Fairytale Fantasia

On October 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

And now we’ve come to the end of the oldies but goodies, this is the last of the puzzles from over 2 years ago that I’ve never posted about. It’s been great fun going back and remembering all these puzzles!

It’s odd to me that I can remember specific things about each of the puzzles from back then, but I can’t tell you how old I am without doing math in my head first. What did I have for lunch yesterday? I have no idea, but I can tell you many things about this puzzle I did about 2 1/2 years ago. Weird old lady brain! 👵

This shelf, for me, was the easiest of the Aimee Stewart shelves that I’ve assembled. Glorious Vintage, Fantastic Voyage, World of Books, etc., these were all much more of a challenge in my opinion. I enjoyed them all, but this was the least difficult; Glorious Vintage required the most brain power, all that green had my head spinning!

For Fairytale Fantastia all the books, the beautiful colors, and the whimsical characters made this puzzle a joy to put together, and one of my favorite shelves by this artist. If I’m being honest, pretty much all puzzles by Aimee Stewart are in the favorites category (except for her Neuschwanstein image, Castle Dream. It’s just not my cup of tea/pile of pieces). 😉

And as usual, the quality of this puzzle was as excellent as the artwork. Ravensburger pieces have a wonderful feel in your hands, the “softclick” technology provides a great fit, and the image reproduction is amazingly done. No wonder they’re one of my favorite puzzle brands!

I wish there were more Aimee Stewart puzzles here at the house that I could dive into; but, alas, I’m Stewart-less at the moment. All this reminiscing has me in the mood for her awesome use of colors and whimsy – and looking at her artwork always makes me a little happier than I was before. ☺

Review: Droids

On October 2, 2018October 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

Droids was much more fun than I anticipated, I love Buffalo’s smaller piece count puzzles. The fit is excellent, and the pieces are the perfect size (for me). Great puzzle!

I don’t always like the 1000 piece puzzles by Buffalo, sometimes I have to be in just the right mood. I find the piece shapes are all too similar. Not so with their 300 and 500 piece puzzles; I find the pieces to be the perfect Goldilocks size – not too small and not too big. The shapes are less “boxy”, and they offer more variety in the size of the pieces as well. The image reproduction is stellar and the fit is wonderful. Their smaller piece count puzzles are my favorite. Click the link to check out Buffalo Games and see all of their available puzzles, they have some gorgeous images to choose from!

I’m not the world’s biggest Star Wars fan, but looking for some 300 and 500 piece puzzles to keep me entertained I decided I might as well give these droids a try. It didn’t look like a ton of fun, but fortunately looks can be deceiving and it was very entertaining. I had a great time putting it together, even more fun than making the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs! (That seemed kinda Star Wars nerdy – I know – but I have so much useless information and quotes in my brain and I can’t get them out!)

If you or someone you know is a Star Wars fan, I absolutely recommend this puzzle. It’s the right amount of difficulty and the right amount of fun. 🤖

Details:

Title: Droids
Artist: None given
Brand: Buffalo
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 21 x 15 in. (54 x 38 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Sturdy, glued shut
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Fantastic Voyage

On September 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Here’s another oldie that I didn’t post about because of the truly horrid picture I took. The vertigo seems to have resolved itself very nicely. 😉

It’s by Aimee Stewart, one of my absolute favorite artists. Fantastic Voyage was pretty challenging, but I enjoyed the journey of it. Her artwork is deceptive; the colors are blended so expertly and the overall look of the image is so beautiful that you don’t think the assembly will be that difficult – but it is. It takes more time than you assume it will, but in my opinion it’s absolutely worth it. It’s a gorgeous puzzle!

FantasticVoyage

If you haven’t tried an Aimee Stewart puzzle, I urge you to give it a go. They’re stunning, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be glad you did! 🙂

Science

On September 29, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is the second of four mini puzzles that hubby and I did together. He had so much fun with this one that he took it into the living room and almost did the entire puzzle by himself! I had to tell him to let me at least put in a few pieces, if I don’t help in the assembly I can’t post it on the blog. 😉

There’s something about the very small pieces that is so engrossing and entertaining – as long as they’re good quality. You start to put a few pieces together and you just can’t put it down; although that could be just me. I wouldn’t want to work with the teeny tiny pieces all the time, but once in a while is pretty darn fun.

This image is very busy, and with the piece shapes in the finished image it’s hard to see all of the line drawings. Honestly, it was my least favorite of the 4, but still fun to put together. You can see the image a little better on the poster below…

Science Poster

It’s so detailed that I wanted to enlarge the poster to show all the drawings. It was tough to work with all the black and white lines, especially because the pieces are so small. The quiz on the back is fun to read through as well…

Science Quiz

These puzzles are a lot of fun, and if you want a challenge I highly recommend them! Stay tuned in the next few weeks for Technology and Mathematics. 👩‍🎓

Review: Reese’s

On September 27, 2018September 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

Reese’s was an excellent quality, entertaining to assemble puzzle that surprised me. It was better quality than I was expecting, and not nearly as difficult as I’d anticipated. It made for a fun couple of days, and for some reason it also made me extremely hungry for peanut butter cups. 😏

I enjoy MasterPieces puzzles, they have a great catalog of diverse images to choose from, with very good quality and even better value. They have both grid cut and random cut puzzles, so there’s something for everyone. The quality of the chipboard is very good with thick pieces that fit together extremely well. Sometimes the fit can be a bit loose, but with this puzzle the pieces fit together snugly – so much so that I could lift the puzzle by one piece and nothing came apart!

I thought perhaps the image would end up being quite difficult with all the repetition of packages, but I found it to be much easier than I’d assumed. That doesn’t mean that it was an easy puzzle; it took just the right amount of concentration, but not so much that it became frustrating. I enjoyed diving in to all of that yummy chocolate and peanut butter!

The image reproduction was spot on, and the bright colors made it fun to work with. You just have to decide where you’re going to start and jump right in. After assembling the edge I started with the white packages (which I would NEVER do in real life, “white chocolate” isn’t chocolate!), but they were the easiest pieces to pick out. Then I went with the largest logo in the center, those pieces stood out as well…

I had a great time with this puzzle, I find shaped puzzles to be a lot of fun and they end up looking amazing when you’re finished. Check out some of the amazing shaped puzzles at Puzzle Warehouse, there are so many to choose from!

If you’re looking for a yummy puzzle to get you revved up for Halloween (best candy holiday there is), I highly recommend Reese’s. It’s wonderful quality, a great image, and was extremely entertaining to assemble.

I’m hungry for some reason…maybe some peanut butter and chocolate…🥜🍫

Details: