Green by Shelley Davies – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces
I wasn’t sure whether or not I would like these color puzzles from Shelley Davies. I mean, they’re absolutely gorgeous – but would they be entertaining to assemble? Short answer is … yep! In fact, it was way more enjoyable than I’d imagined.
Would have loved to have a poster to help out with this puzzle; I know the ones for sale now have a poster included but mine is a few years old and didn’t come with one. It certainly would have been nice to have – especially since mine was in a smaller square box rather than the larger rectangular one. It was a little challenging to find some of the very small bits on such a small box cover.
The plate with all the queens on it was quite entertaining, and it looks great too. I wouldn’t really call this an educational puzzle, but I learned a little bit about the different queens and their reigns. 👑
This was the first section I assembled, the swirly gold pieces were the easiest to pick out. It’s always nice to have some small section to start with immediately after the border; and this is where I started.
There were SO many words in the whole puzzle, once I pulled them all out it was a little intimidating – but with a little perseverance I got there in the end. There were several colored pencils in the image as well, most with the name of the artist hand written on them.
I wasn’t sure I even wanted to give any of these color puzzles a try – and now I’m thinking we may need to get several more colors!
Party Balloons by Suzan Lind – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces
Isn’t this a great puzzle image? As soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it, it was just too beautiful to pass up! The colors and patterns made for such an entertaining assembly – I wish it were also available in 1000 pieces, that would be even more fun.
The quality of this particular puzzle wasn’t as good as Cobble Hill usually is. I know that with the pandemic and the huge increase in demand for puzzles, things have been crazy in the puzzle world with manufacturers doing their best to get puzzles out and into the hands of puzzlers as soon as they can. I have history with this brand, so I know that their quality is usually quite good; therefore, even though this puzzle had a few problems I know that it isn’t indicative of the brand’s normally excellent quality.
That said, I should tell you that this puzzle had a very loose fit; many pieces were slightly bent, and some pieces that had very thin necks (spaces in between holes) were bent almost to the point of being torn in half. Because of all the bent pieces the finished puzzle didn’t lie completely flat; making the puzzle massage at the end of assembly not nearly as satisfying as usual.
It was still fun to assemble though and the finished puzzle is gorgeous. It has been put in a box to send on to the next puzzler for them to enjoy!
Saturday Morning Cartoons by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
I made sure to take my time with this puzzle – because frankly – I’ve been puzzling so much that I have way too many puzzles in the queue at the moment. By the time you’re reading this post it will most likely be a month or more since it was actually completed! It could have been finished two days earlier than it was, but I made myself stop working on it.
It’s also meant that I’ve been having to type up the post immediately when I finish a puzzle. Otherwise, my old lady brain doesn’t remember much when it comes up in the rotation. A month and 30 puzzles ago is too long ago for me to recall specifics about the assembly. That’s why I’m trying to slow down a bit and stop adding a new puzzle to the queue every day or every other day.
On to this specific puzzle!
My husband picked this out for me the first time I went puzzle shopping after my year-long absence. He seemed very excited about the image and thought I should buy it, he’s so sweet. Many of these cartoons we both watched as kids, and since he was so excited about finding it for me, of course we had to get it.
The quality of this one was only fair. The most important reason was a very loose fit – very odd for a White Mountain puzzle in my opinion. I’ve done many of their puzzles, and the fit is usually either quite tight or just about right. This one though was extremely loose – even picking up two connected pieces could be a problem. The image reproduction was slightly fuzzy in some places. Which is not uncommon for a WM collage in my experience, but I normally expect issues like that from this brand so it wasn’t much of a problem for me.
So many memories! Up at the top on the left is Atom Ant, and I remember the character but don’t have any memories of watching the actual show. At first I thought the name was Adam Ant, but then said to myself that I was getting him confused with the 80s rocker. Hubby and I had to look him up to be sure of the name – getting old ain’t for sissies, memories really do start to go.
Next to Mr. Ant is Quick Draw McGraw, and I actually do remember watching his show. I remember that his voice sounded very much like Yogi Bear to me, and came to learn later that both characters were voiced by the same man – no wonder they sounded alike. I enjoyed Quick Draw because he was always so polite, and for some reason that made an impression on me.
Like Atom Ant, I remember the character on the right – Magilla Gorilla – but don’t have any specific memories of the show. He was fun to assemble though, that’s why he’s here. A big orange rectangle doesn’t seem as though it would be very entertaining, but it actually was. 😉
Scooby Doo was definitely a favorite for me as a child, and I remember many episodes of the shows. My kids liked it too, and used to watch the reruns. Those meddlin’ kids and the grumpy old man that was usually the “ghost” trying to scare people – I remember them very clearly.
And the name Fractured Fairy Tales is something my brain remembers, but unfortunately I have no specifics. I know that most likely I watched the show, but it’s the name I remember – the character isn’t familiar nor is the image shown above. It was easy to pick out the pieces though, and easy to assemble too.
Quality problems aside, this was a fun puzzle to assemble, and even though it took longer than normal I had a great time. It brought back many memories – even if some of them were as fuzzy as the image reproduction.
Wow did I love this puzzle! I’d seen the image several years ago and really wanted it, but for some reason never purchased it. Not until Penny asked me what puzzle she should do next and this was one of the choices; I told her to do the Lips and then send it to me, but then decided I didn’t want to wait and ordered one for myself.
At the time I’m writing up this post she’s still working on this puzzle – she has a life, a full time job, and two young children – I have none of those things, so I finished first. Partly because this puzzle was just too fun to walk away from, and partly because I don’t sleep much and am up in the wee hours puzzling when most others are sleeping. Honestly though, I’m a little sad that it’s already done. ðŸ˜
*Penny has since finished this puzzle too. I don’t think she enjoyed it as much as I did, but we can’t all love the same puzzles in the same way. All the flesh colored pieces in between had her a little frustrated, but she says she did like the puzzle.*
According to my blog this is only the second Piatnik puzzle I’ve done, the first was three years ago and was a collage of vintage needle books. From these two puzzles I can say that the quality of this brand is very good. My only issue was with the shine on the pieces, it was a bit difficult to see the darker pieces under the lights, there was a lot of glare. Otherwise, the fit was excellent, the image reproduction is stellar, there were a variety of shapes – just a great jigsaw puzzle all around.
The rainbow lips on the left were so fun to assemble, that bright yellow really stood out. The deep blue with the diamond was the first one that caught my attention, it’s just such a great little picture and the pieces were easy to find as well. I’m not sure what to call the lips on the right, funky rainbow perhaps? The pieces weren’t as easy to find as the first two, but it is such a great image – and that black background made it a little less challenging.
Just Add Water by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
I was pretty disappointed in the quality of this puzzle, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t also satisfying to assemble. There was fuzzy image reproduction, the fit was too tight, so much puzzle dust and lots of hanging chads. The thing is….I knew that was a possibility when this puzzle was purchased.
White Mountain puzzles, for me, aren’t a premium quality puzzle. There have been issues with fit, image reproduction, and delamination. BUT – as far as My Jigsaw Journal is concerned – they have one of the best catalogs of collages around. Collages make me extremely happy, so I put up with the less than outstanding quality. It’s just how it is. For me. You may not think it’s worth it, and that’s fine too.
When the bag was opened, I thought at first that there wasn’t much puzzle dust, but I was wrong. Much of it was still attached (barely) to the pieces, moving them around to sort brought about the dust storm. There were long thin pieces of backing, small bits, and plenty of it stayed on the pieces creating what I call hanging chads. Disappointing.
Within a few moments of starting to assemble the edge the tightness of the fit showed up – 10 pieces put together and the straight edge was curling up because of it. I expected the fuzzy image, so that wasn’t a surprise. Even with all these problems, because it was a collage with an image that was pleasing I still enjoyed myself and finished this puzzle pretty quickly.
So, who’s ready to reminisce/talk about drink mixes?
Ok, never heard of this one. And for the record…..EW! You probably can’t read it because the wording in the image is fuzzy, but it says “fortified corn starch beverage mix”. I’m gagging a little bit. Ick.
Any root beer drinkers out there? I don’t care for it myself, but if I did, one has to wonder how it would taste being made from a mix. It’s a “soft drink” right? It would be like getting a package of powder and adding water to make Pepsi or Coke with no carbonation. I acknowledge that as far as fussy eaters go, I’m one of the best – but this sounds horrible to me. Thoughts from anyone who enjoys root beer?
This one brings back memories. We mostly had kool-aid or flavor-aid on those occasions when we were allowed to drink sweet stuff; but when there was a really good sale (and mom could add a coupon) every once in a while – we got to have Country Time lemonade. My sisters and I loved it, probably because it was rare that we were allowed to have it. And what is it about pink lemonade that makes it so much cooler than regular lemonade? Whatever it is, we loved this. Though if I had it now, it would probably seem awful and way too sweet.
Very tight fit = puzzle standing up picture. It makes me happy. No apologies, excuses, or explanations. 😎
My Jigsaw Journal 