Disney & Pixar Color Palette

On June 25, 2026June 25, 2026 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Disney & Pixar Color Palette – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

For some reason I was a little apprehensive about this puzzle, but there was no need to be – it was an excellent assembly. For the second puzzle in a row I found myself wishing it was a larger piece count because the fun was just over too quickly.

Most excellent Ravensburger quality, the fit was exceptional, the image reproduction was beautiful, there were a nice variety of pieces shapes – in short I’m saying it was an excellent quality puzzle and it made for a highly entertaining assembly.

The only drawback, again, was the puzz fuzz. It takes no time at all to shake the pieces in a colander (take a tip from me though and don’t do it over the garbage can in case you get a little too aggressive with the shaking and a piece jumps out into the trash). Then I leave the pieces in the colander sitting inside the box while I’m laying them all out so that my reaching in and getting a handful of pieces moves things around and gets rid of any remaining blue fuzz. I don’t consider it much of a problem but some people do so I want to be sure to let them know. To be honest I’d rather deal with puzzle dust on an excellent quality puzzle than work with a lesser quality brand with that sharp white backing. But that’s just me, you have to decide what works for you and what doesn’t.

I assembled this one without using the box image, so other than the characters around the edge I had no idea where anyone went. As an added bit of challenge there are many characters that I have no idea who they are! My kids are all in their 30’s, so we stopped watching Disney and Pixar movies together quite some time ago and many of the characters are very new to me.

I also did something different with this assembly; the only thing I sorted was the edges, I didn’t pull any colors or characters, all the pieces were just laid out on trays. Each little character is pretty small and pulling out pieces for sections would have taken lots of time so I just put all the pieces on trays and once the border was assembled I started on the far right and assembled each column. Here and there I found a piece that I knew where it belonged and put it in, but for the most part it was put together one column at a time. I enjoyed it very much!

I chose three characters from Winnie the Pooh, because it’s one of my most treasured memories as a child. I had a book that came with a cassette tape that “acted out” the book, which was voiced by the actors from the short films. In addition we had an 8 track of the same short film to play in the van on long trips to tournaments that my dad was umpiring. My sisters and I knew all the words to every song, and especially loved to quote from it. Winnie the Pooh and his friends bring back happy memories and make me smile.

I wasn’t always sure why I liked Piglet so much, but now as an adult with severe anxiety issues perhaps it was recognition of a fellow traveler. He was always shaking and stuttering and full of anxiety, so of course I loved him. And Tigger. Silly, sweet, bouncy Tigger, he always made me smile and I identified with him too. He had so much energy! You know what they say about Tiggers don’t you? They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!

This puzzle was great quality with a great image that made for a great (if too quick) assembly. It was much more fun than anticipated and I loved it. It was put back in it’s box and sent off to Penny – here’s hoping she has as much fun with it as I did!

Princess of the Sea

On June 23, 2026June 23, 2026 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Princess of the Sea – Mega Puzzles (Multipack) – 300 pieces

Isn’t she beautiful? Of all the puzzles in this multipack of eight Disney images this one is my favorite. Almost all of the other ones are bright and colorful and very “Disney”, but this artwork of Ariel in the style of Alphonse Mucha really stood out to me. It wasn’t the easiest 300 piece puzzle I’ve ever done, but I think it’s stunning.

I know when I purchase puzzles in a multipack that they most likely won’t be the best quality, but if the artwork is something that I love it doesn’t matter, I’ll always take the chance. I’m enjoying this multipack so far, this is the second of the puzzles I’ve done and even though the pieces are VERY thin and the fit isn’t great they’ve been entertaining. I don’t usually do Mega Puzzles as the quality is less than optimal, but with a multipack I know that going in and am almost never surprised.

*There is one image from this pack that I haven’t decided whether or not to assemble. It’s an image called Dapper Dandies, and I assembled it seven years ago. It was also the Mega Puzzles brand, but in a different piece count. I may do it again as the one in this pack is 500 pieces and the previous one was only 300 pieces. I still haven’t decided yet. Thoughts?

I documented the assembly as I went along. The first picture shows everything that I pulled out on the initial sorting, all the words and the curlicues. It was much harder than I anticipated – perhaps that’s why I’ve never done a Mucha image – they look pretty difficult! The second picture is after Ariel’s top half was assembled with all that hair; luckily that section was little easier for me. After that I just did that thing where I stare at the pieces and put them in here and there until finally it was finished.

The artwork made this one so entertaining, and I love that it isn’t your typical Disney image. If there was a multipack of Disney princesses done in this style I would snap them up in a minute! (Unless they were Ceaco, of course 😈)

This puzzle was not great quality, but that didn’t matter to me at all. The image was excellent and it was enjoyable from start to finish.

She’s gorgeous and I love her.🧜‍♀️💚

Rebels

On June 19, 2026June 19, 2026 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

Rebels – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

This puzzle was an absolute joy to put together, and I found myself constantly trying to make it last longer. I wanted nothing more than to sit in front of it and assemble away, but I also wanted it to not be over too soon. Of course no one around here is surprised when a collage puzzle makes me happy.

The Re-marks brand is good quality in my opinion, and although there are sometimes issues with fit or reproduction I find they don’t bother me as much when they’re attached to a fantastic collage image. I’ll put up with a lot to be able to work a fun collage. Luckily there wasn’t much to “put up with” on this puzzle, it was very good quality all around.

It was difficult deciding which areas of the puzzle I would use for a close up, and in the end I chose three different rebels that remind me of three different generations of my family.

If you’re a long time reader you know that not only am I a puzzle geek, I am also a self-professed comedy nerd. My parents are to blame, in my house we had just as many comedy records as we did music albums. A good laugh was always around when my folks were near, partly because they adored comedy and comedians. We weren’t allowed to listen to Lenny Bruce of course, as he was about as “blue” as a comic could be, but I found myself fascinated by him when I was younger. By the time I was old enough to listen to his comedy my life was taken over by teenage hormones, boys, cheerleading, etc. But my parents never shied away from anything controversial and I distinctly remember talking to them about Lenny Bruce, censorship, drug addiction and people trying to gatekeep what others read and heard and did. Lenny Bruce died before I was even born, but seeing this image reminded me of my youth as a child of comedy connoisseurs and people who taught me to fight for ALL of my rights. I had exceptional parents. 💖

Now we go forward to my own generation; as a child of the 80s and a bit of a rebel myself of course I loved Joan Jett. Loved her with The Runaways, loved her solo work, and of course Joan Jett & The Blackhearts were amazing. Put another dime in the jukebox baby!

I never listened to musicians just because everyone else thought they were great. I was an odd child who liked what I liked and didn’t apologize for it; in addition to the music of the 80s I also LOVED Elvis Presley, Allan Sherman, girl groups of the 50s and 60s, Ray Stevens, etc. – in general I appreciated all kinds of music and didn’t just pretend I liked what was popular. If it made me happy that is what counted most. My friends thought I was weird, but I think weird is a good thing; and my true friends loved me, weird and all. Who wants to be like everyone else? Boring! I loved that Joan Jett didn’t try to conform to what everyone else thought femininity should look like, she was just herself and that made all the difference to me. She was my Pippi Longstocking, along with Cyndi Lauper, they were women who were just themselves no matter what the world thought and that made them ladies I looked up to.

This one reminds me of my daughter, who absolutely adores RuPaul and RuPaul’s Drag Race. We’ve spent many an hour watching it together; I don’t love it as much as she does, but spending time with her is much more important to me than getting to watch what I want on tv. When I was putting this puzzle together I texted my daughter a picture of the partially completed RuPaul section and she immediately replied wanting to know what this was from and what I was working on. She was very interested in my puzzle that day. 😎

My gorgeous daughter was also raised by parents who taught her to fight for herself and for others. She is an outspoken, honest, kindhearted, generous, amazing woman who also likes what she likes and doesn’t try to fit in just to make others more comfortable. I’m immensely proud to have raised a rebel like her, and as RuPaul has taught us to say, she’s my “Best Judy”; she’s my ride-or-die, my closest confidante, and my beloved sweet Baby Princess. 💕👑

I’ve picked out one more section to show you, I wonder, do you see the same thing I do or am I putting my attitude onto this…?

When I look at this book cover I see a man who thinks he’s all that and a bag of chips. Look at that smug face! Is it just me? Perhaps it is. I’ll be seeing him again soon though, because both this image and another one from this puzzle (Harriet Tubman) are part of another collage yet to be assembled that I have here. It’s another collection of book covers, Biographies. I won’t mind seeing Harriet again, but Oscar here has a face that I consider extremely slappable. Like, EXTREMELY slappable.

Wow, I really do have an attitude today! Maybe it’s my menopause rearing it’s ugly man-hating head, there’s no way to be sure. Doesn’t matter though, I embrace the hormone-riddled insanity. 🤪

Rainbow Cake (Circle of Colors)

On June 17, 2026June 17, 2026 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Rainbow Cake (Circle of Colors) by Inna Markova – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This beauty was so much more fun than I anticipated – love, love, loved it! Why did it take me so long to do a Ravensburger puzzle once I came back to the puzzle table? No idea, but I’m so glad this one was available, I had the best time. 😍

Ravensburger puzzles are my go to, I love their quality. Of course, no company is perfect and sometimes I’ve had an issue here or there but it has always been resolved quickly and to my satisfaction. When I was working on the behemoth 40,320 piece Disney puzzle I found a piece that was mangled with most of the image torn off; and even though the puzzle wasn’t yet for sale in the US at the time, the company happily replaced the entire section of the puzzle for me. Excellent customer service.

I found myself constantly running my hands over the completed sections of the puzzle the entire time I was working on it, I just couldn’t help myself. I do love a puzzle massage at the end of an assembly, but there’s something about how this brand feels – it’s fantastic! From the sorting in the beginning to the very last connection I kept running my fingers over a piece I was holding or even small assembled sections, it was a tactile joy.

The quality of this puzzle was excellent in every way. The fit was wonderful, great variety of piece shapes, and excellent image reproduction. The only drawback was the amount of puzz fuzz (puzzle dust) in the bag, but that’s easily remedied by dumping out the pieces into a colander and shaking it out; and it didn’t detract from the assembly in any way.

The border was a bit time consuming, but it wasn’t too horribly difficult. After that I worked on the whiter section that goes just inside the edge pieces. I didn’t work the rest of the puzzle from the outside in though, I went from the center outward. Started with the pinks and purples in the center and then to each successive color. It was completely enjoyable for me, and I tried to keep myself in check to make the assembly last, but as usual it was just too much fun and I couldn’t help myself.

No self-control at all. 😇

Oh well, self-control or not I enjoyed this puzzle very much and if you’re of a mind to give it a try it is most definitely recommended.

Orphaned Puzzles!

On June 13, 2026June 13, 2026 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Transit Graphics – Galison – 1000 pieces

After I finished reading through the entire blog recently, I decided to also read through all the completed puzzle pages for each year – just to see my shortened comments about each of the puzzles – it was very interesting for me. While I was there I found three orphaned puzzles that were shown on a completed page for a certain year but for whatever reason they never made it to a blog post of their own. Oh dear! They won’t each get their own post, but I’ve decided to show them here all together.

The first puzzle, shown above, was completed in August of 2016. As you can tell by the awful picture this was a puzzle that was assembled before this blog even started. My mother and I used to text each other pictures of our finished puzzles, and this was a quick picture just to send over text to show her it was complete; and I’ve rounded it off so you don’t see as much of my bed. Even though it’s been almost 10 years, I still remember this one if you can believe it. It was quite easy for me, and according to my little blurb it was started one day after my husband had left for work and was finished before he got home that night. Not bad for a 1000 pieces!

This puzzle was completed in December of 2017. The blog was well established by then, so I’m not certain why a full post was never done. Thankfully it’s a much better picture than the previous puzzle; by this time my puzzle boards had been made for me by my sweet hubby and I had figured out how to take a picture that doesn’t look like I was in the process of falling down when the photo was shot.

Unlike the Transit Graphics puzzle, I have no memory of this one. At all. According to the completed puzzles page this one made me hungry, but I was a bit disappointed in the quality. Apparently I had higher hopes for this brand but it didn’t measure up. Thankfully it was still entertaining, and that’s what it’s all about (and I do love a Krispy Kreme donut 🍩).

Victorian Letters – Springbok – 500 pieces

Victorian Letters was also completed in December of 2017. It must have been a crazy month for me to somehow forget to give these puzzles each a post of their own. Oh well, it’s being rectified now – better late than never, right?

It won’t surprise you to hear that I don’t remember this puzzle assembly either. It’s a very pretty image though, and it makes me wish I had typed up a full post. Apparently this was one of Springbok’s very tight fitting puzzles, and at the end my thumb was hurting from smashing together pieces that fit together much too snugly.

I enjoyed reading through all the pages to see all the puzzles completed and how I described them – it was a very entertaining exercise. I’ve read through the blog before, but never through all the completed puzzles pages. I enjoyed myself more than I though I would. 😎

*ps* It also made my OCD a little crazy, so I went back through and edited all the pages so that they should all have the right size images and there is a now a running total of puzzles completed, pieces assembled, and brands worked with for each month. It needed to be done so the part of my brain that craves order would calm the $@!% down!