Happy Beads

On January 27, 2024January 25, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Happy Beads by Elspeth McLean – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This gorgeous image was even more fun to assemble than I thought it would be. Great quality, beautiful colors and interesting designs – absolutely adored it! 🧡💛💚

Elspeth McLean is a new to me artist, who actually hand paints everything you see here, they’re just completely stunning little works of art, and it makes for really fun puzzling as well. Very smart of Ravensburger to partner with her to make such detailed and fabulous puzzles. This is my kind of artwork.

There is just so much intricate detail, and even though when you look closely you can see little differences in the size of the dots and lines it still looks almost perfect. Her use of color and the beautiful designs she creates are just so striking, and I can’t wait to get more puzzles with her artwork.

The fit was really quite good for a Ravensburger puzzle. Normally the fit is somewhat loose, but this one had such a good fit that I was actually able to stand it up – I’ve NEVER been able to do that with a Ravensburger before, not ever!

It’s a little warped out of shape, but still, I was amazed that I was able to do it at all. Being able to stand this one up and get a picture absolutely made my day. My emotions are sometimes tied too tightly to my puzzles (the scourge of PADS strikes again) but days when I can do something like this to make myself happy are completely worth the bad days.

I absolutely recommend this puzzle, if you can find it and feel as if you’re up to the challenge then by all means you should go for it; it’s a gorgeous, well made puzzle and there are hours worth of fun in that little box; it makes this puzzle geek’s heart go pitter patter. 😍

Happy Beads In Progress…

On January 16, 2024January 16, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Happy Beads by Elspeth McLean – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

I fell in love with a couple of puzzles by this artist at the store, and bought two of her 500 piece puzzles. Of course I got them home, opened the boxes and looked at the pieces and thought “Why in the world didn’t you recognize how difficult these were going to be?” That’s me all over, if I love the image then damn the consequences – I’m buying it!

Actually this one seems like it’ll be the easier of the two that were purchased, and even though I knew going in it would be challenging it hasn’t been as horrible as I’d prepared myself for. Actually it’s been much more enjoyable than even I thought.

Last night I was working on this and one bead led to the next; things were connecting and even though I knew I needed to get out of my chair and go lie down it was extremely difficult to crowbar myself away from this puzzle. In the end a bargain was made (in my mind) that once the pieces were pared down from four trays to three that would be the end of work for the night. It was difficult, but eventually the last piece was put in for the evening and finally got myself to bed. 🛌💤

It’s going together slowly, bead by bead, but it’s been nice just zoning out and searching for the pieces of one bead or another; it’s almost meditative as focus is definitely required. When a puzzle takes that much of my concentration it almost shuts out the rest of world.

Isn’t that something we all need from time to time? I certainly do!

Koi Fish

On January 15, 2024January 3, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Koi Fish by Ciro Marchetti – Milton Bradley (Big Ben Luxe) – 500 pieces

Absolutely gorgeous image by Ciro Marchetti, it made for such entertaining puzzling! Underwater scenes aren’t usually my thing, but my daughter wanted me to buy this one so I couldn’t disappoint her. She’s such an enabler (LOVE that about her). 😉

I had no idea when I bought this that it was a Marchetti image, there was absolutely no mention of the artist anywhere on the box. Disappointing. If I had my artwork on a puzzle I would absolutely want to see my name on the box – wouldn’t you? Luckily the poster that came in the box had the artist credited.

It’s hard to give a rating for the quality – other than the fit it was very good/excellent – but fit is SO important! Piece shapes, cut, reproduction, finish, and chipboard were all really quite good; even better than expected. But how a puzzle fits together is unbelievably essential to a good assembly experience, and the fit on this puzzle left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t just loose, it was spongy as well; even when the correct pieces were put together you still weren’t always sure because it felt almost wrong the way it fit. I guess I’m giving it a good rating. Honestly, if the fit were better it would have gotten an excellent rating and I would have also given it a highly recommended.

It’s hard to say fish have expressions on their faces, but there something about the eye on this Koi fish, it almost looks embarrassed. It actually made me laugh when I really looked at it.

Look at these gorgeous colors! Ciro Marchetti’s work reminds me of Aimee Stewart, their use of color is similar, and makes for such fun puzzles in my opinion. Stunning!

Wonky fit aside, it was a beautiful image that made for truly fun puzzling. I started it late at night and finished by 9:00 the next morning. It makes me wish I had more puzzles with his artwork here, this one was fun!

Creatures of the Cosmos

On January 5, 2024January 1, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Creatures of the Cosmos by Sarah Walsh – Mudpuppy – 500 pieces

This puzzle was more enjoyable than I anticipated, and the pleasant surprise of having more than one piece shape was fantastic. Easy to sort, relatively easy to assemble, this one was lots of fun!

My daughter insisted I buy this one, and to be honest I wanted nothing to do with a Mudpuppy puzzle, but I couldn’t refuse my baby girl. Good thing too, because other than the “sharp” white backing I thought the quality of this puzzle was very good. My last Mudpuppy puzzle (a birthday gift) was good quality as well, but still had just the one piece shape; the fact that this one had a variety of shapes made me quite happy. Perhaps the fact that it had foil accents had something to do with the difference in pieces.

The stars in the constellations and the lines that connect them were all foil accents in this image. It’s hard to capture in a closeup picture, but it wasn’t difficult to work with at all.

Creatures of the Cosmos was enjoyable to assemble, and happily I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would! 🌟

Northern Lights

On January 3, 2024January 3, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Northern Lights by Nancy Wernersbach – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This wintery image with the gorgeous Northern Lights in the background was pretty darned entertaining to assemble, and isn’t it just a beautiful puzzle? Loved it!

Ravensburger quality – as usual. This one had a fantastic fit though; in addition to the thick pieces, crisp image reproduction, variety of shapes, and wonderful cut. The pieces are larger than normal, and the finished image is approximately the size of a regular 1000 piece Ravensburger puzzle. The larger size made it even more surprising that I was still able to get one of my favorite, silly pictures…

Look at that edge, it’s barely distorted at all and standing up almost perfectly straight. I almost never get to do this with such a large puzzle, and this made me happier than it should – I was pleased as punch to be able to stand this one up. 😁