Pencil Collage Revisited

On April 25, 2019April 25, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles11 Comments

Pencil Collage by Maureen Rupprecht – White Mountain Puzzles – 1000 pieces

I’m not sure why, but this puzzle’s been on my mind the last few days. It was finished almost 3 years ago, and was really a joy to assemble. I haven’t touched a jigsaw puzzle since Sunday morning, and I’ve been thinking about certain puzzles I’ve done and really liked – perhaps just trying to get my groove back.

This puzzle stands out for me, I was almost afraid of it and put it off for quite a while because it was supposed to be very challenging. I found it to be highly entertaining to assemble and not nearly as hard as it was supposed to be. The fit was so tight that I could pick it up and stand it on it’s bottom edge!

I still haven’t started a new puzzle yet, but looking at this one makes me want to find one with lots of words like this pencil collage. Or perhaps I’ll get a few of the educational kids puzzles done, they’ve got a bit of wording and at only 24 pieces it’s not too much of a commitment. 🙂

Something Fishy

On April 19, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

This has beautiful colors, but wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped; I’m not a big fan of underwater images. Isn’t it interesting how I love bright colors in a puzzle, but if they’re fish or a scene under the ocean it isn’t as entertaining? My brain is so odd!

That isn’t to say that it wasn’t fun to assemble at all, because it was. It just wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped. Who’s to say why some images make us happy and some don’t, we like what we like. The best pictures don’t always make the best puzzles, and sometimes images look like they’ll be fun, but for some reason we can’t explain they just aren’t.

Unfortunately this had a missing piece so it ended up in the recycle bin instead of being given back to goodwill, but those are the chances we take. It’s a tiny bit disappointing, but I still got to put the puzzle together; I can’t be unhappy with that. 🙂

American Diner

On April 2, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve done a White Mountain puzzle that wasn’t a collage, and I’m not gonna lie, it was a little weird at first! This was very entertaining though, and it got done quickly – not being able to sleep is a good thing if you need help getting enough puzzle time. 😉

Steve Crisp’s artwork makes for fantastic puzzling, if you haven’t assembled one of his puzzles I absolutely recommend you give them a try. They’re beautiful, detailed, colorful, and just altogether great fun.

American Diner 1

I love this dancer, she looks like all she cares about is enjoying herself and dancing – she reminds me of me. 💃💃

American Diner 2

Look who’s on the wall – Marilyn, Elvis, and James Dean! I didn’t notice them on the box image, it was fun to see it up close in the finished puzzle. Jailhouse Rock Elvis was sexy! (I was a weird kid in the 70’s and 80’s and LOVED Elvis just as much as George Michael, Journey, and many others – I make no excuses 😎)

I really enjoyed this one, if you come across a copy it’s definitely recommended!

Back to the Board

On March 7, 2019March 7, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

My puzzle board is finally empty, and I’m once again able to work on bigger puzzles. There are several 1000 piece puzzles I’ve got in the to do pile that are larger than the average size and need my bigger board.

The board has been occupied by the Mystery Puzzle for a couple of months, and we were finally able to take it off and find a safe place to store it until we decide what we’re going to do with it. I’m looking forward to sitting at my big board again to puzzle!

1397_american_diner_1200

Today I’m starting American Diner by White Mountain – bright colors and a great image by Steve Crisp – here’s hoping it’s going to be as entertaining as it looks!

The Old Candy Shop

On February 20, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

This puzzle is a great example of why you need to see the puzzle box close up and the puzzle assembled. I’ve seen this image many times before and thought only “Eh, it’s okay I guess” , but it was much more detailed and fun to assemble than I’d imagined. What an excellent puzzle!

This is one of the lot of puzzles I got from my Facebook Marketplace purchase and I wasn’t overly excited about assembling it – and boy was I wrong. It’s so interesting to me how I still cannot tell what puzzles I’ll enjoy and what puzzles I won’t. I’ve assembled a LOT of puzzles, I work on them every single day if I’m able, but still they constantly surprise me!

The quality was very good, this was the first 300 piece White Mountain that I’ve done. You can see in the above picture that the piece shape isn’t obvious and it almost looks like a picture. The fit was wonderful and the large pieces were very easy to work with. They had the typical WM shapes and thickness. The image reproduction is absolutely gorgeous….

The detail is amazing, and look how wonderfully grandma’s face is captured; it’s a gorgeous image, and was thoroughly entertaining to assemble! I haven’t done many Steve Read puzzles, but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more of his work. I absolutely adored this one!