Tag: Karla Gerard

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. 😎

Review: Lighthouse 1

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment
This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

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Lighthouse 1 by Karla Gerard – Educa – 1000 pieces

I love the artwork of Karla Gerard and thought Lighthouse 1 would be quite a fun puzzle to assemble. Oh my. I was not prepared for how difficult this was! Still, I am very proud that I finished it. Hey Ma – look what I did! 🙋High five!

This is only the second Educa puzzle that I’ve completed, the first was a collage of sorts and so much fun that I didn’t really take notice of the piece shapes. There is not much variety (most of the pieces are 2 prong/2 hole *ballerinas*), so a puzzle like this one with large areas of the same color/pattern is quite a challenge. The overall quality is good; the pieces are a good thickness and fit together well, although a bit loosely. I guess I would say that it might pay to be careful of the image you select when purchasing an Educa puzzle – your favorite image might be more challenging than you expect! There are plenty of busier images, collages, and smaller piece counts that might help lower the challenge level. But if you’re up for a challenge there are plenty of Educa puzzles that would keep your brain cells limber too – click the link above to see what’s available now at Puzzle Warehouse.

Still, after I changed my method of attack I did enjoy the assembly. I would normally just pull all the pieces for a section and start assembling them, but that didn’t work very well here; so many of the pieces were the same shape that it was a bit tedious. So after some thought and a nice coffee break I decided that I needed to complete all the smaller sections first, and then assemble all the edges/outlines. It helped tremendously, and I was ready to conquer this gorgeous puzzle. I conquered, and it looks amazing. 🙂

If you like this image check out the other Contemporary Art Puzzles in stock now at Puzzle Warehouse. Several have made it onto my wishlist, including several by Kandinsky, Charley Harper, and Alphonse Mucha. So many puzzles, so little time!

Lighthouse 1 would be a great gift for that avid puzzler in your life who enjoys a challenge – or challenge yourself – you can do it! 👍

Details:

  • Title:                  Lighthouse 1
  • Artist:                Karla Gerard
  • Brand:               Educa
  • Piece count:     1000 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 27 x 19 in. (68 x 48 cm)
  • Purchased:      n/a

Quality:

  • Board:               Very good
  • Cutting:             Very good
  • Image:               Very good
  • Box:                   Average
  • Fit:                     Good – somewhat loose
  • Puzzle Dust:     Moderate amount
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   Not much variety, pieces can fit in wrong spot
  • Finish:               Matte finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Very Good, recommended (challenging)

I received this product at no cost to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

Review: Night Village

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

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Night Village by Karla Gerard – Artifact Puzzles – 164 pieces

I finally treated myself! I’ve wanted a wooden jigsaw puzzle for a very long time, and I decided it was time, I deserved it! (I could say it was a reward for the 1 year anniversary of the blog, but honestly it was just because I finally decided I wasn’t going to wait anymore to get myself a wooden jigsaw puzzle 😉 )

Artifact puzzles are very reasonably priced compared to many other wooden puzzle companies in my opinion. Many companies are $100 or more for even a small puzzle! And if you’re looking for the “Rolls Royce of Puzzles”, Stave puzzles are the most expensive I’ve found. The smallest puzzle starts at over $800 for a 100 piece, and if you would like a 1000 piece Stave puzzle, be prepared to spend almost $7000!!!!  😮 Even if I were a millionaire I don’t know that I would be able to spend thousands of dollars for a puzzle! My small puzzle cost only $38 dollars. That may seem like a lot to some, and perhaps it is; but I really wanted to treat myself and I make no apologies, I’m worth it!

First of all the box feels luxurious, the pieces are wrapped in tissue paper inside a beautiful blue box with a magnetic clasp. And for me, I loved the smell of the pieces. They smell like Michigan to me. I know that sounds bizarre, let me explain. I grew up in Michigan, and in our house we had a wood-burning stove. The smell of these puzzle pieces reminds me of the smell of our house in fall and winter when we had the woodstove going. It smells great and makes me feel nostalgic.

I chose this image because it’s colorful and fun, and I like the shape of the pieces. On the website artifactpuzzles.com you can see a preview of the pieces that each puzzle contains; so you can choose a puzzle with pieces that you’ll like. I didn’t want regular looking pieces, and I wanted an image that would be fun to do over and over. I chose Night Village; it met all of my requirements. If you want to treat yourself click on the link above and see what they have, there’s a wonderful catalog of reasonably priced puzzles to choose from.

The assembly was a joy! Somehow I found the willpower to wait two whole days before I started working on it because I wanted to put it together with my mom on our weekly visit/puzzle day. We had the best time, and it was just so damn cool working with the wood pieces for the first time! I love the way they fit together, I love the feel of the pieces as they “plunk” into place, I love the image itself and the interesting piece shapes; in short – I loved this puzzle! 😍

If anyone is looking for a gift for me…..there’s a link 2 paragraphs up, pick out something fun! 😁

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You can really see the piece shapes from the back

Details:

  • Title:                  Night Village
  • Artist:                Karla Gerard
  • Brand:               Artifact Puzzles
  • Piece count:     164 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 7 x 9 in. (18 x 23 cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               1/4″ thick wood
  • Cutting:             Excellent, laser cut
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Excellent box with magnetic clasp
  • Fit:                     Normal/Average (I’m not sure this applies)
  • Puzzle Dust:     2 tiny bits of broken off wood, did not affect the image at all
  • Piece cut:          Random cut – amazingly detailed and intricate
  • Piece shapes:   Designed specifically for this puzzle (awesome!)
  • Finish:               Matte finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Excellent,  most highly recommended