Vintage St. Nicholas

On December 25, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Challenging puzzle, but gorgeous and fun with excellent whimsies! Take a look….

My last Christmas puzzle of the year, I did quite a few for someone who doesn’t really like most Christmas puzzles. I’m posting this before any presents are unwrapped, so we’ll see if any of my family, or even Santa, gifted me puzzles this year. 🎄

My mother decided she absolutely had to take advantage of the black Friday sale at Wentworth and got this puzzle and one other for 35% off! (The other is an art nouveau collage, 750 pieces – SO BEAUTIFUL!) We started this one together at her house, but it was quite the challenge so it wasn’t finished by the time I left; she finished it on her own late into the night.

First thing for us to do when assembling a wooden puzzle is to pull all the whimsy pieces we can find and get a picture of those separately. We are still amazed and delighted at every new shape we find – we’re like little kids on Christmas morning! Next we try to assemble the edge, but they’re so sneaky about the cutting that we have never found all the edge pieces on the first try. Still, it’s fun to give it a shot.

The assembly was quite time consuming, much more so than we’d expected. The piece shapes are mostly like the random cut of a cardboard puzzle, but they are cut in a way that makes the assembly more difficult and more fun. The shapes aren’t fantastical and wild, but it doesn’t matter as much because the working of the puzzle itself is such a pleasure.

I love the look of all the vintage Santa characters, they are all so different, but similar too. So sweet and lovely to look at. I think we’ll assemble this one next year at my house so I get to be the one staying up late into the night! ⏰

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Night Before Christmas & Santa and his Team

On December 24, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

The Night Before Christmas by Steve Crisp – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 40 pieces

Love, love, love these puzzles! I had to post The Night Before Christmas today, it’s Christmas Eve – Santa’s coming tonight!! 🎅

I haven’t done any of the Steve Crisp houses before, and having seen the detail on this tiny one I’m really wanting to try one of the 1000 piece house puzzles. It looks like they would be lots of fun; I’ve never really looked at them before, though I’m not sure why. Probably because there are so many puzzles and so little time. I guess that means the wish list is going to be getting a little bit bigger. Perhaps it’ll get smaller as well, if Santa brings me a puzzle or two. I’ve tried to be good this year – I’m not always successful, but trying has to be worth something right? (Besides, being well-behaved isn’t nearly as much fun as being a little naughty now and then! 😈)

This was another Christmas puzzle that isn’t the “normal” scene, and the assembly was wonderful. You can see on the roof of the house the whimsy piece of Santa, it’s incredibly detailed; there was also a stocking, a present, a snowflake, and a Christmas tree. I loved this little puzzle!

Santa and his Team – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 25 pieces

This puzzle was the easiest of the “cracker” puzzles, but still fun to put together. You can see all the whimsies clearly in this puzzle because of the lighter color; a reindeer, penguin, snowman, Christmas tree, and Santa. 5 whimsies in a 25 piece puzzle, that’s a pretty good ratio!

I love the reindeer’s faces in this one, they’re just so darn cute! I get distracted by the snowman right on Santa’s face, but that’s one of the drawbacks of wooden puzzles that I’ve found. When the puzzle image is light the piece shape is very obvious and can pull your eye from seeing the picture as a whole. If you scroll back up and look at the house, on the bottom floor the piece shapes aren’t as obvious as they are on or near the roof. Still, for me, it doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the assembly, they’re still fun to put together.

These were the last 2 of the “cracker” puzzles, and you won’t be surprised to hear that I loved every one of them. There are a few more Christmas micro puzzles that I haven’t put together yet, but I’ve sent them with my mom on her trip to visit one of my sisters for the holidays. They’re the perfect size for traveling; they don’t take up much room in your luggage and they don’t take up much room when you’re assembling them either. I guess I’ll save them for Christmas in July on the blog – only 7 months to go! 🙂

Playful Santa & Festive Angel

On December 23, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Playful Santa – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 25 pieces

It doesn’t look like it, but this micro puzzle was more difficult than it looked. I’m almost embarrassed at how long it took me to put these 25 pieces together! It’s interesting to me how such a small puzzle with very few pieces can be cut to make the assembly so much more challenging. Aside from the whimsy pieces, the cuts don’t seem that unusual, but they’re the just the right amount of difficult.

The Christmas cracker puzzles are so beautiful and come in such interesting packaging; they will make excellent stocking stuffers for next year. I can’t wait to see if there will be new micro puzzles to choose from! (I think I’d better start saving now)

Festive Angel by Louise Anglicas – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 36 pieces

This beautiful angel had a much more intricate cut which added to the challenge, in addition to being shaped. Loved it!

As someone who usually does 1000 piece puzzles (and has even assembled the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle) it’s amazing how much I enjoy these micro puzzles. It’s wonderful to work with the wood pieces, and even though it doesn’t seem like they would be much fun, they are astonishingly entertaining. I think they might even have helped me enjoy Christmas puzzles more, because I had absolutely no hesitation about ordering every single one they had available! 🎄

Review: The Christmas Library

On December 22, 2017January 15, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews7 Comments

The Christmas Library by Aimee Stewart – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

Aimee Stewart and Ravensburger, always a fantastic combination! Her artwork is beautiful and colorful and ever entertaining, and her puzzles have never disappointed. 🙂

The Christmas Library made for excellent puzzling – I enjoyed every single piece. Having words to assemble always makes me happy, and the style of the vintage books, ornaments, and images was absolutely gorgeous! The quality was excellent, as usual. It’s very rare that I have any quality issues with Ravensburger. The pieces look and feel like a premium puzzle, and fit together like one too. An all around fantastic Christmas image!

I’ve never really been a Christmas puzzle person, most holiday puzzles are so similar that they don’t interest me much. This year though, I’ve been lucky enough to find a few puzzles that are outside the norm, and they’ve been quite fun to assemble. I’m putting this one in that group, it’s more of a collage and that’s more to my liking then the standard Santa and the tree puzzles.

Stay tuned, the next 3 days will be all Christmas puzzles that I’ve assembled this season; I enjoyed every one. (I can hardly believe I just wrote that! 😮 )

Details:

Title: The Christmas Library
Artist: Aimee Stewart
Brand: Ravensburger
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 27 x 20 in. (70 x 50 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

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

Overall Rating: Excellent, recommended

Moulin Rouge

On December 21, 2017December 22, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was an interesting thrift store purchase that mom and I assembled together. It looked more fun than it was; for me, anyway. I chose this one to assemble, but it didn’t meet my expectations for some reason. I’m not sure I can articulate why this was, I just know that it was.

The random cut was very interesting and kept us on our toes, and the pieces fit together well. The piece shape is very obvious in the finished puzzle, which isn’t ideal but doesn’t really affect the actual assembly. It does make it more difficult to make out some of the words though.

I’m not usually so “blah” about a puzzle, it’s mostly yay or nay; either really loved it or didn’t like it. I have no idea what I was expecting, but whatever it was didn’t materialize. For the most part this one just makes me shrug my shoulders. Eh. The quality was good, it just lacked something for me. If I’m going on quality I would recommend this puzzle, if the image is something you like go for it. 🙂