Expert-level tips to make the perfect custom puzzle
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 19. 06. 2024
- Thank you Ravensburger for sponsoring this video! Get your custom photo puzzle at www.photopuzzles.ravensburger.com
Use my code KAREN20 for 20% off your entire order. Order by December 9 to get your puzzle by Christmas.
Code valid through December 9. Only valid in the US, and international shipping is unfortunately not available.
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#puzzle #jigsawpuzzles #jigsaw đ§©đ§©đ§©đ§©đ§© - ZĂĄbava
Have you ever gotten a custom puzzle made? Let's all share some more tips in the comments, and make sure to check out the description for all the info on how to get one from Ravensburger!
Hi Karen, since you tried very hard to get the pronunciation of 'Ravensburger' right: It is almost right. The 'a' is different. The name likely is inspired from the German city 'Ravensburg' (where the company is situated). If you type the name in google - translate while having chosen German as a language, it helps to listen to the pronunciation there.
Or: the 'a' in kindergarten sounds similar to what it is in 'Raven...'
I thought, this might be helpful, since the name is likely to be used by you again on this channel đ
my best friend gave me a puzzle from one of our photos, it's one of my most precious possessions! thanks for the video and congrats for the partnership! tamo junto!
@@LaomerKedor It's not even "burger" like the sandwich, but "oo" instead of the "ur". Americans might want to try it like that: "Raah-vens-boorg-er". Greetings from Ravensburg!
@@bibliopolist At first, it appeared to me, that this was fine in her try at 7:34. But i had the speed set to 1.5 x, so i missed this. Greetings from Saxony!
Actually yes, I have. Just now. Halfway through your video. Thank you for helping me spend money. đ
Pro tip. If you're scanning in old photos to use, be sure to scan them in at a high resolution so your puzzle comes out cute.
Karen: donât use a picture with a solid background!
Also Karen: orders a puzzle with 20% solid black đ
I was so focused on putting the photo with the highest quality in the biggest spot that I didn't realize so much of it would be a solid black once it printed. I thought we'd get a little texture at least!
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Oh YES! I did that two years ago for my daughter. She loved her playmobil castle with all the ladies, princesses and stuff. I put ALL of them (30?) on the stairs of the castle for a group photo. Even the animals đ Gave the puzzle to her as a christmas gift. She still loves it â„ïž
That sounds like a great photo for a puzzle!
This is such a genius idea for a kids puzzle.
I bet Karen would love to do that photo!!
I have been making custom puzzles from Shutterfly for many years. I usually make a 252 piece puzzle. I always use a collage of family photos which works out pretty well. Unfortunately, the quality of the puzzle is not great. A lot of the bits are bent, and the puzzle doesnât lie flat. So I am very happy to hear that I can make custom puzzles from Ravensburger. I did not know that. I am excited to transfer my business over to them. By the way, you were definitely a super cute kid.
Thank you for this. I have always wondered about the shutterfly ones
Been wanting to make a puzzle out of my wedding photos for a while. This is great
What a great idea!
At my workplace we had a few custom puzzles made based on infrastructure diagrams of systems we work on. I know it's not as *cute* as family photos, but we did make sure to have a slight gradient in all the solid areas to make the puzzles easier to solve. The goal of the puzzles was for us to remember aspects of our systems as we build the puzzles.
Oooo, I really like this idea.
Such a great way to help retain information.
Itâs the same sort of thing when you do a puzzle of a famous art work. You learn and see things in the paint and painting that you may have never noticed before.
But I really love your story, such a clever idea đĄ.
My husband ordered a puzzle photo from our wedding pictures for us. He chose a grayscale picture of us in my white wedding dress and his dark burgundy suit (show up as black) and a white car parked on a cobblestone area đ„Č. When I saw the pic he chose my jaw dropped and we just giggled for 10 mins at his very great idea. It turned out to be fun though to separate the white with texture (my dress), plain white (car), and grayish white (the sky), as well as figuring out all the cobblestone pieces that all looked very similar đđ
Wow, I'm impressed that you still went for it!
For ppl in the uk you can get custom ravensburger puzzles from photobox âșïž theyâre great! Iâve got 2 and both are really nice quality
Future Video Idea: KAREN GOES TO A PUZZLE FACTORY
(I would really like to see how the puzzles are made!)
I once had a custom puzzle made. I split it up to fill an advent calender. Every day the person got a few more pieces. I actually used a picture that I drew myself. And I picked a really colorful one. Turned out pretty cute đ
I meant to mention in the video that this would also work great as an advent calendar puzzle!
That is such a cute idea, I hope I remember to do it in the future
But are being nice and divide the puzzel in 24 sections and piles. Or are we giving it as coal. 24 groups of random pieces
I did the puzzle in advance and divided piles of pieces that would fit together in a section. Otherwise is is frustrating for 2 weeks
"Not every image in the world is gonna be fun to do as a puzzle." As someone who has drawn pet portraits for people, this is a common thing we have to say xD Yes, that is a very cute photo of your baby, but it will not make for a good pet portrait artwork x'D
I know Karen wouldn't like it because of all the fur, but it would be lovely to have a puzzle of one's own pets đđ
Make sure to put them on a colorful background though so you have a lot of color separation!
I'd love that, but at the same time my cat is black. đ He only shows up on a white background, and even then mostly as a black blob.
Have something partially between the cat and the camera.
I did get a puzzle made a few years ago of my cat. It came out great.
My cat passed a month ago. Might need to do this as a memorial for her.
Expert level tip: if you want to surprise your sister with a puzzle gift, don't post it on CZcams in October. :-)
We love a sponsored queen đž đ„ł
My husband got me a puzzle out of my favorite picture of us - it was such a thoughtful gift! I really love it âŠ.but in the picture both of us are wearing dark clothes. It made up about 1/4 of the picture and it took forever to finish đ and I can attest, it is very weird putting together pieces of your own face. But still very CUTEđ it would be fun to get another one made!
Wow! Only 2 weeks for them to print, cut, and ship a custom puzzle! I didn't realize it would be so fast!
Since I did mine a few weeks ago before the Christmas rush, they literally took like 6 days. I couldn't believe it! đ€Ż
The way I yelled, "Yes!" When you said this video is sponsored by Ravensberg!
I seriously was halfway through your video when I paused it, went to Ravensburger, and made a custom puzzle for myself. You may have unleashed a monster! I doubt any of mine will be as cute, though. đ
Hi Karen I got a 1500 ravensburger puzzle and I put all of my trinkets and pictures and baby stuff in a pile on the floor and took a picture of that The puzzle turned out so incredibly cool So so so cool So glad you're sharing this with everyone đđœđđœđ€đ
Brilliant idea â€
I had no idea custom puzzles were a thing. I now know what to get my mom for the holidays.
I'm sure she'll love it!
They all looked great, and very good quality. The smaller sizes would be the perfect presents for children. They would love doing them again and again and again.
Yes! Ravensberger sponsorship- good for you!
What a CUTE little baby you were! đ I'm considering making my own custom puzzle now. Thanks for the promo code Karen!
Do it!
This is a cute idea for a Christmas gift for my parents: I think they would love a grandkids collage puzzle!
I've picked making a custom puzzle as my yearly tradition with myself, as in it's my Christmas present for myself every year. I make a custom collage in GIMP out of our yearly highlight pictures (I do three landscape ones on each side and two portrait ones in the middle, landscape format) and order it as a 1500 piece Ravensburger Puzzle. Those are the only ones I hang up actually! They decorate our hallway. This year is going to be the third year â€ïž I use your tips to hang puzzles from way back! âșïž
I'm a little sad the coupon will not work in Germany đ„ș
Great video, Karen, it will help so many people have more fun with their custom puzzles â€ïž
Oh and I do have an additional tip! If you're able to, brighten up your images at least a bit. In my experience with any kind of printing, the result tends to be a lot darker than expected (mostly because we're so used to seeing the pictures on a bright screen).
And yes, adorably cute baby pictures make great puzzles â€ïž
Great tip! I definitely found that some of my photos were a touch darker than I was expecting.
Iâve been wondering what to do for my puzzling sister and this is it!! Now to decide what theme/pics to chooseđ»
And you both are cute kids!
Good luck at nationals next week.
I made a Ravensburger custom puzzle for family. Taking a pic with lots of distinct areas, picking a pixel resolution that works for the puzzle size, and figuring out how many pieces were best for the desired difficulty were the big steps.
A search for "personalised photo jigsaw puzzle" will locate this service for viewers living in Europe.
My children gave me a puzzle of 2000 pieces with 7 blurry selfies on it. đ”âđ« On one picture everyone wears the same grey bandshirt. On another picture they wear the same shirt again.đ„Ž And there is no picture on the box! đŹNeedless to say that I put hours and hours in it without finishing. Next winter I will try it again!!!
Luckely my kids are as cute as Karen and Katie! đ
(Sorry for my bad English...đłđ±)
Oh no! That's what I'm hoping to prevent with this video!
Absolutely perfect English â€
oh gosh this looks fun! I want to do a collage of my cat! I'm worried about pixelation though. what a great gift
If you're doing a collage, I'm sure it'll be fine!
Thank you Karen!!! This is the PERFECT gift for my mom and it was so helpful with the guiding steps in the first half of the video. I will for sure be using your promo code so thank you to Ravensburger as well.
I love to hear that!
My parents are a nightmare because they defeat any hard puzzle quickly. This video is gold. Thank you. I need to make them something hard and also engaging. I just need to reverse your instructions about easeâŠâŠ
Family portrait. Everyone wears black. Taken at night, in a grassy field. xD
We were gifted a cute puzzle last spring of us sitting on a couch with our dog at our feet. Chipper died a few months later and the puzzle is such a good memory of him. Iâm thinking of creating a montage of Chipper photos in a puzzle. I like the idea of Ravensburger quality. Thanks, Karen, for creating this super fun video!
Very cute, and excellent tips! Next we need a custom Puzz3D featuring you and Katie Puzzles!
Speaking of holiday puzzle gifts, I have my advent calendar puzzles all packed up and ready to go based on the method you showed us last year! I just hope the recipients think the images and the wrapping are as cute as I do. đ
I think that my favorite photo of my beloved cat has a varied enough background that Iâm going to give it a try with a 500-piece puzzle. Iâve been thinking of using Shutterfly but Iâd much rather use Ravensburger. Thanks for the discount code, Karen. You are still CUTE! (Iâm a fan of the new Friday upload schedule.)
That cute little baby is the Cute Karen I follow today. What a great gift idea for me as a dissectologist to share with my grandchildren this Christmas.!
I just finished my first custom, 500 pieces, from Ravensburger! So worth it. It's a picture of my cat laying on a Ravensburger box while I work on a puzzle, lol. Yep, my cat is solid white. Yep, a large part of the background is black. But it turned out beautifully, with her white fur contrasted against the black. The box and in progress puzzle are part of it too, so it's not totally black and white, lol. I want to do one with my other cat now. Yep, she's solid white too.
the first photo kind of gives me the same vibe as pictures that come in frames when you buy them new.
Iâll take that as a compliment that I could have been a child stock photo model đ đ»
CUTE! Thank you for sharing - totally doing this!
What an awesome Christmas gift idea! And thanks a lot for all the tips and tricks on getting the best puzzle out of it!
I made the exact mistakes you are talking about. My husband and I got married last year and I love one on the pictures soo much I got it made into a 1000 poce puzzle.
It arrived in April and I have not finished it yet because 2/3 of the picture is trees. And at this point it's basically a solid color puzzle. I did the 1/3 that is not trees already and had a lot of fun. But the trees....
I still adore the picture and wanna get it finished. I already have all the remaining pieces sorted out by shape. But it's a LOT of pieces still left đ
What a great idea for a video. Very helpful and timely, especially the tip about the subject taking up most of the photo. Thank you Karen!
My sister and I got my mum a New York Times puzzle of the front page on her birth day, looked great! Pricey, but great quality.
Thank you! I'm always trying to think of a great Christmas gift for mom, and your idea will be loved! Great video, so cute.
CUTE! Scrolling through all my photos now.....
You do have such cute baby pictures! I have had a custom puzzle made once before with some pitfalls! The photo collage had everyone in the same outfits, so the textures the same were all over the photo, and they were pretty dark. GRATEFULLY, there was some lettering and border texture to help break into the puzzle and grid it out. Thank you so much for a coupon code (and for sponsoring, Ravensburger!!) -- we will be making a custom puzzle or two this holiday season thanks to your inspiration!!
Your channel is really fun for me. Not only do I get to watch you tackle interesting puzzles, but I also get to learn about some puzzle history and ways to make your own puzzles like in this episode. Keep up the great work.
This came in a PERFECT time, thank you!
I've never had a custom puzzle made. But my parents had a cute custom of calendar made of my niece, who is their 1st grandchild
The picture you chose for the 100 pieces puzzle is very good ! Not only were you cute as a baby, but the picture itself looks very professional. Perhaps it is the neat colour blocks and the framing/composition (there is just the right quantity of background foliage), I'm not an artist, but I couldn't help thinking it came from a catalogue. Maybe I watched Parks & Recreations too much, but I do think it would fit just right into a Parks and Recs catalogue. "Do you see how happy this child looks ? That's thanks to our brand new playgrounds !"
I have never ordered a custom puzzle, and probably never will (I don't have particularly pretty photographs, I'd rather buy ordinary puzzles with professionally chosen pictures), but the advice you give on your channel did help me when I tried to get back to puzzling.
I puzzled as a child, but kind of stopped as a teenager (maybe earlier), and thus never completed puzzles with more than 200-300 pieces. A few years ago, friends of mine who puzzle regularly offered me a 1000 pieces puzzle for my birthday, which I tried to complete, but it was just too hard (if anyone is curious, you can find the original image on Wikipedia, to illustrate the Santorini article, it is the "Sunset in the village of Oia" one, with the colours altered a little to make it easier). I kind of forgot about it, until CZcams suggested your channel a few months ago and I ended up watching a lot of your videos. It motivated me to try to get back to it, but more gradually. Thanks to your advice, I was able to pick a 1000 pieces puzzle with a much easier picture, and two 500 pieces with hard-ish pictures.
I'm glad Ravensburger puzzles are good quality because they really dominate the market here (along with Nathan Puzzles, which was acquired by Ravensburger a couple decades ago, so they have a different approach in terms of choices of pictures and tend to favour larger puzzles (1500, 2000, 3000 pieces), but they are probably identical in terms of manufacturing), it would have been harder to find another brand.
Your channel popped up in my CZcams feed. I have now, 1 week into your videos, ordered 7 puzzles from Bits and pieces, 8 puzzles from Buffalo, and 1 from Amazon/Colorworks brand. I fall into the addiction process with everything I do. Itâs a love/hate relationship with myself. đ đ€Šđ»ââïž I have a future plan to take a photo of my collection of sea glass, layering the different shades as gradient and add my shells, stones from the beach, sand, for a custom puzzle. Then I can pass my collection on and not have so much clutter in my house. đ Iâll still get to enjoy it. đ puzzle form.
Thatâs a cute puzzle and now I have a ton of gift ideas. Thanks for this.
I LOVE this idea, of creating a puzzle from your own personal photos! Now, I need to go through our photo albums. Thanks for sharing this idea â€
Ohh I kinda of want one. What a great ad for Ravensburger. The swing photo is a beautiful shot! Cute!
Very cute kids! But definitely 90s style outfits with those dresses & matching bow! What were our mothers thinking?! đ
Honestly Iâd still wear that green sweater set đ
I love how all of the puzzles are in portrait mode, even though your camera setup is optimised for landscape so you have to solve them turned 90 degrees đ
But I guess these pictures were just too cute not to choose ;)
lol I didnât even think about it until I was filming the video and realized what a bad move that was
I kept waiting for the finished puzzle to be turned....đą
I assumed that is was either a set up limitation or that the table wasnât wide enough ha ha ..... I was incorrect on both counts â€
I've been wanting a custom puzzle for a video game scene forever :0 was waiting for Ravensberger to re-open their custom orders ever since covid so this is great! The only worry is its resolution but hopefully I can find a way to upscale it.
update: it's here and it's beautiful :D
I ran the original picture through an online upscaler to get it around the right size for a 1000 piece. The DPI was lower than what the website recommended, but it went through without issues, and I think the matte printing helped with hiding any possible artifacts.
thank you so much for the vid and code again!
This is too sweet, I can't bare it! đ What a CUTE project!
New to your channel, Karen. You were a cute baby no doubt, and you still are today. My husband and I have been doing puzzles for a few months and love it. God bless you.
I did help out on a custom made puzzle of a scene from Norway, it had a third of solid blue sky without any clouds (that part was all mine too solve). The whole puzzle was 1500 pieces, I guess 450 was blue. It took me two and a half days. But I was so proud afterwards.
I am going to order one. I wish that it came with a printed guide inside or that the picture on the top of the box covered the entire box. Thank you for the tips and the coupon code! :)
Thanks so much for this wonderful idea. I just ordered two as gifts for Christmas.
got a photo puzzle from a friend. its her black dog in snow. no other colors đ
Too CUTE !!
Bummer that itâs only US! Such a great and cute gift idea đĄ- love from Australia x
Oh my lordy, I worked for Penney's/Lifetouch back in the day and that backdrop brought back SO many memories! When studios started shutting down the company let me keep a few of them. I'm pretty sure that one's in my storage unit somewhere. You're absolutely correct, this was VERY cute! đ
Love that! This was the only time my mom ever did a fun background instead of just a plain color đ
Iâm not able to see the background, what was it of? â€đđż
@@SecretSquirrelFun It appeared to be the 96-98 Christmas fireplace background from JC Penney's. Other options at the time were Christmas tree with presents and Christmas decorated snowy window.
How cute! What a fun puzzle gift idea. I ordered one just in time, but I haven't decided if I'm going to gift it or keep it for myself.
I would love to make a puzzle especially for my mom. Thank you for the tips cause I almost used a really challenging puzzle as a birthday gift for my mom. Cute.
"I was such a cute kid" and you're an adorable adult! đ
This is such a CUTE gift idea! Loved the video as always!
Cute idea for a Christmas present. Thanks!
Welcome back!!! I hope you enjoyed your vacation. đ
I've been back and posting videos for a few weeks already!
my best friend got me a custom puzzle of all of our best photos for christmas and i cried !! best present !
love itïŒsoooo lovelyïŒ
Nice! My husband bought me puzzle from them few years ago and it was very good quality but he picked photo opposite your recomendation - 2/3 of picture was blurred grass with leaves and trees :D :D but i love it and it was so fun! :)
They should use these puzzles as the San Diego speed puzzle competition puzzle.
thank you, I just got the perfect idea for a christmas present for my family!
Never had a custom puzzle made. Your choices were all great. You were a cute toddler, indeed. Something I would have to think about.
Such a cute idea!
So CUTE!!! Great tips, now I'm off to search for perfect pictures to order my own custom puzzles
Iâm watching this while puzzling my custom puzzle I made 2 years ago đ
Love that!
I am dying to tell you what a cute baby you were. Really glad Ravensburger sponsored this video. I had no idea they made custom puzzles - all the ones I've seen were printed at local souvenir shops and the quality is abysmal. A custom Ravensburger puzzle sounds like an awesome gift. You keep emphasizing "photopuzzles" so I wonder if non-photo images are an option. Personally I don't like photographs in puzzles. The background parts that are out of focus are difficult and annoying to me because my eyes already have trouble focusing. If there are crisp lines or consistent brush stroke textures, it's a lot nicer to put together. I would at least add a painting filter to photographs before submitting for print.
You could definitely get a puzzle made of your own artwork! Just probably not anything copyrighted, which is why they promote using your own family photos.
You and Katie were both so cute đ I love this idea for a Christmas gift!
Awesome, did this for my grandma she's almost 90, enjoyed doing puzzles. But I didn't do it with Ravensburger, probably next time.
So i went ahead and recreated Grandma a puzzle, 4 photos into one, since noticed with first puzzle made for her kept chipping color and then one piece lost a siding of it... Used your Code for her new puzzle, mixed of 3 Christmas times and 1 Thanksgiving photo of the entire family.
Haha, I love landscape puzzles :D I love Ravensburger panorama puzzles - special the ones from Iceland
Congratulations on the sponsorship! You deserve it!
Such a cute gift.
had a puzzle made for my parents for their wedding last year :) they did it during their honeymoon and framed it
I took into account your tips for a fun-to-do puzzle from an older video and made sure there were enough distinct colors and shapes and not too many areas of pure leaf or some other texture when choosing the image :]
đ„ș
How cute! đ
I loved this video. I've been wanting to do a custom puzzle for a while, but have been unsure of the quality as the ones I've found was at photo companies that are not necessarily good at puzzles.
And yes, you were a very cute child.
Watching you do the portrait-orientation puzzles sideways was really weird! I could never!
Hmmmm I never even knew custom photo puzzles were a thing!
It's something I've been wanting to feature on here for a while!
So cool that you can get a custom ravensburger! and you chose very cute pictures!
Not puzzle but diamond painting of my dog and I love it, it hangs in the corridor of my family home
Cute idea for a Christmas present
so cute Karen, i like your videos so much, because you are a very symphatetic person
Actually, yesterday I received my first personalized puzzle.
My junior students gave me a group photo of them. They are so CUTE, I almost cried (I cried).
Not a jigsaw puzzle but a diamond art painting. Which incidently can be used as a cross stitch chart because the drills are coloured using the DMC thread colours.
Wow, very cool!