Tag: Jigsaw Puzzles

Brian’s Worst Nightmare

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Brian’s Worst Nightmare – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This one was done in about 3 days, which is pretty fast for one of our bathroom puzzles. Hubby said it was because he doesn’t care for cats and wanted to finish it quickly. I wasn’t fooled though, it was finished fast because it’s a cartoon puzzle with bright colors on a white background and it was relatively easy – and he enjoyed it more than he’s willing to admit.

You may be wondering about the title – Brian’s Worst Nightmare – it’s a great title! To tell you why I’ll have to tell you a little bit about MicroPuzzles. It’s a small company run by a husband and wife team in Anaheim, California. One of their “employees” is Brian in shipping – and he’s their adorable dog! Here’s what their website says…

Part unpaid intern, part scapegoat, part family pet – he has been a two time (non consecutive) Employee of the Month in June 2018 (and again in February 2021).  Brian (whose real name is Presto) is a 13 year old senior rescue with a sunny disposition and a bad habit of handing out discount codes.  He’s the oldest and least productive member of the staff…. but we love him anyway.

So, this puzzle full of cats is Brian’s Worst Nightmare. It made me laugh out loud when I saw the title for the first time, and it makes me smile now when I think about it. Although, since this puzzle came in a box with many puzzles and the name of the artwork isn’t on their tube’s label, I had to go to their website to find the official title.

As for the assembly, it wasn’t quite as easy as hubby thought. He put together the entire border, and started working on the inside completely on his own in the middle of the night. When I started working on it, the realization came quickly that the border wasn’t quite correct and had to spend some time trying to figure out where he went wrong. The images of the cats are repeated, so he got a little mixed up and had things switched around – but it was put to right with not too much trouble. I almost wish I’d been able to do a little more of it, because honestly he did the majority, but I love that he was so engaged with it and almost couldn’t stop working on it.

It’s such a cute puzzle, with an even cuter title – and even though it was full of cats hubby had a great time putting it together. And so did I. 😸

*On a side note, the owners of MicroPuzzles (and the company itself) own one of the oldest examples of jigsaw puzzles in existence – a John Spilsbury in it’s original box with label! It’s from 1767, and is in excellent condition. A 250 year old puzzle, wouldn’t you love to see that up close? You can see pictures of this amazing puzzle here.

For those of you who don’t know, John Spilsbury is credited as the inventor of the jigsaw puzzle, which he originally named “dissected maps”. As a young man he was apprenticed to the Royal Geographer to King George III, and he came up with the idea of mounting maps to thin pieces of wood and cutting them along borders as an educational tool to teach children geography.

It’s almost impossible to say who made the very first puzzle; in the early 18th century people were creating jigsaw puzzles by painting images on wood and then cutting them apart. John Spilsbury was the first one to “commercialize” them by making his dissected maps and selling them, so he became known as their inventor.

Checking it Twice

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Checking it Twice by Terry Good – Wentworth – 25 pieces

Another beautiful micro puzzle from Wentworth, this is one of their “Cracker Puzzles” that come in an organza bag inside a Christmas cracker shaped box. Perfect for stocking stuffers, or just a fun treat for yourself!

The quality of these Wentworth puzzles is excellent, I’ve never had a problem with any of their products as far as I can remember. The only time I’ve ever contacted customer service was when I didn’t know what the shape of one of their whimsies was. (It was a symbol for the London Tube *their subway system*) They were very nice in responding to my odd request and got back to me right away. 👍

Wentworth micro puzzles are a godsend when I’m feeling awful and in bed; I can still work on a puzzle and take my mind off of things. All I need is a small cookie sheet lined with paper and I can puzzle while in bed. Because they’re so helpful to me when I can’t sit in front of my puzzle table I’m always happy to order myself a bunch of their small puzzles once a year; I try to get every single one whose image speaks to me. I’m totally worth it!

The artwork by Terry Good is so beautiful, and it would make a fantastic puzzle of any size – all the way up to 1000 pieces. There’s so much detail, and even though the colors seem slightly muted they’re still bright enough to make a captivating image.

Look at these cute whimsies; the detail Wentworth etches into them make them even more special. Most whimsy pieces are just the outline of an image or figure, but they go the extra mile and give them detail – love them!

Elf

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Elf – Ceaco – 300 pieces

Another very cute Christmas puzzle that isn’t the usual – these are my kind of holiday puzzles! This is another favorite Christmas movie in this house, and although it’s only 18 years old, we think of it as a classic. We watch it every year, and it never fails to make us laugh; I think it’ll be part of our holidays for years to come.

As I’m typing up these posts it occurs to me that almost every cardboard Christmas puzzle I have was given to me as a gift. I go right on past them in the store, because I have an admittedly bad attitude about them in general. So most of the ones I’ve assembled this year have been gifts from previous years. Luckily though, everyone who has gifted me a holiday puzzle knows how I feel and has given me ones with images that are more my style. 💝💚

After the edge was assembled I started with Buddy the Elf; then the words went together, and then all the snowflakes around the edges. The snowflakes were the most difficult part for me, but we puzzlers love figuring things out – I got it done in the end.

What I ended up with was a very funny, sweet image. Loved this puzzle. 💟

Thank you Penny! Sorry it took me two years to get to this one, but it was great fun once I finally assembled it.

Review: Stained Glass Tree

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews3 Comments

Stained Glass Tree by Jen Cameron – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

Hubby liked the image on Stained Glass Tree much better than the first MicroPuzzle we assembled with the donuts, and to be honest so did I. There was nothing wrong with 2037 Calories, but this one was just so lovely! The colors of this one are so beautiful and the finished puzzle makes me want to frame it and have it sitting on a table somewhere in the house. Love it!

These little MicroPuzzles have quite good quality for such little pieces, and I’ve been very impressed with them. What I love most is that when you’ve chosen the correct piece you know immediately, it slips right into place; that’s pretty helpful for these aging eyes with such small pieces. Once you get the edge together the fit can be loose – until more pieces are added – otherwise the fit is good. Piece thickness is very good for such small puzzles, and the image reproduction is stellar. Click the link above if you’d like to see their catalog of puzzles available, they’re constantly adding new images. I’m currently OBSESSED with their puzzles and absolutely love them!

There is only one piece shape, what I call ballerinas (2 prong/2 hole), but I don’t mind that with these little puzzles. What would normally be very or slightly annoying in a larger puzzle doesn’t bother me at all with these little ones. Probably because there is enough variety within the one shape, you don’t accidentally put a piece anywhere and think you’ve got it right. (Well, I don’t. Hubby did once with some edge pieces, but I came in later and could see it right away and fixed it.)

My one issue is that the artist credit isn’t available on every puzzle. I’m a big believer in giving artists their props here on the blog – their artwork is the reason we all have so many fantastic puzzle images to choose from. The title of each puzzle isn’t shown on the tubes they come in, but my suggestion is to at least give credit on the website. Then you’d be able to see which artist created the image, and I’d be able to put that information here when I post about the puzzles we’ve completed – to give them credit for their beautiful work.

*The artist is credited for this puzzle, but many of the images on their puzzles do not have the artist listed on their website.*

Mom must have whispered in my ear this morning as I’m typing this up, reminding me that you cannot tell the size of the puzzle unless you have something next to it for comparison. She was always telling me when I did a very large or very small puzzle that I needed to show the actual size by putting something next to it for a reference…..

It makes a difference when you can see just how small they truly are. There’s something about working with the small pieces that is so satisfying for me – although I’m not sure I am able to articulate exactly why that is. Whatever the reason, I’m captivated by these little puzzles and having the best time putting them together.

MicroPuzzles are very nice quality mini puzzles, and I’m extremely glad I found them. If you think you’d like to give them a try, I definitely recommend them. We’re giving them two test tubes way up! 🧪🧪

Details:

  • Title:                  Stained Glass Tree
  • Artist:                Jen Cameron
  • Brand:               MicroPuzzles
  • Piece count:     150 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 4 x 6 in. (10 x 15 cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               Very good
  • Cutting:             Very good
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Test tube
  • Fit:                     Good, somewhat loose
  • Puzzle Dust:     None
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   No variety, one shape (ballerina)
  • Finish:               Matte finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Very good, recommended

Winter City

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Winter City by Karla Gerard – PuzzleTwist – 500 pieces

Like a Wasgij or What If? puzzle, the puzzle inside the box doesn’t match the image you see on the outside – so I do not show any spoilers. Sorry, you don’t get to see the finished puzzle. In this puzzle there are 32 differences between the box image and the puzzle, sometimes small things and sometimes very big things.

I don’t find these too difficult, it’s just like assembling a puzzle when you put the box away and don’t use it for help. They’re still great fun though.

PuzzleTwist has a bunch of different categories of puzzles; in this one, Something’s Amiss, things are different on the actual puzzle than what you see on the box image. The first puzzle of theirs I did was called Reveal the Color; the image on the box was black and white, and the puzzle was not only in color, but the color revealed a hidden image as well. Very cool!

I had a good time with this one, my only problem was the amount of puzzle dust. I received this puzzle secondhand from my pal Penny, so it had already been sorted and assembled once. There was still quite a bit of dust. Otherwise it was an excellent puzzle that was hard to walk away from. The fit was very good, the image reproduction was beautiful and there was wonderful variety in piece shape.

PuzzleTwist has created a character called “Maynard”, he’s hidden in many puzzles. He’s very small, about the size of the knob end of a puzzle piece, and he’s not always easy to locate. If you can’t find him though, there are hints on the PuzzleTwist website for each puzzle; and if you still can’t find him, there is a picture revealing where he’s hidden. This is Maynard….

He’s very cute, don’t you think? While looking up this puzzle on the PuzzleTwist website I read about Maynard, and there was a link to the page where you could find hints to help you find him. I’d never heard about this before, and so I went to the hint page. I only read the first hint and found him in my puzzle pretty quickly. To be honest, it makes me want to get some more of their puzzles just to find if he’s hidden in them!

I think Maynard is adorable, and love that he’s hidden in their puzzles. I couldn’t find much info about him on their site, only hints for where he’s hiding in certain puzzles. I wish there was a page with a little information about how it began and which kinds of puzzles he’s hiding in, etc. I’d like to know more!

Wanna hear a weird coincidence? My nickname among friends in high school was Maynard. There was a commercial back in the 80s for Malt-o-Meal (hot breakfast cereal similar to Cream of Wheat) and the tagline was “Good stuff Maynard!” which I was constantly quoting because I found it funny. My friends started calling me that, it was our little inside joke. When the whole senior class got personalized shirts – the name on the back of mine was Maynard. 😎