Unicorns – Part 3

On July 1, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Unicorns 3-1 — Unicorns by Rose Catherine Khan – Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces

These colors and the look of the entire set makes me so happy! I truly had a great time assembling these puzzles, and I’m very much looking forward to assembling the remaining five sets that I bought. They’re not as fabulous as this one was, but they’re still going to be great fun!

Ready to meet some more unicorns?……

Unicorns 3-2

This is my favorite of the three, there’s something about the more muted colors working together that I think looks amazing. This is Teodoro the Tenderhearted, and he is a sweet, gentle unicorn that always thinks before he speaks, and always has a kind word for everyone. He is a licensed social worker and accredited psychologist, and spends his days taking care of his herd. He enjoys interior decorating, dabbles in home repair, and on the weekends he can usually be found at the beach surfing, swimming, and enjoying a roaring bonfire.

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I love the bridle/saddle and everything about this unicorn’s “clothes”. Gorgeous! Meet Leilani the Lithesome; she is ever graceful in both movement and her dealings with others, and is quite the popular entertainer in the unicorn world. She regularly puts on the most stunning aerial shows that combine ballet, gymnastics, and popular dance. Leilani is proud of her naturally wavy hair, but spends very little time dealing with it. Her home is her castle, and she finds cleaning very relaxing – so she loves to spend her spare time keeping the place as clean as a whistle!

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May I introduce you to Cheney the Captivating. Cheney loves to perform, and will do just about anything to keep an audience entertained; he’s almost like a carnival barker with his need to have everyone watching him as much as possible. He has a bit of an inflated ego, and isn’t always pleasant to be around as he is quite the conversation hog and loves to talk mainly of himself. His hobbies include reading about himself in the newspaper, crocheting pillows and blankets, and throwing parties for himself.

I know these unicorn bios are silly, but I had such a great time assembling them and I wanted to keep the fun going. These puzzles are highly entertaining for me, I loved each and every little unicorn no matter the color or shape, and I’m looking forward to a time when I can put these together again!

Unicorns – Part 2

On June 29, 2020June 28, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Unicorns 2-1 — Unicorns by Rose Catherine Khan- Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces

It’s day two of the fabulousness of the unicorns, and I absolutely adore this artwork! They’re funny, and silly, and beautiful, and outrageous all at once. A second set of unicorns certainly would be welcome…..that’s a hint for you Cra-Z-Art. 🦄

If you haven’t tried shaped puzzles before, these sets would be a great way to get your feet wet, so to speak. They’re small and well made, which is perfect for someone who isn’t used to the way shaped puzzles go together. Have you given them a try? I hope you do, if at all possible; they’re so entertaining!

Unicorns 2-2

They’re a little difficult to see, but there are peacock feathers at the back of this saddle – beautiful! I have named this beauty Prianna the Proud; she knows she’s fabulous and she is WORKING IT! Prianna enjoys prancing to her own drummer, preening herself, and providing beginner-level mane grooming classes for the Unicorn Beauty Academy. Her coloring skills are the best in the land!

Unicorns 2-3

I’m not a big fan of this color scheme; but I do think the wings are lovely, and the “tattoos” are beautiful. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to Beulah the Blissful. She is a happy unicorn that loves John Hughes movies, memorizing quotes from her favorite philosophers, and karaoke with friends. Her voice is a bit like Edith Bunker (from All in the Family), but she sings with gusto and heart, and everyone enjoys her performances regardless. She’s the Florence Foster Jenkins of the unicorn world!

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This is Madame Stefania the Stern. Don’t get on her bad side! She is the ballet master of the Unicorn School of Movement, and she gets the best out of her dancers no matter what! Madame Stefania expects perfection from her students, and they know to always keep their hooves in line. She likes to relax with a trough of white wine and a hot bath – complete with candles – and has been known to spend her spare time tending her herb garden in her favorite pair of worn out overalls.

I hope you’re enjoying the unicorns – I know I am!

Building Facades

On June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Here we have another untitled image. Unfortunately, I was unable to come up with a catchy title and so I just gave it a descriptive one. What do you see here? Building facades. What should I call it? I guess…..Building Facades. *yawn* Sorry guys, my brain isn’t always firing on all cylinders.

This is one of twelves puzzles in one box from Cardinal. I knew when I purchased it that it wouldn’t be great quality – I’ve never seen one of these multipack puzzles with really good quality. Ever. But, I wanted these images; I love the artwork and decided that it would be worth muddling through the crappy quality to get to put these interesting and colorful images together.

I’ve now assembled puzzles of all three sizes from this multipack and I can report that the puzzles have differing levels of quality. The 150 pieces are the best of the bunch; the fit isn’t great, but it isn’t horrid either, and the piece thickness is fair. The 300 piece puzzles in this set are the middle range; thinner pieces than the 150 pcs., and the fit was about the same. The 500 pieces were the worst of the bunch; the fit was awful, the pieces were extremely thin, and the glare from the shiny finish was much more noticeable.

All of that said, I don’t regret buying this set. I knew it wouldn’t be great quality and I still look forward to assembling the rest of the images. Glutton for punishment? Perhaps. Puzzle addict and PADS sufferer? Definitely! 🧩💗

Birds in Progress

On June 24, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Birds IP — Birds – Lafayette Puzzle Factory (Cra-Z-Art) – 500 pieces

Another 500 piece puzzle with separate shaped mini puzzles, this one is Birds. I didn’t want to do too many of these small shaped puzzles in a row, but needs must – sitting in my chair in front of my table just isn’t something I’m able to do at the moment; these puzzles are easy to do on trays or my white board while I’m in bed.

I also wanted to show you the colored backings; you can separate them by color so that you can put each group together or you can disregard the backing and just assemble them as a regular 500 piece puzzle using only colors and shapes.

The feedback on the previous sets (Cottages and Shoes) has been great, and I hope you don’t get too sick of them. I bought myself 6 new sets, and one of them has already been assembled, and….. Oh. My. Goodness. They’re so beautiful! They’re fun and interesting too; and more importantly they’re easy to do when sitting is too difficult for me.

This puzzle is different than most of the others in that instead of 12 mini puzzles there are 15 of them. Instead of four days of posts showing three puzzles each day there will be five days of posts. I hope everyone enjoys the pretty birds! 🦜🐦

Retirement

On June 16, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Love, love, love this image! Not only is it beautiful and funny, it made for a fantastic assembly. Hubby decided to get me some more puzzles from Mr. Bob (I think because he wanted to spend a little extra money on himself, and buying me something too lowers his guilt about it). So he asked me to pick out two images and this was the first one I chose.

Mr. Bob Puzzles has a great catalog of beautiful, interesting, and unique images to choose from, it’s difficult to find just one or two that I want to order because I want almost all of them! 😍

Jim Tsinganos is one of the featured artists at Mr. Bob Puzzles, and I adore his artwork. You know how much I love humor – so this funny, silly, beautiful image jumped right out at me when I first saw it, and I’ve had this one on my mental wish list for quite a while. Thank goodness I finally was able to assemble it. There are several other images of his still on my list, and I hope to get them someday, what a fabulous artist he is!

The cut is more “traditional” with regular looking pieces, but it’s quite deceptive. With so many straight or nearly straight edges throughout the entire puzzle it becomes a much more challenging assembly than you would think. It isn’t possible to begin with the edges, at least it isn’t for me; most of the pieces look as though they might be edges! Even on the inside of the puzzle you have to focus much more on the colors, textures, and shading – it’s a bit of a mental workout and I love it.

Retirement 1

Great whimsies with this puzzle: Dorothy, Toto, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, a flying monkey, The Wicked Witch of the West, etc. There are also the usual whimsies of Australia, clasped hands, and the Mr. Bob logo along with the profile of Mr. Bob too. I love the look of all of them!

My only criticism is – where is the cowardly lion? Was he too scared to show up for his profile sitting? Did he take too long to get there because his scooter slowed him down? I’m being silly, I know – but give an old lady some leeway to be ridiculous now and then. 😉

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Emerald Towers Retirement Suites – I really do love the art and humor of Jim Tsinganos!

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This closeup speaks for itself, it makes the entire image. I love how Dorothy’s shoes no longer have heels; she’s turned those in for flats which are so much safer and easier to walk in. The Cowardly Lion might have broken a hip or something and needs a scooter to get himself around, and The Tin Man needs a cane. You can’t really see a big change in The Scarecrow, other than he seems a little “heavier” than I remember him and a bit more stooped at the shoulders. He also seems to be leaning a bit on Dorothy.

Great image, great quality puzzle, wonderfully entertaining assembly – what more could you ask for? 💖🧩