Tag: Kids Puzzles

Bed of Clouds

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Bed of Clouds by Schim Schimmel – Ceaco – 100 pieces

Quick little kids puzzle that didn’t take long at all to assemble. It was a thrift store purchase, taped up with another 100 piece GITD puzzle – both were new and unopened. To me, there’s no problem buying it there because Ceaco isn’t actually getting any of my money.

It’s sometimes sad for me when I see a beautiful image on a Ceaco puzzle, the quality and their customer service is just not up to snuff – but some of their puzzle images are just stunning! Oh well, I’d rather work a puzzle with better quality from a company that I know will take care of things if there’s a problem.

The quality on this one wasn’t great, you can see along the border where the pieces are bent at the corners and sticking up, and the fit wasn’t great either. Still for about 99 cents it was a good purchase and my youngest son and my hubby enjoyed the GITD aspect of it. They took it outside to “charge” in the sunlight and had a good ole’ time finding the darkest spot in the house to check out how much it actually glowed. Love💖my boys!

For me the glow was a little disappointing, the entire top portion of the puzzle had no glow at all. Still, it’s cute, right?

Dino Glow

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Dino Glow (?) – Ceaco – 100 pieces

Yes, dear readers, I assembled a Ceaco puzzle. It’s from the thrift store, and came taped up with another glow in the dark puzzle (both new and unopened) from the same brand. Since it’s second-hand, and Ceaco gets none of my money, in my mind it was perfectly fine to buy it.

I always like to have a few kids puzzles here at the house; when I’m in a mood and feeling b*tchy it’s better for me to do something quick and easy than to try a much larger one that I would normally assemble. Plus, kids puzzles are fun!

Glow in the dark pictures are always difficult for me to take. The lights are turned off and even though I try my best, it’s challenging to get both the puzzle itself centered and the actual glow. I’ve gotten some good pictures before; this one is alright, but it isn’t one of my best.

It was a good quality puzzle, although the fit was a bit loose. I took it outside to “charge up” the glow in the sunlight, and had to be quite careful because pieces wanted to come apart when the puzzle was moved. Happily for me, the glow on this puzzle wasn’t the sandy-feeling chemical that all the previous GITD puzzles I’ve assembled have – it feels more like lines of dried hot glue. If you have a tactile aversion to GITD puzzles like I do, this type of glow was much nicer to puzzle with.

Beethoven

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Beethoven (Peanuts) – Ceaco – 100 pieces

This cute little puzzle was at the cabin, and you know I can’t resist a kids puzzle (even if it is a Ceaco). Unfortunately one of the pieces had obviously escaped, and it’s in a pretty obvious place too; poor Snoopy is missing a section of his doghouse. Nevertheless, we had fun putting it together – and hubby helped with this one too!

You can tell by the picture above that this puzzle has been well loved; there are several pieces with the image lifting up from the tabs, and a few places where it doesn’t lay completely flat. But I can’t blame Ceaco for those things, this puzzle has been assembled more than a few times – by children. Kids aren’t always as gentle as we might want them to be with their toys. So, all of that is to say that the quality of this puzzle was actually pretty good, it seems to have held up well to repeated assemblies and disassemblies.

It didn’t take long with three adults working together, but it was still quite enjoyable. Sometimes working on a puzzle made for children makes you feel as if you’re really good at puzzles. Look how fast we got that done, we are FANTASTIC at putting together jigsaw puzzles! 😎

Plus, I spent the weekend explaining to everyone that part of the reason puzzles are so enjoyable is because you get that little hit of dopamine when you find the piece you’re looking for or make a connection. Your brain is sending you chemicals that make you feel good, and who wouldn’t want that? Puzzles are amazing!

We all got our little ego/dopamine boost when we finished this – and then we must have spent 45 minutes to an hour looking through all the other puzzles at the cabin for the missing piece.

Wherever he is, he chose his hiding place very well. 🔎🧩

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Cardinal – 48 pieces

My youngest son decided it was time for me to put together one of my kids puzzles that have been hanging out at the bottom of my puzzle shelves way in the back – and of course he chose TMNT. He tells me this is from the 2012 version of the show, in case anyone was wondering. 🐢

*In case you were wondering if I was wondering – I wasn’t. But he loves to talk about the things he’s interested in, and I’m his mother, so I listen.*

In addition to providing all the information I learned about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he even helped out with the assembly right from the beginning! I’m sure the fact that it was only 48 pieces was a consideration, but he was genuinely excited about this puzzle and I was happy to have his assistance.

I was quite impressed with the quality of this puzzle, it came in a 6 pack of kids puzzles of varying piece counts (all from Nickelodeon shows) that I paid $1.49 for. I was expecting much lesser quality, but was happily surprised that the pieces were thick and fit together well, and the image reproduction was very good.

It was a bargain at even twice the price. Cowabunga dudes!

Merlin

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Merlin by Phil Lewis – Liberty – 103 pieces

This adorable puzzle is a “Little Liberty”, made for kids. The pieces were much bigger than the usual ones from this company, and the image is an easy one for kids to work on. Although I am a “grown up” this puzzle was still completely entertaining for me – just a big kid at heart I guess.

The image is by one of my favorite artists that Liberty uses, Phil Lewis, he’s a local artist in Boulder, Colorado – where Liberty Puzzles are located. His artwork makes for gorgeous puzzles; he made the image on one of my favorite puzzles I’ve ever assembled, Sugar Magnolia. I love his illustration here of a dreaming doggy with the clouds above showing what he’s dreaming about; you can see a rabbit being chased and a tennis ball, so cute!

Almost 25 percent of the pieces were whimsies, Liberty has the highest percentage of whimsy pieces per puzzle that I’ve ever worked with (from a contemporary company). They’re all appropriate to the image and easy to recognize, which is also excellent in a puzzle designed for children.

After I pulled all the whimsies out I commented to my husband that they all made sense to me in relation to the image, except for one – the standing woman. (I was working on this one in bed, hubby was right next to me while we binged a favorite show) Neither one of us could figure it out, hubby said perhaps she was holding a treat in her left hand that she might be giving to one of the dogs. We decided to wait and see what it looked like from the back once it was completed; sometimes in Liberty puzzles there are tableaus using more than one whimsy in the finished image. Any guesses for what it turned out to be? Hubby and I were both wrong…

At the top near the middle you can see where the lady fits in – she’s walking her poodle! I love how the designer fit in a straight line between pieces as the leash (the only straight line in the whole puzzle). There are a few little scenes in this image, all things Merlin may be dreaming about; barking at a cat, chasing a rabbit, playing with kids, etc.

It went together quickly, but it was a fantastically made puzzle with beautiful artwork by Phil Lewis. I adored it. 💖