Tag: Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Trick or Treat! by Dean MacAdam – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

Trick or Treat! Ain’t she an adorable puzzle? This image is just so fun I absolutely had to get it for myself, and even though it’s quite a busy scene with lots of little things to see and people to assemble it was more entertaining than I’d even hoped. If you can’t tell already I absolutely adored this puzzle and can’t recommend it enough. 🧡🖤🎃🖤🧡

The quality was fantastic and I couldn’t stop running my hands over the completed sections. The hand feel is amazing and every other thing I look for in a quality puzzle was even better than anticipated. The fit was exceptional, the reproduction is bright and crisp and stunning, variety in piece shapes, thick chipboard – it was all premium quality. But what else can you expect from this brand? Ravensburger is my favorite for many reasons, and this puzzle was spectacular.

The artwork by Dean MacAdam was a joy to assemble – and I started with this lovely lady here. Those polka dots stood out; all that pink in a sea of orange and black was easy to find and put together and there’s just something about her makes me smile. Perhaps it’s the stunned look on her face.

It’s just too cute, that’s all I can say about this little skeleton puppers named Wally. Too friggin’ adorable!

Mr. Creepy here needed his picture shown, it is Halloween after all so we need just a little bit of spooky. Why is it that clowns seem so damn creepy to me? Do they seem creepy to anyone else?

I had a great time putting this puzzle together, and I hope to get to another Dean MacAdam puzzle very soon. Penny has graciously sent me a copy of Goldilocks Gets Caught!, and it looks like it’ll be a little easier than this one was but still very entertaining. His artwork makes for very fun puzzling and when you add that with a quality brand you get great puzzles like this one.

Happy Halloween everyone! Stay safe, and enjoy! 👻🦇🎃

*Anyone besides me looking forward to Halloween candy being on sale for half price tomorrow? Time to stock up!🍬🍭🍫*

Spooky Treats

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Spooky Treats – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

Hope I’m not the only one who loves Halloween themed puzzles, this one is so darn cute! Those words were quite a challenge for me, but I got there in the end. Great image on a great puzzle. I’m still really enjoying these little puzzles in a test tube, even though working with the tiny pieces is getting a bit more difficult for me. I’ve hopefully still got plenty of time to finish the 35 or so mini puzzles yet to be done – including another Halloween image.

Once the outside candy pieces were finished there were still plenty of pieces that were only words, it isn’t as easy as you might think. Luckily there was still enough coffee left to wake up my brain cells so that I could finish.

Loved this image, and I’m really looking forward to completing the second Halloween themed MicroPuzzle, it looks like even more fun!

Haunted Mansion

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Haunted Mansion by David Maclean – Vermont Christmas Co. – 550 pieces

Are you starting to feel the Halloween holiday spirit? Or spirits? I am! This puzzle was finished waaaay back in August, but it’s finally time to show it off. Isn’t it a good one? It was a great quality puzzle, and a nice image for puzzling, but was more difficult than it looks.

I’m not sure how I feel about the image honestly, with so much of it obviously digital manipulation it just doesn’t float my boat as much as I’d hoped. That’s ok though, we can’t fall in love with every single puzzle can we? And thank goodness we all have different ideas of what’s good, or at least what’s good for us – otherwise this world would be a very boring place indeed and it would be overrun by sameness and no surprises. B.O.R.I.N.G.

It’s been almost 5 years exactly since I’ve worked a VCC puzzle, and I forgot how much I admire their quality and their catalog. Great variety of piece shapes made of thick chipboard, a great fit, excellent image reproduction, and a slightly shiny finish that doesn’t bother me too much. I’m sure there will be more Vermont Christmas Co. puzzles on my board before you know it.

While appropriately spooky, the graves and ghosts were harder to put together than you might think. The purple ghosts weren’t much of a problem as their color stuck out, but the rest of them gave me a run for my money!

This is my favorite part of the whole puzzle, I just love how the witch looks against the moon, how the moon looks against the sky, how the sky looks behind the trees…….great image that was entertaining to puzzle – and about as difficult as you think it would be.

Couldn’t help myself. It’s a great puzzle, with a fit so good that it’s proud enough to stand up and tell you itself!

Grin & Bones

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Grin & Bones – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This is such an adorable Halloween puzzle, it was much harder than it looks! Still, it’s bright and colorful and was highly entertaining to assemble.

I’ve never had an issue with MicroPuzzles quality before, but this puzzle had a printing issue. Things happen, no manufacturing process is ever perfect so I don’t find it to be that distressing at all. I’ve emailed the company and have alerted them to the problem in the hopes that they can resolve whatever issue caused this. They offered their apologies and a replacement puzzle, but I don’t need a replacement, and asked that they not send me one as that wasn’t why I contacted them.

You can see below the dark substance/color across part of the lower portion of the image (across the porch of the house)…

I’ve had similar issues like this with other puzzle brands, and though I’m not sure what causes it – it really didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the assembly. I’m not one of those people who immediately wants a refund or a replacement. If that is something that you do, I’m not disparaging that at all – you’re well within your rights to ask for those things if you wish – I’m just saying that it isn’t normally what I do.

If I assembled the puzzle and enjoyed myself, that’s enough for me. I have so many puzzles already here, and almost never assemble cardboard puzzles more than once. If I received another copy of this puzzle I wouldn’t even assemble it, it would be wasted on me.

I let the company know about the problem; they were apologetic and offered a replacement and told me they would look into the issue – which is all I wanted. If I can help in some small way to make sure others get good quality puzzles then I’m a happy puzzler. 😎

MicroPuzzles has always provided me quality mini puzzles that I enjoy assembling, and my opinion of the brand and their puzzles hasn’t changed. I love them!

Happy Socktober

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

Happy Socktober – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

How fun is this image? So fun! After exhausting my supply of Halloween puzzles I was thrilled to get this month’s subscription box from MicroPuzzles with two more puzzles for my favorite holiday; plus the gift in this month’s box was a perfect compliment to to this puzzle…

Puzzle socks for Socktober! They don’t quite match the colors of the socks on the witch in the middle of the image, but they’re close enough. I don’t normally wear socks here in sweaty, sunny Florida, but how can I part with these? I love everything puzzle related, even these socks that I will wear only rarely.

Even though there was a different micro puzzle in progress in the master bathroom, I had to jump in and immediately get going on this one. As I’m typing up this post the date is October 1, but by the time you’re reading this it will be very close to the end of the month. There are puzzle posts already typed up and scheduled for most of October already, so there’s no waiting on these two holiday puzzles – they need to be assembled quickly in order to be sure they’re ready for posting before Halloween.

Although this is a brightly colored image, it isn’t an easy one to assemble. The two sets of striped socks on either side were much easier to find and assemble than the puzzle socks in the middle, so obviously that’s where I started. The middle bit with the darker background and the socks with four different colored puzzle pieces made for a much more challenging assembly.

Still I absolutely loved it, and was so excited to have some more Halloween puzzles to put together. The quality that MicroPuzzles has makes for fun puzzles that I usually enjoy very much. This one was no different in the quality department, but the image made me so happy that it made for even more entertaining puzzling than usual. I had the best time.💟

Happy Socktober my friends!