Metallic/Glitter Puzzle – My Jigsaw Journal

Time for another guest post. 🙂

*Black belt thrift store puzzle shopper here* (that’s my mom)

I find it nearly impossible to leave an unusual puzzle behind in the thrift store. Therefore, this puzzle came home with me, even though the package was in rough shape. This was from a company I had never done before, and for only 69 cents I more than got my money’s worth from it. A search for Hambly Studios, Inc. yielded a website for a maker of scrapbooking materials, rather than puzzles.

That said, I had a great time with the puzzle. It kept an old lady entertained and off the streets until well into the night. (Actually, till 1:00 AM, when I finally surrendered and went to bed.) Truth be told, I would have finished it if hubby had not come in and reminded me I had to get up early for church!

The fit was very loose, with just a slight jostle dislodging 4 or 5 pieces at a time. It was still a LOT OF FUN. Unfortunately it was missing 4 pieces. It would have been a keeper otherwise, in spite of the loose fit – I enjoyed it that much and would have done this puzzle again.

The packaging left a lot to be desired, as it was a clear plastic container; much like the throwaway packaging on a lot of items we buy these days. The advantage was that it was easy to see the quality of the pieces without having to open the container. Still, it was very flimsy and that may be how 4 pieces escaped.

All in all I enjoyed this puzzle very much, despite it’s quirks and missing pieces. It is still sitting on my board, as I can’t quite bring myself to throw it away just yet. Maybe tonight. When another puzzle calls my name and I need a place to work on it.

Hearts of Gold by Stefanie Steinmayer – Heye – 500 pieces

I’m not sure what it is about this image I love so much, but I do love it and the assembly was quick and just challenging enough. Excellent, excellent puzzle!

I really was wanting to get these new puzzles that I ordered, and as soon as it got here I stopped the puzzle I was working on to get going on this one. Started and finished it in one day, even though I had a horrible day with pain and couldn’t sit or stand for very long. I was also watching my grandpuppies that day, which is tiring, whew!

Sometimes a puzzle just grabs me and I want to keep going until it’s finished no matter what – not interested in food breaks, or puppy play time breaks or anything really; it’s almost an imposition when life breaks in and demands my attention. Most puzzles aren’t like that for me. But it’s quite fun when it does happen, because that means the puzzle is such a great image or the assembly is so entertaining that I literally don’t want to stop.

This puzzle was one of those, and it was great! Heye puzzle, so great quality, but I will say that the piece fit was quite loose on this one. If I tried to scoot some pieces over a little bit so they would fit properly I ran the risk of them all crumpling up and coming apart. I haven’t had a Heye puzzle that was quite that loose before, and I’m hoping it was just the end of a run or something. Still great image quality, piece shape and thickness. They’re not as thick as a Ravensburger or Jumbo piece, but they’re extremely sturdy.

Also you cannot tell from the picture, but the puzzle had metallic stamping on it, so there were shiny gold dots and gold framing around the heart, etc. Very cool looking! Who doesn’t love sparkles and shine? They truly are hearts of gold!