Tag: Shaped Puzzles

Main Street – Day 1

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 83/500 pieces

Normally one of these sets of twelve shaped mini puzzles would be shown over four days, with three puzzles per day; but I’m stretching it out to six this time to give myself a few extra days to get more puzzles back in the queue. 😎

If you’ve been a reader here for a while you’ll know that each of these sets has colored backing applied to each small puzzle, twelve different colors so that you can sort them into each mini puzzle if you like. Or if you’d rather work these as a 500 piece puzzle you can disregard the backing and just start solving. The pieces are a good thickness with a nice variety of shapes that fit together well. Sometimes the colored backing isn’t cut all the way through leaving several pieces attached, but that doesn’t bother me much. The finish is a bit shiny, but not too terrible to deal with. Overall I find these to be good quality puzzles that are highly entertaining to assemble.

The detail in each of these houses/shops is amazing and they could all be their very own larger piece count puzzles. The colors are bright and fun and the Americana theme is entertaining to assemble. I’d love to go into an old-timey hat shop – wouldn’t that be something to see?

Does this look familiar to anyone? It did to me so I searched my site for the artist, and guess what I found? Check out Christmas Town Day 2, see anything interesting? There were three buildings in the Main Street set that were the same as in Christmas Town, but this is the only one that is EXACTLY the same with zero changes. The other two are the same building but in a different season with changes to the people and things on the outside.

I’m imagining what an antique shop would be like a century or more ago, what treasures would it hold? There would probably be more than a few things that we wouldn’t even be able to identify what they were used for – that would be fascinating!

I had such a good time putting these puzzles together, now all I have to do is buckle down and write up the next five posts for this set. Here’s hoping I don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome from all the typing. ⌨

*Side note – I checked out Cra-Z-Art’s website and found three new sets that I don’t have! Guess who’s going online shopping very soon????🛒💸*

Tea for Two

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Tea for Two by Aimee Stewart – Wentworth – 176 pieces

How amazing is this puzzle? It wasn’t an easy one, but I enjoyed the challenge of working on three separate shaped puzzles simultaneously – and it being a gorgeous and colorful Aimee Stewart image didn’t hurt either. 💖

There have been a few shaped Wentworth puzzles with artwork by Aimee that I’ve done, and they make for entertaining but somewhat difficult assemblies. But the combination of a shaped wooden puzzle and her beautiful artwork make me VERY happy.

Tea time whimsies and beautiful flowers, couldn’t ask for more. But unlike most puzzles with whimsy pieces these shapes didn’t assist much in the assembly until you got several pieces together. Usually with the odd shapes you can tell which pieces go around them, but with so many curvy and wavy whimsies you couldn’t really use the shape to find the right surrounding pieces, you had to use the image. It’s part of why the puzzle was so challenging, and why this one was so much fun.

Gorgeous I tell ya, even from the back! I’m a bit sad this one is over and wish there were more shaped Wentworth puzzles here. There’s a 250 piece rectangular Wentworth on the to do “pile”, and the image is great; but I enjoyed the shaped Aimee Stewart puzzles so much and wish there were more here.

There is a gorgeous image of hers that I just found on their site and you won’t believe it – it’s a Christmas puzzle and I LOVE IT! It’s called Gingerbread Manor, check it out. Ain’t it something? I think with that image I would want it in 500 or 1000 pieces. I don’t usually get Wentworths that big, so I may have to start dropping hints about it for my birthday in October. 😎

*For some reason, sometimes my board photographs as if the fabric is orange. It is not, but that’s how it appears in the picture at the top of the page. The remaining two pictures are closer to the actual color of the fabric, but they aren’t the same color either. It has something to do with the angle I hold my phone when taking the picture and the lighting above the board; but that’s as close as I can come to giving an actual explanation.

Main Street In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

Main Street by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – 500 pieces

Just barely started on this set of shaped mini puzzles, it’s the last set that I have yet to assemble – which is a little depressing. I’ve enjoyed all of the different and amazing sets they have available and it’s a bit sad that there aren’t any more for me to do.

Still, at least this one’s here to enjoy, right?

Tea…In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Tea For Two by Aimee Stewart – Wentworth – 176 pieces

As you can see I haven’t actually started the assembly, but I have taken out the whimsies for this one and I’m very much looking forward to beginning. This is a shaped puzzle from Wentworth, but it is three separate shaped puzzles – the teapot and two cups.

Because tomorrow is Fat Tuesday and the day after that is Valentine’s Day, there are specific puzzles that I wanted to post on those days – so you’re getting an “in progress” puzzle today instead of tomorrow.

Hope you’re all having a great Monday, and that you’re working on a fun puzzle!

Tiered Treats

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Tiered Treats by Aimee Stewart – Wentworth – 210 pieces

A shaped wooden puzzle with an image by Aimee Stewart – yes please! This was much more difficult than I thought it would be, but that didn’t matter one bit because I enjoyed this puzzle from the first piece to the last. 💚🧩

Interestingly this puzzle was easiest at the top with the brightly colored macarons; the cupcakes, fruit and mille feuille in the middle tier were a little bit more challenging, but the bottom tier with the sandwiches was not easy at all. Still, it was fun to work from the top down – that isn’t something I usually do.

*Mille feuille are the beautiful layered treats on the right side of the middle layer – it means “thousand sheets” and is made from puff pastry and usually filled with a vanilla pastry cream and topped with vanilla and chocolate icing. I’ve never had one, but I’ve watched enough of The Great British Baking Show to know what they are. They sound amazing!

Aren’t these fabulous tea time whimsies? Bread, sandwiches, cakes, cookies, teapots, fruit – I love them!

This puzzle had excellent quality and stunning image reproduction, I absolutely adored this assembly. There’s another shaped Aimee Stewart from Wentworth on the to-do shelf, and I’m very much looking forward to it. 😍