the fit is somewhat loose, but this one had such a good fit that I was actually able to stand it up – I’ve NEVER been able to do that with a Ravensburger before, not ever!

It’s a little warped out of shape, but still, I was amazed that I was able to do it at all. Being able to stand this one up and get a picture absolutely made my day. My emotions are sometimes tied too tightly to my puzzles (the scourge of PADS strikes again) but days when I can do something like this to make myself happy are completely worth the bad days.

I absolutely recommend this puzzle, if you can find it and feel as if you’re up to the challenge then by all means you should go for it; it’s a gorgeous, well made puzzle and there are hours worth of fun in that little box; it makes this puzzle geek’s heart go pitter patter. 😍