The Night Before Christmas & Santa and his Team

On December 24, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

The Night Before Christmas by Steve Crisp – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 40 pieces

Love, love, love these puzzles! I had to post The Night Before Christmas today, it’s Christmas Eve – Santa’s coming tonight!! 🎅

I haven’t done any of the Steve Crisp houses before, and having seen the detail on this tiny one I’m really wanting to try one of the 1000 piece house puzzles. It looks like they would be lots of fun; I’ve never really looked at them before, though I’m not sure why. Probably because there are so many puzzles and so little time. I guess that means the wish list is going to be getting a little bit bigger. Perhaps it’ll get smaller as well, if Santa brings me a puzzle or two. I’ve tried to be good this year – I’m not always successful, but trying has to be worth something right? (Besides, being well-behaved isn’t nearly as much fun as being a little naughty now and then! 😈)

This was another Christmas puzzle that isn’t the “normal” scene, and the assembly was wonderful. You can see on the roof of the house the whimsy piece of Santa, it’s incredibly detailed; there was also a stocking, a present, a snowflake, and a Christmas tree. I loved this little puzzle!

Santa and his Team – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 25 pieces

This puzzle was the easiest of the “cracker” puzzles, but still fun to put together. You can see all the whimsies clearly in this puzzle because of the lighter color; a reindeer, penguin, snowman, Christmas tree, and Santa. 5 whimsies in a 25 piece puzzle, that’s a pretty good ratio!

I love the reindeer’s faces in this one, they’re just so darn cute! I get distracted by the snowman right on Santa’s face, but that’s one of the drawbacks of wooden puzzles that I’ve found. When the puzzle image is light the piece shape is very obvious and can pull your eye from seeing the picture as a whole. If you scroll back up and look at the house, on the bottom floor the piece shapes aren’t as obvious as they are on or near the roof. Still, for me, it doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the assembly, they’re still fun to put together.

These were the last 2 of the “cracker” puzzles, and you won’t be surprised to hear that I loved every one of them. There are a few more Christmas micro puzzles that I haven’t put together yet, but I’ve sent them with my mom on her trip to visit one of my sisters for the holidays. They’re the perfect size for traveling; they don’t take up much room in your luggage and they don’t take up much room when you’re assembling them either. I guess I’ll save them for Christmas in July on the blog – only 7 months to go! 🙂

Playful Santa & Festive Angel

On December 23, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Playful Santa – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 25 pieces

It doesn’t look like it, but this micro puzzle was more difficult than it looked. I’m almost embarrassed at how long it took me to put these 25 pieces together! It’s interesting to me how such a small puzzle with very few pieces can be cut to make the assembly so much more challenging. Aside from the whimsy pieces, the cuts don’t seem that unusual, but they’re the just the right amount of difficult.

The Christmas cracker puzzles are so beautiful and come in such interesting packaging; they will make excellent stocking stuffers for next year. I can’t wait to see if there will be new micro puzzles to choose from! (I think I’d better start saving now)

Festive Angel by Louise Anglicas – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 36 pieces

This beautiful angel had a much more intricate cut which added to the challenge, in addition to being shaped. Loved it!

As someone who usually does 1000 piece puzzles (and has even assembled the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle) it’s amazing how much I enjoy these micro puzzles. It’s wonderful to work with the wood pieces, and even though it doesn’t seem like they would be much fun, they are astonishingly entertaining. I think they might even have helped me enjoy Christmas puzzles more, because I had absolutely no hesitation about ordering every single one they had available! 🎄

Festive Fir & Festive Gingerbread House

On December 16, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Festive Fir – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 30 pieces

These are a couple of the Christmas micro puzzles from Wentworth Wooden Puzzles. I went a little insane and ordered MANY of these 30-40 piece puzzles when there was a free shipping special. I don’t regret it, I’m worth it, and they make me happy. Besides, they’re so cute and fun to assemble they will be done many more times – no doubt about it!

The festive fir was a challenging cut, but even the more difficult ones aren’t too bad when there are only 30-40 pieces. It’s lovely to sit and assemble a puzzle in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee. A fellow jigsaw puzzle blogger from Russia calls these “one coffee puzzles”; they are small piece count puzzles you can finish in one quick sitting. I love the name and have started using it too.

I’m not really a collector, so puzzle boxes aren’t really that important to me. I do take note when they’re interesting or really well done. The boxes for these Christmas micro puzzles are so adorable I had to give them a mention. They’re shaped like Christmas crackers! You twist open one of the ends, and the pieces are inside in a gold mesh bag.

It won’t be as easy to shelve these as it would for regular boxes, but they’re just too cute not to show you. They’re a little more expensive than the regular micro puzzles, but oh well. 😎

IMG_E4051 — Festive Gingerbread House – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 36 pieces

A completely adorable gingerbread house! I’m glad I splurged and bought all of these micro puzzles – mom and I absolutely love them. This one was also a little bit of a challenging cut, but it was a joy to put together.

My wonderful husband has never said a negative word about any of my puzzle purchases, in fact he thinks I should spend money on myself more often! So there’s really no problem with all these purchases, right? Of course right! 😁 (Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself of that, it’s still pretty new to me spending money on things I don’t really need, and at times I feel a little buyer’s remorse)