Review: Viva le Vinyl

On October 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Viva Le Vinyl by Aimee Stewart – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This bright, entertaining image was great fun to assemble and went together even more quickly than I thought it would. Aimee Stewart’s use of colors makes putting together her puzzles, for me, an absolute joy!

It doesn’t look like it from the picture, but there are a lot of words to assemble. All the background, everything all the records and paraphernalia are sitting on are concert tickets, record covers, notebook pages, etc. Words, words, and more words! You know how much I love that. 🙂

To be honest, this image scared me a little bit, and I put off assembling it for quite a while. I love the artwork of Aimee Stewart so much, but all the black of the vinyl records had me thinking this might not be as fun to assemble as her other images have been for me. As dumb as it sounds, I didn’t want to have a less than awesome experience with one of her puzzles! I shouldn’t have worried, it was great fun and went together so quickly because I couldn’t seem to keep myself from adding just one more piece or finishing just one more section. I loved it!

Details:

Title: Viva le Vinyl
Artist: Aimee Stewart
Brand: Ravensburger
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 20 x 14 in. (49 x 36 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Excellent
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Good, square box
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Fairytale Fantasia

On October 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

And now we’ve come to the end of the oldies but goodies, this is the last of the puzzles from over 2 years ago that I’ve never posted about. It’s been great fun going back and remembering all these puzzles!

It’s odd to me that I can remember specific things about each of the puzzles from back then, but I can’t tell you how old I am without doing math in my head first. What did I have for lunch yesterday? I have no idea, but I can tell you many things about this puzzle I did about 2 1/2 years ago. Weird old lady brain! 👵

This shelf, for me, was the easiest of the Aimee Stewart shelves that I’ve assembled. Glorious Vintage, Fantastic Voyage, World of Books, etc., these were all much more of a challenge in my opinion. I enjoyed them all, but this was the least difficult; Glorious Vintage required the most brain power, all that green had my head spinning!

For Fairytale Fantastia all the books, the beautiful colors, and the whimsical characters made this puzzle a joy to put together, and one of my favorite shelves by this artist. If I’m being honest, pretty much all puzzles by Aimee Stewart are in the favorites category (except for her Neuschwanstein image, Castle Dream. It’s just not my cup of tea/pile of pieces). 😉

And as usual, the quality of this puzzle was as excellent as the artwork. Ravensburger pieces have a wonderful feel in your hands, the “softclick” technology provides a great fit, and the image reproduction is amazingly done. No wonder they’re one of my favorite puzzle brands!

I wish there were more Aimee Stewart puzzles here at the house that I could dive into; but, alas, I’m Stewart-less at the moment. All this reminiscing has me in the mood for her awesome use of colors and whimsy – and looking at her artwork always makes me a little happier than I was before. ☺

Fantastic Voyage

On September 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Here’s another oldie that I didn’t post about because of the truly horrid picture I took. The vertigo seems to have resolved itself very nicely. 😉

It’s by Aimee Stewart, one of my absolute favorite artists. Fantastic Voyage was pretty challenging, but I enjoyed the journey of it. Her artwork is deceptive; the colors are blended so expertly and the overall look of the image is so beautiful that you don’t think the assembly will be that difficult – but it is. It takes more time than you assume it will, but in my opinion it’s absolutely worth it. It’s a gorgeous puzzle!

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If you haven’t tried an Aimee Stewart puzzle, I urge you to give it a go. They’re stunning, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be glad you did! 🙂

Who’s Your Favorite Jigsaw Artist?

On September 28, 2018September 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Spectacular Peacock by Aimee Stewart – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 240 pieces

I Remember Those! by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 300 EZ Hold pieces

The Racehorse – Ravensburger (What If #8) – 1000 pieces

These are puzzles from 3 of my very favorite jigsaw puzzle artists – Aimee Stewart, Charlie Girard and Geoff Tristam. Of course they’re not the only ones, there are many more. There’s so much out there to choose from, so many puzzles and so little time (and money)!

Who are your favorite artists?

Vintage Candy Shop

On September 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I see a recurring theme, I didn’t post these puzzles because the pictures are so awful. On a positive note, we’re about halfway through the old puzzles so it shouldn’t be too much longer. I must have been having balance issues when I was taking these pictures; it looks like I was falling and on my way to the floor when I snapped this picture!

I think I should start including an image of what the puzzle looks like straight on for my readers, you should know what it’s supposed to look like…

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I love an Aimee Stewart image, and this one was pretty darn fun to put together even though the quality was less than optimal. There was some splitting of the chipboard, and a few pieces with image lift. The pieces were a bit thinner than I’d like, but they weren’t too bad and the fit was excellent. Ceaco puzzles seem to fit together very well no matter the quality of the board, and a good fit is something many puzzlers appreciate, myself included.

The cash register was my favorite part to assemble, the number keys and the wording on the front of the drawer were fun to put together. The drawer itself was a little more challenging, but still completely entertaining. The different candies were so bright and interesting – Aimee Stewart’s use of colors and the way she puts them together makes for added difficulty, and added pleasure. I’ve done many of her puzzles and they’re always a challenge, but always beautiful and a good time.

Fun puzzle, with fair/good quality, if you like the image and you find a copy of this one I definitely recommend it. 👍