Tag: Cra-Z-Art

Downtown Freemont, Las Vegas, Nevada

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Downtown Freemont, Las Vegas, Nevada by Susanne Kremer – Cra-Z-Art (Kodak) – 350 pieces

Thankfully I had a really good time with this puzzle. I don’t usually go for photographic images, but this one was a great picture. You can tell it’s been manipulated, the car in the foreground is the same one as the one already driving down the street in front of it. The license plates are the same! I don’t know if most people would notice that or not, but I certainly did.

The quality was good. That’s as high as I’m willing to go on the rating, the fit was a bit wonky in addition to the shapes where you can tell immediately which way they’re oriented. But it was the kind of puzzle I needed to help get me out of my funk, so extra points for that.

This section stood out to me, why is the sign for check cashing upside down? Its one of those things that pops out of the image, you see the letters on a piece and think you know which way the piece goes but it doesn’t work that way. Normally I don’t use the box image or poster when I’m assembling a puzzle, so I didn’t know that this sign is upside down in the image.

Overall I enjoyed this puzzle just the right amount, which is exactly what I needed after three less than optimal puzzles. If this image speaks to you I can recommend this puzzle. It’s a Cra-Z-Art puzzle, so it isn’t premium quality, but you don’t always need that – you just need something fun.

This one was fun!

Life is a Box of Colors

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Life is a Box of Colors – Cra-Z-Art (Kodak) – 350 pieces

I had a really good time with this puzzle. And since I don’t remember the last Kodak puzzle that was put together, I didn’t know what kind of quality this might be; I was happy to find that it was a very good quality puzzle that was also truly a joy to assemble.

For some reason I decided I was going to pick puzzles based on piece count and go upwards to 1000 pieces. One day I did both 150 and 200 piece puzzles, so of course the next one had to be 300 pieces. I thought I’d jump to 500 pieces after that, but when I looked through the shelves in my closet I was surprised to see I had a couple of 350 piece puzzles, and obviously this one jumped right out at me with it’s bright, beautiful colors.

The pieces were thick with a good variety of shapes. It’s one of those puzzles that has fat pieces and thin pieces, you can tell when you start assembling the border; the thinner, shorter pieces make up the side borders and the fatter, taller ones are the top and bottom borders. The finish was quite shiny, and I did most of the assembly without my overhead light on because there was just too much glare to deal with. The image reproduction was gorgeous, of course, look at those “kodak colors”! The fit was quite tight, almost like a Springbok or certain Sunsout puzzles – I’m not a fan of this type of fit, but at least it wasn’t loose, right?

Assembling words makes me so happy, of course this was the first section to be completed. Isn’t it a stunningly gorgeous image? Love it!

Did I mention something about an extremely tight fit? Oh yeah, I did! In fact, I was so sure that this was going to work that I stood the puzzle on it’s edge first, before I got any pictures of the completed puzzle. That can be a risk if you’re not sure, but I knew there wouldn’t be any problems with this one.

I absolutely loved this assembly. Much of it was put together when I was on the phone with my daughter, I just sat talking and absentmindedly finding pieces and putting them in. When I look at this puzzle that will be what I remember, talking to my baby girl and putting together a beautiful puzzle. 💖

Downtown Freemont…In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Downtown Freemont, Las Vegas, Nevada by Susanne Kremer – Cra-Z-Art (Kodak) – 350 pieces

I’ve had a pretty terrible week, puzzle-wise. It started quite well, with a collage of musicals from stage and screen, obviously I loved that one. It began going downhill after that into a series of three different puzzles from three different brands that were disappointing, frustrating, and upsetting. I told my bestest puzzle pal that apparently I’m not supposed to actually enjoy puzzling this week. That day was a bad day and I felt the depression creeping back in.

So, after a day spent almost entirely in bed I decided I was getting back on the horse and I was going to find a puzzle here to make me happy – no matter what! Not an easy task when you’re in a black sort of mood and nothing looks good…or like fun…or the right one for the right time. I hope you have some inkling of what I mean, otherwise I’m just rambling here.

After much searching through all my new purchases, my thrift store finds, and all the puzzles on my shelves I came across this one; I have hopes that the assembly will be both entertaining and a balm for my bruised and battered puzzle mojo.

  • smaller piece count – ✔
  • bright colors – ✔
  • easy to moderate difficulty – ✔
  • relatively good brand – eh, we’ll see, this one’s hit or miss

So far this is all I’ve done, but it’s been a bad week in the pain department as well so there wasn’t much time that I was able to actually sit in front of the puzzle board and work on it. I’m about halfway done, and I’m happy as a clam that it hasn’t disappointed me yet. 🤞

Main Street – Day 6

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 83/500 pieces

And now we’re at the end of this set of Main Street puzzles, the last two buildings. They were all entertaining to assemble, and the Americana theme made for twelve beautiful shaped mini puzzles. I loved them all!

The quality was quite good for one of these sets with a good fit, beautiful image reproduction, an excellent variety of shapes and chipboard of a nice thickness. The buildings were all different shapes and sizes so there wasn’t any repetition and each one was a nice little puzzle to be solved. There have been a couple of sets that were disappointing, but this wasn’t one of them.

I’m very much looking forward to getting the three other puzzles that I haven’t yet done. (One may be a bit boring as they’re all the same shape, but I’m certain they’ll still be fun to put together.)

According to the sign Doc Ritter can cure your critter – large or small, there’s care for all. I love the look of this one, it actually reminds me of images by Wysocki and Jane Wooster Scott; it has such a homey feel to it. 💖

This one is another one that looks like fall to me, both the pumpkins in the front and the colors too. Raven’s Perch Pies – that seems awfully specific doesn’t it? At first I thought that it was just a place that made fish pies, then it finally clicked with me that it’s just a pie shop called Raven’s Perch – not a place that makes Perch pies run by a person named Raven. Duh!

I’m not too proud to tell you that it took me WAY longer than it should have to figure that out. I used to be smart! LOL

I enjoyed this set more than other sets of buildings for some reason, but again I don’t seem to be able to put into words exactly why that is. Even though I can’t seem tell you why, all that really matters is that they were fun to do – at least that’s what matters to me.

Happy puzzling today my friends, I hope you enjoy whatever puzzle you’re working on as much as I enjoyed these!

Main Street – Day 5

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 83/500 pieces

Sick of all the old-timey buildings yet? Well if you are, you only have to deal with these for one more day and then it’s back to regular puzzles. I love them all though, and putting together mini puzzles makes me pretty darned happy.

Sophia’s Pie Shop has the love baked right in! And, it’s connected to the Pumpkin Crest Inn, wake up in the morning and go have yourself a pie for breakfast – sounds like the perfect thing for me. Especially apple pie!

I love the fall colors of this little puzzle, autumn is my favorite season and the look of this one makes me very happy.

This one makes me smile, it seems as though a husband and wife have neighboring shops. Clem Clover sells cheese, and Clair Clover sells cool ice cream. It looks as though Clair is doing quite well compared to her husband; though I do love the look of the man in a top hat on a penny-farthing with a package of cheese on the back. 🧀