Tag: Mini Puzzles

Peanuts – Day 1

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Peanuts by Charles Schulz – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

Lucy, Schroeder, and Woodstock, just hanging out together. Just a fun afternoon of classical music and Lucy’s unrequited love for Schroeder. Very cute.

This puzzle was a gift from hubby for Mother’s Day – he’s a sweetie and I love him to puzzle pieces. Unfortunately, this was the first time I was disappointed in any of these sets; the quality was subpar which made the assembly both frustrating and unsatisfying.

I’ve never had a problem with the quality of these sets of smaller shaped puzzles, perhaps this may be pandemic related. Many puzzle companies started having their manufacturing done in China when the demand for puzzles was sky high during all the lockdowns. The quality went down (in my opinion) for several companies, and maybe this “made in China” puzzle was one of the ones that didn’t get as much attention as it should have.

First of all, there is a missing piece; I am 99% certain it is not my fault. Poor Woodstock seems to have had a rough trip to the barber shop – he’s missing a big chunk of hair! Secondly, the fit of this puzzle was TERRIBLE; it was both extremely loose and “mushy”. Many times you couldn’t tell if the piece was placed correctly even when it was obviously the right one.

Loose fitting, mushy connections and missing pieces – how very very disappointing.

Secret Ingredient: Love

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Secret Ingredient: Love – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

My apologies for the wonky picture, as you can see it wasn’t taken on my board; it was on a tray in my bedroom and getting the lighting and the angle just right is difficult in there. I did my best, that’s all I can do. You can’t really tell because of the glare at the bottom, but it says p.s. the secret ingredient is love. 💕

If all that dark blue makes you think this was a little difficult you are absolutely right. Luckily there was some extra help available – this is a double-sided puzzle with a recipe for “Puzzle Pie” on the back, all those wonderful little words were perfect for when finding the right blue piece became a challenge. 🥧

This one was sitting in the bathroom for a while, but hubby seemed to want nothing to do with it, so the assembly fell completely to me. That’s alright, it was easy enough to take into the bedroom and work on it while watching tv. Besides, with the darker side better lighting was a must.

This recipe isn’t too far off from my own apple pie recipe, sounds like it would taste amazing (as long as it was a homemade pie crust). You can see in instruction #5 that you need to cut using MicroPuzzles cutters; they came in the box with that month’s subscription – two baking themed puzzles and four cookie cutters shaped like puzzle pieces.

I’m not feeling up to making pies just yet, but I’m looking forward to making some puzzle shaped sugar cookies soon. 🍪

Heart Nosed Ned

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Heart Nosed Ned by Dylan R. – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This puzzle had me a little faked out; the border was a bit of a challenge, but I didn’t find the interior of the image overly difficult to assemble. In the end it was a great puzzle that makes me smile every time I see it. 💖🐶

When I started this puzzle it had been almost a year since my last MicroPuzzle was assembled, and I was honestly a bit hesitant – my eyes are almost a year older and surely haven’t gotten any better! My worries were unfounded, all that was needed was good lighting and the pieces seemed to fall into place (as long as I’ve chosen the correct ones of course).

Heart Nosed Ned seems like a puzzle made especially for me. Not only does it look like our beloved Buddy, who left us about a year and a half ago, but it was painted by a young man with autism; if you’re a long-time reader you may remember that both of my sons have autism. Once I saw this beauty on the MicroPuzzles website and read about it’s artist there was no way it wasn’t going to find it’s way home to me. It’s my perfect puzzle!

This is an excerpt from this puzzle’s web page:

The price includes a charitable donation to Art with Intention.  Art with Intention is an art enrichment program for those thriving with autism, Alzheimer’s, down syndrome, cerebral palsy and stroke recovery.

— ABOUT THE ARTIST –– DYLAN R.

Dylan is a young and energetic artist with autism. He shows his creative talents with drawing, painting, and clay. When he has a brush in his hand, he often loves to paint trees and animals. Other activities he enjoys include hiking, kayaking, and DreamWorks cruises. Dylan has been painting with our program since early 2016 and his work has always been a crowd favorite.

As an added bonus, this month’s puzzle subscription box had this fantastic stand to hold your puzzle container. It’s a great help to have the image available and upright so if help is needed you can make sure you’re looking for the correct piece.

I absolutely adored this puzzle – great quality, beautiful image, wonderful artist story – all around fantastic! 😍

To all our puzzle posse members in Canada – I pray you are all safe and well despite the raging wildfires, and you have my continued prayers for the safety of you and yours, and for a quick end to this horrific situation. Please stay safe, you’re important to us!💖

Reservoir of Succulents

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Reservoir of Succulents – Wentworth – 40 pieces

This was much more difficult than it looks, to be honest I was a little intimidated when I poured out those 40 pieces. They all looked so similar and like they knew I wasn’t up to the task. Oh dear, perhaps I’m a little sleepy this morning. 😴

I had to get one more puzzle in the morning before I went off to the guillotine (oral surgery), so this one was it.

Great whimsies – Wentworth doesn’t always have the whimsy pieces match the image, but they got it perfectly right with this one. I couldn’t tell you any of the names of these succulents (other than the general term cacti), but I do know that they are succulents. 😎

Kellogg’s Vintage – Day 4

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

Kellogg’s Vintage – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) we have come to the end of the vintage Kellogg’s mascot puzzles. They were so entertaining to put together and a welcome way for me to step back into puzzles after a long hiatus. 💕🧩

I’m old, but apparently not old enough to remember who two of those mascots are. I know the frog in the middle is Dig ‘Em, but the other two don’t look familiar at all. AT ALL. I feel old.

I am old.

There was a bit of sleuthing required to find out their names; the monkey on the left is Jose and he was the mascot for Cocoa Krispies. He didn’t last long at that job because it was felt that Jose with his cabana boy hat and bongo drum was an ethnic stereotype. Having seen quite a few older commercials from the 50’s and 60’s I absolutely wouldn’t doubt that he was stereotypical – at the very least.

The chipmunk on the right is Sugar Pops Pete. He sure looks like he’s having a good time, doesn’t he? I used to like Sugar Pops when I was a young’un; it’s another one of those cereals that ended up taking the word “sugar” out of their name. Heaven forbid! Sugar! *clutching my pearls*

If you’re new here, these are 500 piece puzzles from RoseArt/Lafayette Puzzle Factory; each puzzle is a set of 12-18 smaller shaped puzzles in various themes. Each smaller puzzle has a different colored backing – you can choose to work the entire set as one large 500 piece puzzle, or sort them according to color and work on each smaller image individually. I’ve found that either way is entertaining, it all depends on what you prefer.

These sets of small shaped puzzles always bring me joy. If they look like you might enjoy them too they are highly recommended. 🥣