New York Times Front Page

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

Another fun find from the thrift store. This one is interesting because it was made for someone whose birthday was November 10, 1930 – that is the date on this newspaper. I’m sure everyone has seen the ads in catalogs, etc. that will show you what was happening on the day or year you were born. Well, someone had this puzzle made, very cool!

Interestingly this company is based in the UK, not the US. I suppose I assumed that because it was the New York Times that the company would be in the Us. It’s a global world now, I don’t know why I was surprised. Map Marketing makes personalized maps, puzzles, etc. I was pretty impressed with the quality of this puzzle, the pieces have the same sort of dry feel that All Jigsaw Puzzles brand has; perhaps they use the same manufacturer. All around a very nice quality puzzle with pieces that are thick and fit together well, and a nice variety of shapes. I can’t really comment on image reproduction, because it’s a copy of a newspaper that was printed a very long time ago, on very old machines. Most likely the image reproduction is very good, at least we were able to read the entire front page! 🙂

Mom and I assembled this together at her house, and we had a good time of course. This is the 2nd newspaper puzzle we’ve put together and we developed a strategy for it. It made the assembly go relatively quickly. We’re an awesome team!

It was a fun puzzle that we’re now donating to the senior center, wouldn’t it be excellent if someone there had a birthday on November 10, 1930? 🎂

Review: Teachers

On December 27, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Teachers (Girl Power) – Eurographics – 100 pieces

Another interesting thrift store find from my resident thrift store ninja shopper. Way to go mom!

The is from the Girl Power series of puzzles by Eurographics, the motto is “girls can do anything”. Love it! They have puzzles of the many different jobs girls can do, such as an engineer, pilot, firefighter, mechanic, and many more. Although teacher seems like a job girls have always done, it’s still a part of this series and something girls can do. 🙂

The quality of this kids puzzle was excellent. Very thick pieces that fit together well, with bright and colorful image reproduction. There were also a good variety of piece shapes, which you don’t always see in a child’s puzzle. It is an all around wonderful quality puzzle. I love it when manufacturers put effort into making good quality puzzles for children!

Even though I’m a “grownup” and do adult puzzles, I still enjoy working a kids puzzle. Mom still can’t stop herself from buying them, although we mostly just give them away to friends with kids or the special needs school my daughter works for. We put them together to be sure the puzzles are complete before we give them away. Puzzling is puzzling, no matter the piece count and I’m not ashamed to say I have a good time assembling puzzles meant for children. I’m just a fun-loving kid in a old person’s body. 👧=👵

Details:

Title: Teachers
Artist: ?
Brand: Eurographics
Piece count: 100 pieces
Size: Approx. 13 x 19 in. (33 x 48 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Excellent
Cutting: Excellent
Image: Excellent
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Matte finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Excellent, recommended

Wavy Rainbow

On December 26, 2017February 1, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Isn’t this a gorgeous image? I fell in love with it and had to get it, even though at the time I was trying not to buy more puzzles. I fell off the wagon, so to speak.

I’ve done 3 other puzzles from this company, All Jigsaw Puzzles, and I’ve never had any problem with their quality. This one though, slight problem – the color was coming off in a few spots. You can’t really tell in the picture above, but there were small bits on the edges of a few pieces where the color was coming off. I then glued the puzzle because I think it would be a beautiful wall-hanging. But spreading the glue around on the top of the puzzle with an old plastic credit card pulled more color off. I could see flecks of color in the glue before it dried, and once it was completely dry there were places where the color came completely off. This has always been my method when gluing puzzles and I have never come across this problem before.

It only affected this small portion of the puzzle, which I found odd, but perhaps it has something to do with the ink used? Whatever the reason, it isn’t something you’d want to have happen to your puzzle. I emailed the company and got an immediate response; they took care of me with excellent customer service. As I said previously, I’ve worked 3 of their other puzzles and have not had any quality issues before. The quality has been very good and I believe this was just an anomaly, they assured me they would be communicating with their manufacturer to fix the problem. I bought another of their Impuzzible images at the same time as this puzzle, and will be posting about it here. Hopefully there won’t be any more color lifting.

Quality issue aside, I enjoyed this puzzle very much. Even though it may look difficult, I didn’t find it too much of a challenge. For me the red to orange section was the most difficult, my eyes had a hard time distinguishing the difference in the colors. The rest of it was actually quite easy and fun. It really is stunning in person, and I very much enjoyed assembling mine.

This image has also been made into a puzzle by Buffalo under the name Vivid Color Challenge, in case you don’t want to take a chance on a quality problem but would still like to give the puzzle a try. It’s gorgeous!

Vintage St. Nicholas

On December 25, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Challenging puzzle, but gorgeous and fun with excellent whimsies! Take a look….

My last Christmas puzzle of the year, I did quite a few for someone who doesn’t really like most Christmas puzzles. I’m posting this before any presents are unwrapped, so we’ll see if any of my family, or even Santa, gifted me puzzles this year. 🎄

My mother decided she absolutely had to take advantage of the black Friday sale at Wentworth and got this puzzle and one other for 35% off! (The other is an art nouveau collage, 750 pieces – SO BEAUTIFUL!) We started this one together at her house, but it was quite the challenge so it wasn’t finished by the time I left; she finished it on her own late into the night.

First thing for us to do when assembling a wooden puzzle is to pull all the whimsy pieces we can find and get a picture of those separately. We are still amazed and delighted at every new shape we find – we’re like little kids on Christmas morning! Next we try to assemble the edge, but they’re so sneaky about the cutting that we have never found all the edge pieces on the first try. Still, it’s fun to give it a shot.

The assembly was quite time consuming, much more so than we’d expected. The piece shapes are mostly like the random cut of a cardboard puzzle, but they are cut in a way that makes the assembly more difficult and more fun. The shapes aren’t fantastical and wild, but it doesn’t matter as much because the working of the puzzle itself is such a pleasure.

I love the look of all the vintage Santa characters, they are all so different, but similar too. So sweet and lovely to look at. I think we’ll assemble this one next year at my house so I get to be the one staying up late into the night! ⏰

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Night Before Christmas & Santa and his Team

On December 24, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

The Night Before Christmas by Steve Crisp – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 40 pieces

Love, love, love these puzzles! I had to post The Night Before Christmas today, it’s Christmas Eve – Santa’s coming tonight!! 🎅

I haven’t done any of the Steve Crisp houses before, and having seen the detail on this tiny one I’m really wanting to try one of the 1000 piece house puzzles. It looks like they would be lots of fun; I’ve never really looked at them before, though I’m not sure why. Probably because there are so many puzzles and so little time. I guess that means the wish list is going to be getting a little bit bigger. Perhaps it’ll get smaller as well, if Santa brings me a puzzle or two. I’ve tried to be good this year – I’m not always successful, but trying has to be worth something right? (Besides, being well-behaved isn’t nearly as much fun as being a little naughty now and then! 😈)

This was another Christmas puzzle that isn’t the “normal” scene, and the assembly was wonderful. You can see on the roof of the house the whimsy piece of Santa, it’s incredibly detailed; there was also a stocking, a present, a snowflake, and a Christmas tree. I loved this little puzzle!

Santa and his Team – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 25 pieces

This puzzle was the easiest of the “cracker” puzzles, but still fun to put together. You can see all the whimsies clearly in this puzzle because of the lighter color; a reindeer, penguin, snowman, Christmas tree, and Santa. 5 whimsies in a 25 piece puzzle, that’s a pretty good ratio!

I love the reindeer’s faces in this one, they’re just so darn cute! I get distracted by the snowman right on Santa’s face, but that’s one of the drawbacks of wooden puzzles that I’ve found. When the puzzle image is light the piece shape is very obvious and can pull your eye from seeing the picture as a whole. If you scroll back up and look at the house, on the bottom floor the piece shapes aren’t as obvious as they are on or near the roof. Still, for me, it doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the assembly, they’re still fun to put together.

These were the last 2 of the “cracker” puzzles, and you won’t be surprised to hear that I loved every one of them. There are a few more Christmas micro puzzles that I haven’t put together yet, but I’ve sent them with my mom on her trip to visit one of my sisters for the holidays. They’re the perfect size for traveling; they don’t take up much room in your luggage and they don’t take up much room when you’re assembling them either. I guess I’ll save them for Christmas in July on the blog – only 7 months to go! 🙂