Tag: Ravensburger

Sleeping Beauty

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

This puzzle is just beautiful, and other than the faces the entire image reminded me of the movie I remember as a child, and the movie I remember watching with my children. I love the look of the image as a whole, and the puzzle itself was wonderful quality and a joy to assemble.

Excellent Ravensburger quality, I think this one has to be the best quality from this brand that I’ve assembled in a while. These Disney puzzles are “collectors editions”, and more expensive than the average Ravensburger puzzle. Normally I don’t purchase these, because it annoys me a little bit that they cost more money, but this was a “pandemic purchase” that I made simply because it was available. Beautiful, matte finish, wonderful fit, excellent image reproduction – the usual premium quality I expect from this brand. It’s truly lovely to work with, and has a great hand feel.

The rest of this post is me complaining about something, but don’t take it to mean that I didn’t enjoy this puzzle. I absolutely enjoyed this puzzle, it was a great image with fantastic quality and I enjoyed working with it very, very much.

Sleeping Beauty 1

These are the creatures of the forest I remember from the movies when I was little, this is what they look like in my brain, if that makes sense.

Sleeping Beauty 2

As a crotchety old lady, I feel it’s my place to complain about the way they do things now and the way they used to be done. This is NOT the face of Aurora that I remember, why is it changed? Why is Charming’s face different? Things don’t always need to be updated. It seems like a slap in the face to the artists who made this movie – painstakingly, cell by cell. It’s annoying. I’m annoyed.

Do all Disney princesses have to be updated so that they’re stunningly beautiful with plump, kissable lips and the figure of a small undernourished boy? Has anyone told the muckey-mucks at Disney that women eat food? That we’re all shapes and sizes, some of us cut out hair short, and plenty of us don’t need a man to make our lives complete? Just wondering. I’m cranky. This stuff makes me cranky.

The Valuation Day (What If? #14)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments
The Valuation Day
The Valuation Day by Geoff Tristam – Ravensburger (What If? Puzzles) – 1000 pieces

Such a fun puzzle! As per my usual rules I do not show the picture of the entire finished puzzle, to do so would be a spoiler and I’m not about spoiling anything. When I started my first What If? puzzle, I searched for a picture of the box to put on my “What’s on my board” section of the homepage and of course the first image that popped up was of the finished puzzle – what a disappointment for me! I couldn’t un-see it, I knew what happened in the image and I was upset. I will never do that to my readers, so all you get to see is the character shown on the box, heavily cropped.

You have to use more brain cells than normal because you don’t have the finished picture; but luckily with this series there are plenty of hints on the box image. You can see what everyone is wearing, what the background looks like, and you know what the premise is. This puzzle in particular was a little easier because you can tell as soon as you start turning over pieces and sorting what is going to happen. I can’t tell you what, but the “problem” is evident all over the pieces.

According to what we’re told, “The picture on the box shows the crowd’s excitement and anticipation….the puzzle inside this box depicts the shattering outcome! Doris Bootsayle loves rooting around jumble sales, charity shops and the like. She cannot wait to get TV auction expert Tom Wannapott to value her latest find. Will Tom make her dreams come true, or is there a sting in this tantalizing tale?”

So what happens? Of course I can’t tell you! That would ruin the fun out of figuring it out yourself. I love these puzzles where you don’t have an image and you have to figure out where everyone ends up and what happened. The artwork is fantastic, the puzzle quality is excellent, and the fun is built right in.

I’ve never shown this before, but one of the fun things about these puzzles is that they’re all drawn by the same artist, Geoff Tristam (one of my favorites 💖), and he does something fun on the back of the box. There’s a picture of him next to his bio, and in every picture he’s dressed up in the theme of the image. In this puzzle, which is a tv show much like Antiques Road Show, he’s dressed up as the expert…

Geoff Tristam
The Expert

I’ll try to remember to show his picture on the box with the remaining What If? puzzles I have left to do. They make me smile, and a smile can be such a help when you’re having a bad day, or just help to brighten a good day even more.

Have you done a Ravensburger What If? Puzzle? If not, I highly recommend giving one a try. I love them! 💟

Review: The Bookshop

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments
The Bookshop
The Bookshop by Aimee Stewart – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

This gorgeous puzzle is an Aimee Stewart – I had no idea! I don’t really check who the artist is most of the time before I start working a puzzle; I just knew the image spoke to me, and thought it would be fun, if a bit challenging to assemble. Well, of course it was – it’s an Aimee Stewart! I put together the entire puzzle and didn’t know until I started writing up this post that it was by my favorite artist.

The quality was fantastic, as per usual for a Ravensburger. Just feeling the weight and finish of the pieces makes me smile; I think I could tell a Ravensburger piece from all others at 20 paces. (Well, maybe 2 paces, these eyes are getting older every day). Holding a piece while contemplating it’s placement and rubbing my thumb across the top of it gives me a quiet kind of happiness, it’s like meditation.

This was a little more challenging than your average Aimee Stewart puzzle; the colors are much more muted, and the scene itself was more difficult. The flowers below the sign and the ivy around the edges were the hardest for me. The books everywhere were less difficult than I’d assumed, even though there are so many of them!

The Bookshop 1

This little girl in her pretty purple frock is so sweet, and it’s such a pretty color.

The Bookshop 2

All those books in the window? You can read the titles, and look at the detail! I should have known who the artist was. I can’t believe I didn’t. I’m hanging my head in shame.

I’d seen this image several times before I finally took the plunge and got it for myself, and am I ever glad I did. Have you been thinking of buying this? Go for it, this puzzle is highly recommended. 👍👍

Details:

  • Title:                  The Bookshop
  • Artist:                Aimee Stewart
  • Brand:               Ravensburger
  • Piece count:     1000 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 27 x 20 in. (69 x 51cm)
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               Excellent
  • Cutting:             Excellent
  • 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, highly recommended

Window Shoppers

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments
Shoppers
Window Shoppers by Ingrid – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

There’s something really compelling about this image, but putting it into words seems to be a bit difficult for me at the moment. I can’t exactly explain why, but seeing this image took my breath away, and I just had to have it. Good thing too, because the assembly was completely entertaining!

The colors are so beautiful, the quality was excellent, and all-around this was a wonderful puzzle.

Shoppers 1

I love this lady and her manservant, looking at it makes me smile. She’s carrying the tiniest of boxes, and he can barely see over the stack he’s loaded up with. 🙂

Shoppers 2

In this group of ladies I would absolutely be the one in jeans. I wanted to be the cute girl in pretty skirts, but it never seemed to work out that way.

Shoppers 3

This section was quite entertaining to assemble. The colors of the glass windows stood out, as did the bricks. It was the right amount of challenging, and for other reasons I can’t explain putting together these buildings was great fun.

I seem to have a limited vocabulary this morning, and can’t explain why I enjoyed this puzzle so much. All I know is that I loved putting it together.

Perhaps that’s all I really need to know. 🙂

Window Shoppers In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments
Shoppers IP
Window Shoppers – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

This puzzle got started on Tuesday afternoon, but unfortunately there were things that had to be done yesterday that took up the entire morning. When I finally did get home I was wrung out and ready to do absolutely nothing – and that is what I did.

Life is constantly trying to insert itself into our puzzling time; the family wants food, clean clothes, a tidy house – so rude!

Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to it today and make some more progress. I was enjoying myself before quitting time came. 🙂