Tag: 500+ pieces

Review: Macaroons

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews1 Comment
This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.
Macaroons
Macaroons – Ceaco – 500 pieces

All the puzzles in this 8-in-1 box of Sweet & Salty foods are nameless, so I’ve been naming them as I finish each review. Obviously, this one is named Macaroons – I know, I’m being less than creative. Perhaps I’ll name the next one something enigmatic and weird; something that has nothing to do with the food shown on the puzzle. That’ll be fun to come up with!

This puzzle was one of the reasons I chose this 8-in-1 box to review. I love the look of it and hoped it would be great fun, thankfully I was right. I love the pastels (even though I usually prefer bright colors), and I finished the puzzle in one day. Usually I have to break it up over several days; but I was enjoying myself so much and was so absorbed in the puzzle that the pain that normally interferes seemed almost muted. It’s an amazing gift when puzzling can do that for me. 🎁

Ceaco puzzles have a great selection of images to choose from, although sometimes I find the quality to be lacking. The quality of these puzzles has been better than I expected, especially from a multipack. The fit is excellent, the images are beautifully reproduced, and the pieces are a good thickness. Sometimes the chipboard is fanning on the backs of the pieces, and there are some that aren’t cut all the way through; overall though, the quality is good. Click the link above to see their puzzles currently in stock at Puzzle Warehouse.

I’ve assembled 3 of the puzzles from this box so far, and I feel confident in recommending them; the quality is better than expected, and for $16.99 for 8 puzzles you just can’t go wrong. The box contains 2 300-piece, 4 500-piece, and 1 each 750 and 1000 piece puzzles – it’s quite a good value and I’m having a wonderful time assembling them!

Macaroons gets 2 cookies way up, and a glass of milk too!🍪🍪🥛

Details:

  • Title:                  “Macaroons”
  • Artist:                iStock
  • Brand:               Ceaco
  • Piece count:     500 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 14 x 18 in. (36 x 46 cm)
  • Purchased:      N/A, sent for review

Quality:

  • Board:               Good
  • Cutting:             Good
  • Image:               Very good
  • Box:                   Average, 8 puzzles in 1 box
  • Fit:                     Excellent
  • Puzzle Dust:     Small amount
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   Good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Good, 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.

Review: Reese’s

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment
This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.
Reese's
Reese’s – MasterPieces – 500 pieces

Reese’s was an excellent quality, entertaining to assemble puzzle that surprised me. It was better quality than I was expecting, and not nearly as difficult as I’d anticipated. It made for a fun couple of days, and for some reason it also made me extremely hungry for peanut butter cups. 😏

I enjoy MasterPieces puzzles, they have a great catalog of diverse images to choose from, with very good quality and even better value. They have both grid cut and random cut puzzles, so there’s something for everyone. The quality of the chipboard is very good with thick pieces that fit together extremely well. Sometimes the fit can be a bit loose, but with this puzzle the pieces fit together snugly – so much so that I could lift the puzzle by one piece and nothing came apart!

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I thought perhaps the image would end up being quite difficult with all the repetition of packages, but I found it to be much easier than I’d assumed. That doesn’t mean that it was an easy puzzle; it took just the right amount of concentration, but not so much that it became frustrating. I enjoyed diving in to all of that yummy chocolate and peanut butter!

The image reproduction was spot on, and the bright colors made it fun to work with. You just have to decide where you’re going to start and jump right in. After assembling the edge I started with the white packages (which I would NEVER do in real life, “white chocolate” isn’t chocolate!), but they were the easiest pieces to pick out. Then I went with the largest logo in the center, those pieces stood out as well…

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I had a great time with this puzzle, I find shaped puzzles to be a lot of fun and they end up looking amazing when you’re finished. Check out some of the amazing shaped puzzles at Puzzle Warehouse, there are so many to choose from!

If you’re looking for a yummy puzzle to get you revved up for Halloween (best candy holiday there is), I highly recommend Reese’s. It’s wonderful quality, a great image, and was extremely entertaining to assemble.

I’m hungry for some reason…maybe some peanut butter and chocolate…🥜🍫

Details:

  • Title:                  Reese’s
  • Artist:                MasterPieces
  • Brand:               MasterPieces
  • Piece count:     500 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 22 x 22 in. (56 x 56 cm)
  • Purchased:      N/A, sent for review

Quality:

  • Board:               Very good
  • Cutting:             Very good
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Rounded box with flat bottom
  • Fit:                     Excellent
  • Puzzle Dust:     Very small amount
  • Piece cut:          Random/rounded grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny 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.

Women March!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments
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Women March! by Jennifer Orkin Lewis – Eeboo – 500 pieces

Super busy images aren’t usually my thing, but this puzzle was a lot of fun. A puzzle about the women’s march, with artwork by a woman, made by a woman-owned puzzle company – we ladies are pretty awesome!👸

This is only the second eeBoo puzzle that I’ve assembled, and I’ve been extremely impressed with the quality. The pieces are thick, with an excellent variety of shapes and the fit is wonderful. The image reproduction is bright and colorful with no fuzzy or blurry areas (unless it’s part of the artwork). My only problem is with the finish, it’s quite shiny and can cause lots of glare under artificial lights.

The edge pieces were very easy to pick out for assembly, but I ran into a problem. While putting it together I used the quote around the edge to help me find the correct pieces, and became convinced that I hadn’t pulled them all. After a quick search with no results I skipped the spot and continued around the edge. The problem wasn’t a missing piece, it was that one of the words is spelled incorrectly! I was looking for the next letters in the word, but they weren’t there. 😱

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The word is missing two letters, and those were the ones I was looking for and couldn’t find. It’s easy to overlook a misspelling, especially when you come to the word and know what it’s trying to say – sometimes we skip right on past it without registering the error. That said, someone should have caught it somewhere along the line, shouldn’t they? (It caused me a bit of frustration trying to figure out if I’d lost a piece) Still, these things happen, and I’m sure someone else who’s assembled the puzzle has found it too. I emailed the company to let them know, although I don’t know that there’s much that they can do at this point.

These are my favorite signs, and there were so many of them to put together. I loved it! My regular readers know how much I enjoy having plenty of words to assemble. The only other “larger” image in the puzzle was the capital building, and once that was put together the assembly got a bit more difficult. The rest of the image is a sea of people and faces, and basically I had to examine each piece/face and figure out where it fit in. Time consuming, but still entertaining.

Although the women’s march was extremely political, that’s not why it’s here; this blog is strictly about puzzles. I bought this puzzle because I believe in the women’s movement – I believe in women and think we should all be treated as equally and humanely as anyone else – but most of all it looked like it would be great fun to put together. It was!

As far as political puzzles go, I’m bipartisan – I like both random AND grid cut! 😎

Reef Fish (2)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment
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Reef Fish (2) – Lafayette Puzzle Factory – 500 pieces

I loved this puzzle! You’re shocked right? It’s just so hard to believe. 😉

Perhaps my love of collages has something to do with how much I enjoy these puzzles. The fun of assembling a collage for me is finding and putting together each small section at a time; it’s like having a bunch of mini puzzles that all connect together. Even when I’m not feeling well and can’t puzzle for long periods of time I can assemble a little part of the puzzle and it feels more like an accomplishment when I see one section finished.

The only difference here is that these small “sections” don’t connect together. You can separate them by the colored backing and put together one whole little puzzle and you have a sense of completion – for me it’s wonderfully entertaining and I can’t get enough of them.

The big girl with the large mouth is my favorite, the colors and overall look of the fish just make me smile. (I’ve made this fish female in my mind because the colors are so pretty. Could be wrong, but she’s a she to me 🙂 ) The box tells me that she is a Picasso Triggerfish – what a fabulous name! From my small amount of research online I have found that she’s an aggressive carnivore that can sometimes be quite small – that definitely sounds like a few females I know! I think she’s beautifully colored and it definitely made for a fun assembly.

Sadly, I only have one more of these shaped puzzles yet to assemble. But I’m sure I’ll enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed the others, they really are such a good time!

Review: More Ice Cream Please

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment
IMG_4969
More Ice Cream Please – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces

This was quite fun, but very challenging. It’s got a few missing pieces, but them’s the chances you take when you purchase used. It didn’t detract much from my enjoyment of the assembly, and the puzzle was such good quality that I didn’t mind that much. Fun puzzle!

For being a used thrift store puzzle, the quality held up quite well. The pieces still had a great feel and fit together very well. Sometimes you buy a pre-loved puzzle and it’s been beat up by it’s previous owner; this one seems to have been taken care of (if you don’t count the missing pieces). I do love a Cobble Hill puzzle, especially the smaller piece counts – the quality is excellent!

Once the edge was assembled it seemed that there may be a few missing pieces, but you can never be sure with a random cut – sometimes the edges don’t look like edges. Blue ice cream was the first to be assembled, and when those were finished I knew for sure that there were some pieces that seem to have melted away  😉

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Mom came over and helped me finish this one up, with her help the pieces seem to fly into place! For me it’s so nice working a puzzle with someone else; there’s the fun of working together on a common goal, good conversation, and just spending time together. In the words of one of my favorite puzzle companies – Sit long. Talk much. Turn off that screen.

It’s more challenging than it looks, but absolutely worth it! Definitely recommended, two sundaes way up! 🍨🍨

Details:

  • Title:                  More Ice Cream Please
  • Artist:                Not credited
  • Brand:               Cobble Hill
  • Piece count:     500 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
  • Purchased:      Used, thrift store

Quality:

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

Overall Rating:      Very good, recommended