Tag: Collage

Book Covers In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling10 Comments

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers – Pomegranate – 1000 pieces

According to My Jigsaw Journal this is the first 1000 piece Pomegranate puzzle that I’ve worked on in almost four years! I’ve done a few of their 300 pieces, but that’s all. Mainly, I think, because the 1000 piece Pomegranate puzzles I have in my stash are all beautiful but very challenging images; they get passed over quite a bit when the “next” puzzle is being chosen.

Which leads me to a question for my readers, has anyone noticed a change in the quality of Pomegranate? As soon as the bag of pieces was opened I could tell that the thickness of the chipboard was different than I recalled – thinner, unfortunately. I even opened one of my older ones to check, and the pieces are definitely thinner than they used to be; and the fit isn’t the same either.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a VERY good quality puzzle, it just isn’t the same as it was. I have high expectations for this brand because that’s what I’m used to. Perhaps with the run on puzzles that we’ve seen in the past two years the chipboard they normally used wasn’t available, or it could be any other myriad of reasons. I noticed though, and was wondering if anyone else did too.

Dogs

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles13 Comments

Dogs – Cavallini & Co. – 1000 pieces

Isn’t this a great image for a dog and puzzle lover like myself? I absolutely adored it and had a great time putting it together. My apologies for the glare on the picture, the shiny/slick backing made it so that I couldn’t stand my board up for a good pic of the completed puzzle – it kept trying to slide off!

This was a new company for me. All of their puzzles that I’ve seen are in tubular containers and a little more on the pricey side. The quality is good/very good; good thickness, excellent fit, good reproduction and variety of shapes. They have a nice hand feel on the front of the puzzle, but use that slick/sharp coating on the back – I am not a fan of this type of backing.

Again, my apologies for the pictures. They’re at an angle so you could see the image without glare, it isn’t optimal but it was the best I could do.

Of course if there’s a Boston Terrier I’m gonna take a close up. Actually there are two sections with Bostons in this image, this was my favorite of the two.

I mean, how cute is this? A choir of adorable dogs giving a performance – love it. 💚

Cavallini & Co. – from what I’ve seen – make good quality puzzles. I’ve only done this one so I can only speak for this puzzle specifically until I’ve done at least one more. They’re a bit on the pricey side from what I’ve seen, so unless one of their images grabs me and I HAVE to get it, I’m not sure I’ll be getting another one any time soon. Not because there’s anything wrong with them, I’m just watching my puzzle spending at the moment.

Classic Movies

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles14 Comments

Classic Movies – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

My oldest son and I put this one together in about two and a half hours, and we had a great time with it! I love a collage puzzle, and he LOVES old movies – the perfect combination.

This was the only puzzle I received this year for Christmas; he bought it for me but it’s being glued for him to put up on the wall in his room. He’s good about getting puzzles for me that he’d like to keep – but he also wants to assemble them with me – that’s the real gift. 💝

The fit on this Re-marks puzzle was extremely loose, it made it a bit difficult at times. I’m not thrilled with the recent update they’ve done with their chipboard; it’s very slick feeling on the back and if I’m not careful it slides right off the board when I’m trying to get pictures. Frustrating!

Dracula is my son’s favorite movie out of the 39 in this image, and mine is Rear Window. To be honest there are only eight movies that I’ve seen – what an uncultured swine I am! My son has seen fifteen of them, almost twice as many as I have. But to be fair he’s been a movie buff since he was very young – and he loves the classics; the movies he hasn’t seen he still has a wealth of facts stored in his brain about each one. He can tell you so much information about movies it would make your head spin!

Anatomy of a Murder (middle image) is a movie that makes me think of mom; I remember her telling me how scandalous it was when it came out. It’s a courtroom drama dealing with a rape and there were words used that had previously never been spoken in American films such as “contraceptive”, “climax”, and “spermatogenesis”. And apparently the talk of a woman’s underwear being torn off was quite racy in 1959. Oh my. If only those pearl clutchers could see the movies we have today. Yikes. Double yikes!

I loved puzzling with someone side by side again, that hasn’t happened much since mom died – I miss it. And I’m thankful my baby boy decided to come out of his room for a couple of hours and spend some time with his old mom. It made my day. 💖

99 Funny Animals

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

99 Funny Animals – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

My beautiful daughter bought me this puzzle during 2020, and I finally got around to putting it together. It was great fun and much less challenging than I thought it would be. It was easy to pick out a certain animal or background, and once you’ve got one section done it leads to the next. I really enjoyed this one!

It had the usual great Ravensburger quality and was full of adorable images – what more could you ask for?

Love the mustached pup and the very zen lemur. And that llama on the bottom looks like he wants to tell me something intense.

The picture on the lower left is the photographic representation of what it’s like to have a Boston Terrier, that is their personality in one image. And the stomping frog is awesome! That cat with those eyes is scary looking, and the joey (baby kangaroo) is so sweet hiding in momma’s pouch.

Those starfish – best pose ever! And that squirrel looking beat is such a great picture.

This puzzle was full of silly and funny pictures and I truly did enjoy putting all 99 of them together. Thanks again to my sweet baby girl for gifting this to me. Love you!🤗

Love Coffee

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Love Coffee – Cra-Z-Art – 300 pieces

I was in the mood for a quick collage, and this beautiful 300 piece fit the bill just right! And as a coffee lover, of course the image spoke to me – gotta have my coffee in the mornings. ☕

The quality of this Cra-Z-Art puzzle had me pleasantly surprised. Excellent fit, beautiful image reproduction, good variety of shapes, and sturdy chipboard – all of these were better than I’d assumed they’d be. Don’t you love it when things are better than you thought? I do!

This was my favorite section, the hands cupping the mug make almost a heart. LOVE me some coffee! Black with two sugars please. 🖤

I love being able to do this with a puzzle. And I was so sure of this fit that I took this picture BEFORE I took any other pictures. I knew it wouldn’t fall apart, so there was no fear at all – I just picked it up and stood it on it’s bottom edge. That is not how things usually go, I always take my regular pictures before standing up a puzzle, just in case things go pear-shaped. The fit on this puzzle was exceptional!