Teddy Bear Christmas Tree

On July 31, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Our last Christmas in July puzzle – feeling that chilly winter air yet? Me neither. Oh well, at the very least there were some beautiful Christmas puzzles. I even reviewed a puzzle that had a Christmas tree in it, did you notice? Paris Opera House, in the center of the hall was a Christmas tree!

The day I started this puzzle I had the worst time trying to decide what puzzle to do next, I changed my mind at least 5 times before I settled on this one. Now that this one is done, I don’t know what to do next – again!

I’ve been impressed with Masterpieces puzzles lately, in my eyes their quality has gotten much better. This puzzle was very good quality and as an added bonus – glitter! You can see some of the glitter at the top of the puzzle; in the negative space is the silhouette of Santa and his team. That’s not all of it though, there’s glitter all throughout the puzzle; it just doesn’t photograph well. (Or I don’t do photographs well, who knows?)

The teddy bears are adorable and the image reproduction is excellent with bright, fun colors. The pieces fit together very well with what I guess I would call a semi-random cut. Fun assembly!

Here’s another question for you, did you notice that one of the pieces was chewed up? On the left border near the top. 😉

Merry Christmas Everyone!

On July 28, 2017July 28, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Adorable kid’s puzzle from the thrift store. Puzzles for my Christmas in July here on the blog seem to be falling in my lap. There are plenty of Christmas puzzles in the thrift stores lately, though I’m definitely not complaining.

This is a Springbok puzzle which has good quality with very thick pieces and nice image reproduction, the fit is what I’m not a fan of. Springbok puzzles usually have an extremely tight fit, so much so that you have to really press down to connect the pieces. This puzzle was so tightly fit that the finished puzzle curled up at the edges! I prefer a fit that doesn’t require upper body strength; to me, if I have to work that hard to connect two pieces it makes me question if they actually fit together. But that is my personal opinion, it’s really just a matter of taste. A lot of people prefer the tighter fit, isn’t it great that we’re all so different and there’s a puzzle out there for everyone? 🙂

This was a quick assembly that mom and I did after she finished showing me her latest finds from the thrift stores. We both enjoy putting together the kid’s puzzles – first we have to make sure all the pieces are there before I pass them along to my grandson. And second, we have both refused to grow up – so even though she’s in her 70’s and I’m in my late 40’s we are still little kids at heart who can still have a good time putting together a kid’s puzzle. 😎

Peppermint Patty was always my favorite of the Peanuts gang, because she had freckles and was a tomboy, just like me! I prefer hanging out indoors these days and there isn’t any running around since I was injured, but I’ve still got my freckles. 😉

Holiday Treats

On July 21, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

A nice collage from the thrift store, it was a bit of a challenge but we powered through only to find there were 3 missing pieces. Sigh. Oh well, those are the chances we take with thrift store puzzles – if we get a $20 puzzle for 69 cents then we have to expect that sometimes it won’t always be complete. It was still fun to do! 🙂

Another chilly puzzle for Christmas in July. It took us a while, but mom and I finally got this one finished last week. It was moderately difficult, but quite fun to assemble with a friend.

The cut was random which mom doesn’t really care for, I don’t mind it so much but I do prefer a grid cut most of the time. With the randomness sometimes you think you know what shape piece you’re looking for and it turns out you weren’t even close! It’s nice to change things up once in a while though, I think it makes my brain work differently – it takes me a bit to make the change in how I’m perceiving the pieces and how they fit together. It’s excellent exercise for the brain cells!

The pieces felt thick and sturdy and fit together well, the image reproduction was lovely and made me hungry for Christmas cookies! The finish was quite shiny, but the puzzle wasn’t dark so it didn’t present a problem.

All things considered a good quality puzzle that mom and I had fun assembling together, even with the 3 missing pieces. Merry Christmas in July!

Festive Felines

On July 7, 2017July 11, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

It’s been so unbearably hot here I’ve decided to celebrate Christmas in July! Once a week this month I’ll have a Christmas/holiday puzzle on the blog. It will be a nice reminder that it won’t always be so bleeping hot outside. 🙂

Festive Felines is our first Christmas in July puzzle, a fun thrift store find by Andrews + Blaine. Unopened! I wonder sometimes about unopened puzzles we find at the thrift stores. Was it a gift that someone really didn’t want? Was it put away and forgotten? Was it with a whole collection of puzzles in someone’s estate? I wonder about these things. Mom found an unopened 6000 piece Schmidt puzzle this week – for $1.99!!! 😮

Anyway, back to this puzzle. It was quite a fun assembly, I do love a collage! It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be with so much fur, white, and red – but it was enough of a challenge to be fun.

I’ve done several puzzles by this company, and this is the first puzzle of theirs that I’ve done that I had problems with the pieces themselves. The pieces are a good thickness, fit together very well, and had a nice variety of shapes – the problem is the shapes. In many places the “arms” of the pieces were so thin that even right out of the bag they were bending, and one of them had broken off already.

Many of the pieces had arms this thin or even thinner! That’s just too thin to be able to work with them without breaking pieces. The piece shapes are also a bit obvious in the finished image, making it more difficult to see the details. Andrews + Blaine usually has very nice pieces of a good thickness that fit together nicely. This is the first puzzle I’ve had this problem with, so I wouldn’t let it dissuade you from picking up one of their puzzles if you like the image or find one in a thrift store.

The kittens are adorable and make for a nice puzzle image. There was enough variety in the shades of fur and accessories that it wasn’t too difficult to assemble a section or two at a time. My favorite is the little guy peeking out from inside the gift box. So cute! Did I mention glitter? Glitter puzzle!! It doesn’t photograph well, or I don’t do photographs well – but every section has something glittery. Who doesn’t love a little sparkle?

Fun, sparkly, and cute holiday puzzle!

Halloween Town

On April 7, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

My first puzzle from Vermont Christmas Company – thumbs up! I bought this for Christmas last year because I needed to buy enough puzzles to get free shipping on the Christmas present I bought for mom. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 😎

I like the quality of this company very much. The pieces are thick, and the cut is super interesting! I’m not sure you can call it a grid cut, but it isn’t completely random either. Whatever it’s called, I like it! The fit is quite nice and the pieces lie flat; the image quality is bright and colorful and I enjoyed the whole puzzle from start to finish. The coating on the pieces is somewhat shiny and can cause glare on the darker pieces when working under lights, but I don’t consider that too much of a problem at all.

I’m not sure why I decided that spring is the time to assemble this puzzle, but there ya go. I just follow my weird mind and do whatever puzzle I’m feeling at the moment. Halloween is my favorite holiday so this puzzle makes me happy no matter what time of year it is! It’s cute without being overly childish and all the spooky favorites are there – kids trick or treating, ghosts, pumpkins, spider and bats, etc. This was a great puzzle and I’m looking forward to working more!