Tag: Jigsaw Puzzling

Assorted News 2

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Just a few bits of news…

I’ve been contacted by several people who are starting or have started up new jigsaw puzzle companies and websites, and I am passing the information on to my readers. I am not promoting any of these puzzles or sites, this is informational only as I haven’t had a chance to assemble or review any of these puzzles.

Perhaps if you are feeling like playing along on a tournament website or your to-do pile is getting low you may be able to find some out of the way places to perhaps do a little puzzle shopping or even just looking around. Remember that smaller companies have much higher costs to produce and ship their puzzles, so the prices are normally quite a bit higher than puzzles from big companies that are mass produced.

Even if none of these is your cup of tea, it might be entertaining to spend some time looking around these sites to see what they’re offering. If you’re anything like me, you enjoy reading about and window shopping for puzzles as well as actually assembling them.

 

This puzzle company was started by a former teacher with a graphic arts background who began publishing these puzzles upon her retirement. She created these puzzles for middle school students; they are all 513 pieces, and teach concepts in math, science, English, and social studies. I love the idea, and the images are fantastic! (I especially love the look of the math puzzles) Each puzzle also includes a downloadable lesson plan, which is great if you’re a teacher or homeschooler, or if you feel like going back to middle school for a weekend. 😉

Check them out at standardsinpuzzles.com – according to the owner they are still shipping puzzles daily. I can’t speak to their quality as I haven’t assembled any of the puzzles themselves, but if anyone tries them out I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

Attention Buffy fans…

Jasco Games has been a board and trading card game publisher for over 10 years, and they are now applying their art foiling techniques to new lines of Buffy jigsaw puzzles that they are launching.

They have launched their first jigsaw puzzle project on Kickstarter featuring Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is also their most popular board game. If you’re interested you can check out their Kickstarter page here, today is the last day of their campaign. It’s already completely funded, but there’s still time to get in on it and order some Buffy puzzles if you’re of a mind to. Again, I haven’t assembled any of these puzzles, so I have no direct knowledge of their quality. I’m hoping they’ll be good, because they look like fun.

 

 

Marshall Rhinehart has started a free website, to help do his part to encourage people to stay at home. His wife is a nurse educator, so keeping people at home (and perhaps puzzling) helps keep his wife and thousands of other healthcare workers like her a little more safe.

You can create an account, participate in tournaments or just time yourself when you assemble your puzzles and post your stats on the site. You can also post or find available puzzles in your area for swap or sale, or just spend your time looking around at the puzzles others have completed. He’s just getting things up and running, but if it takes off it might be a fun place for puzzle junkies to hang out a bit. Check it out here at pandemicpuzzleplayoffs.com

I think it’s a great idea to encourage people to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus, which helps to keep our healthcare heroes a little bit more safe and keeps the system from being overwhelmed. And you know for sure that I think spending some time puzzling is a fantastic idea!

Fresh Picked Flowers In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments
Fresh Picked Flowers IP
Fresh Picked Flowers by Jane Maday – Sunsout – 500 pieces

I have to say I’m having a much better time with this Sunsout puzzle than I did with the last one I assembled. This one has larger pieces, and the quality of the fit is so much better than the last one. Fit makes all the difference!

It’s been going together very quickly; I’m loving the bright colors, the beautiful image, and the random cut that keeps things interesting. It’s one of those puzzles that’s hard for me to walk away from – which means it should be done very soon.  🍒

That’s part of the reason that I usually only purchase Sunsout puzzles second-hand, the quality is hit or miss. Sometimes you get a great puzzle like this one, and sometimes you get quality like I had on Rainy Day Sketch. I don’t like to gamble on whether or not the puzzle I buy will be good quality, and for me Sunsout puzzles are a gamble.

This puzzle perfectly demonstrates that premise. I bought the two puzzles – Fresh Picked Flowers and Rainy Day Sketch – at the same time, at the same store; it turned out 50/50, I got one good one and one bad one. They were both 500 piece puzzles, why such a difference in the way they fit together? Get it together Sunsout!

Mill Cottage In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments
Mill Cottage IP
Mill Cottage by Debbie Cook – Milton Bradley – 1000 pieces

I was up most of the night, so this puzzle finally got sorted and started. Yay insomnia? Yeah, I don’t think so. 🥱

On the plus side I’m finally working a puzzle again after a couple of days of almost no puzzling at all; on the minus side I’m exhausted and loopy and not all here mentally. Although one could argue that I am never “all there”. Whatever. I’m lots of fun!

When I was near the end of the sorting I found a couple of edge pieces that had become completely delaminated (the image was separated from the chipboard), but luckily both parts of the pieces were there so I could fix them before I started assembling. It was odd that it was only two pieces and that they were next to each other along the edge.

Mill Cottage pieces

The paper used for the image was quite sturdy, in fact when I was sorting I didn’t notice that these two pieces were much thinner than the rest. But I recognized immediately that the two pieces of chipboard had no image on one side. It was easily remedied with a little bit of super glue, not much of a problem at all really. Onward!

It looks as though it’s going to be a difficult assembly – there’s a LOT of green. But perhaps I’m wrong and it’ll be much easier than I thought. Here’s hoping.

I hope all you members of the PADS Posse have a great day, with plenty of time for our favorite hobby/obsession. Happy puzzling! 🧩

Journal Newbies?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling12 Comments
Fuzzy Friends 2
Are you new around here?

My Jigsaw Journal has been getting much more traffic than normal in the past few weeks, with more views and more visitors than ever before. People all over the world are spending a bit of their “extra” time assembling puzzles, and it seems as though a few have found their way to this puzzle blog. Welcome!  I’m so pleased to have you here. 🙂

Some of you may be looking for more information on puzzles and puzzling in general, and perhaps some have become more passionate about jigsaw puzzles and are looking for more of a community; you’ve all come to the right place!

I wanted to take this opportunity to let everyone know that comments, questions, observations, and general chit chat are all welcome here. If there’s any question you have about puzzles, even if you think it may be too basic or general, ask away! We were all newbies once, and we all know how it feels.

If you’d rather stay in the background and just be a “lurker”, that’s ok too, you are welcome to visit only and I’m glad you’re here. If you have questions, need help with a puzzle problem, or just want to talk puzzles – we’ve got that covered too. Most of my followers and readers are afflicted with PADS ; we all love to talk about, look at, read about, shop for, and assemble puzzles as much as possible. We’re always ready to welcome more of you into the fold. 😵 “One of us….one of us….” 😵

As long as you are respectful and kind, I will do my best to answer any question you have. I respond to every comment here on the blog, and love being able to talk to my puzzle posse about anything and *everything, but most especially about jigsaw puzzles. Welcome to My Jigsaw Journal!

*No politics allowed here, it’s too divisive – we puzzle people like to put things together not tear them apart!

Thank You Easter Bunny!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling10 Comments
Temperature IP
What’s the Temperature? by Lois B. Sutton – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

I didn’t get a basket full of Easter eggs and candy, but look what the Easter Bunny DID bring me – an empty puzzle board so I can get back to the thing that lifts my spirits and keeps me a little more sane. Thank you Easter Bunny! 🐰

Now that’s more like it! This is what my puzzle board is supposed to look like; it’s usually a bit more chaotic with trays and pieces everywhere, but when there’s a puzzle on the board then I am definitely much happier! (Just ask my family, I’ve been a bit grouchy without my puzzles)

Now that I’m back to it, I will hopefully be a little easier to be quarantined with. I have PADS, and my mental health and level of happiness is directly tied to my puzzles; it’s a very good thing that I have my puzzle room back, with an empty (of sewing materials) puzzle board full of possibilities.

Whatever you celebrate – I hope you’re observing your respective holidays at home, to keep yourselves and others safe. Happy Easter, Passover, Ramadan, or whatever holiday you observe. If you don’t observe any holidays this month, Happy Sunday!

Stay home, stay safe, happy puzzling! 🧩