Witch Way to Halloween

On October 1, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I did this puzzle in 2016, I put it on the 2016 Completed Puzzles January – March page but for some reason haven’t done a full post on it. While going back through the blog to prepare the first birthday post I came across this puzzle and realized with October only a few days away that it was the perfect time to post it. Witch Way to Halloween??

I love the artwork of this puzzle, the gravestones, the trick or treaters, the gorgeous colors of the leaves on the trees, the headless horseman, bats, etc. – it’s an excellent puzzle image. It also included several whimsies – a black cat, a witch in the shape of the puzzle itself, gravestones and others. The puzzle itself it gorgeous; the quality, unfortunately, not as beautiful. 😦

The pieces were a good enough thickness and the image reproduction was very nice. My problem was the cut/fit of the pieces. I know with a shaped puzzle and especially when there are whimsies that you can’t have every single piece connect, sometimes they just sit next to each other. But the fit of this puzzle took this to the extreme. Even when the entire puzzle was completed you could pull away whole sections because they didn’t connect anywhere. You can see in the picture that you can actually remove the witch’s hand – it just comes away. There was constant readjustment necessary, which is extremely annoying to me. And even where the pieces did connect the fit was very loose; any slight bump would upset many pieces.

This puzzle and the terrible cut/fit turned me off Bits and Pieces puzzles. I haven’t ordered from them since. I’ve done one or two of their puzzles we’ve found at thrift stores, but in general they’ve been on my naughty list. I may have just gotten a puzzle from the end of the run, you never know. Still, they’re not a manufacturer I go out of my way to find. They do have some gorgeous puzzles though – we’ve still got some on our to do list that we’ve picked up from the local thrift stores. Maybe the next one I do will be awesome!

Nevertheless, this puzzle is beautiful and a nice kick-off for the Halloween season. I love the fall! 🎃

100 Elephants and a Mouse

On July 30, 2017February 5, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Ugh, this was the worst assembly for me in a while. Ceaco isn’t a favorite, but this was awful! I muddled through it because I like the image, and ended up with 2 missing pieces. 😐 Normally Ceaco isn’t that bad, perhaps this was the end of the run.

The fit of this puzzle was horrible, the best way I can describe it is “spongy”; you could place a piece and it felt almost soft and spongy going together. It was easy to place a piece incorrectly because the fit was so ambiguous. The image reproduction was sharp in some places, and in others it looked almost fuzzy, like a mimeographed picture from my elementary school days. (Yes, I’m old)

I picked this puzzle up several times to start it, liked the image so I pulled the pieces out of the box – then I put it back down because the pieces did not look great. It’s finally assembled so I won’t be having that argument with myself anymore!

I always try to find something positive; with this puzzle it’s making me think very hard. Um, we saved someone else from buying a puzzle with missing pieces, there were a nice variety of piece shapes, and I enjoyed the image very much. Oh, and I found the mouse! 🙂

Ethel The Gourmet

On December 26, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I enjoy Charles Wysocki’s puzzles and this one was no different. He has such a great sense of humor with the cat puzzles! I enjoy his Americana puzzles as well, there’s something about the symmetry and lines and colors that is just calming and beautiful.

The Buffalo puzzles fit together really well, and I always enjoy their special zig zag pieces. It’s nice to have interesting piece shapes every now and then. Buffalo as usually comes with a poster, which is quite nice when there are two people working – one can use the box and the other gets the poster.

I’m not sure why but hubby helped with almost all of this puzzle, he really seemed to enjoy it. Odd, because he is definitely NOT a cat person and he usually only helps near the end of puzzles. But he and I enjoyed working on this one, and it was a pleasure to put together!

Spirit of the Elements

On December 20, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

My mom was surprised I wanted to do this puzzle, but I thought it looked like fun- and who can say no to glitter?? I was in the mood for an image that wasn’t a collage or too busy, and this one spoke to me for some reason.

It was also from another puzzle company that I’d never tried before, TCG. When my husband sat down to help me, he commented on how nicely the pieces fit together, and I agree. They fit together very satisfyingly. There were only 2 piece shapes, which isn’t ideal, but the image is gorgeous. Josephine Wall does things with blending and color that are absolutely stunning! This was my first puzzle with her artwork, but it definitely won’t be my last.

Even with the sameness of the piece shapes, I still enjoyed the assembly very much. Another wonderful thrift store purchase. Mom is always finding the coolest puzzles! Thanks mom!

A Christmas Story

On December 11, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

We love A Christmas Story here at our house, so this was a fun assembly even though it wasn’t the best quality puzzle. Ralphie and the gang are always welcome here!

Normally Ceaco puzzles are not my cup of tea. We have found several Ceaco puzzles that were apart from the norm with very good quality. One was backed with thick corkboard and had a lot of whimsies, which was super fun and an excellent buy at the thrift store for 99 cents! We also found a Ceaco puzzle backed with red velvet!

This puzzle, however, was a run of the mill Ceaco. The pieces were on the thin side and the image was quite shiny and difficult to work under lights at night. A majority of the puzzle is the dark green Christmas tree, and the gloss on the pieces made it difficult to distinguish shades and and shapes when working at night. It was a random cut puzzle, which did make it more interesting to assemble, so that was a plus.

All in all, our love for the movie outweighed the quality of the puzzle, and we still enjoyed the assembly. “You should see how it looks from out here!” 😉