Puzzles and games have always been a thing in our house. Canasta, scrabble, words with friends, connect four, Cranium, Tripoli, Cribbage, memory, and Pictionary are a few of our faves. Although no one will play Pictionary with my sister and I because we’re kind of awesome and perhaps a tad obnoxious and a lot competitive! I’ll play any game that does not involve singing, and that is only because I would big time lose, and what fun is that? (Humdingers in Cranium are as close to singing as I’ll get to singing, and still there is an 80% chance I either will not know the song or have no idea how to hum the tune!) My youngest brother, Steven, taught himself the Rubrics cube a few years ago (with the help of youtube videos), and I know he would enjoy this DIY puzzle cube…
Here’s what you need to make a 3D puzzle cube:
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wood glue
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q-tips
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paint
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wooden cubes
The best deal on craft cubes I’ve found is at Hobby Lobby. Each pack has 72 individual cubes, each 3×3 cube needs 27 individual cubes. (insert nerd voice) According to my calculations, if you bought 3 packs (72 x 3= 216 and 216/27=8) you could make 8 cubes! A few more calculations tell us that each 3 x 3 cube costs only $1.12 a piece to make.
Here’s what I did to make my cube puzzle…
Let me explain:
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Step 1: Count out 27 cubes
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Step 2: Build your 3×3 cube so you have something visual to work with…
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Step 3: Use a q-tip to carefully start gluing your cubes together. It gets kind of tricky.
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Step 4: A few times I glued only 2 cubes together so I could keep the 3×3 cube shape, and better see what I’m working with.
Here are my 5 puzzle pieces (picture them not yet painted)…
Now, it’s time to paint… I picked an Americano theme only because those are the Plaid paints I had on hand 🙂 I don’t suggest painting with q-tips… I tried since the Q-tips were out and I didn’t want to dirty a paint brush… trust me on this one, it’s not worth it 🙂 Not to mention why I tried to paint and glue on a magazine, another dumb move… I could have at least opened the magazine up for more surface area!
I used sand paper after the cubes dried because a few pieces were clumpy. I like how it turned out. Take a few pictures like the ones below so that you can remember how the pieces go back together!
I think it might also be fun to give someone all the materials to make this little craft! Are you a puzzle person? Do you think someone in your life would enjoy this toy? I think this would make a great stocking stuffer too.
Comments & Reviews
What a neat gift idea for anyone who loves puzzles.Thanks for linking up on #HomeMattersParty. Hope to see you again next weekend.
I absolutely love this! Thanks for sharing it with us. Pinned and tweeted. I hope to see you tonight at 7 pm. We can’t wait to party with you! Lou Lou Girls
Great idea and I loved the step by step how to! Thank you for partying with us at the Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop!
This is very complex yet crafty! Good idea!
Thanks for sharing at #SmallVictoriesSundayLinkup ! I pinned your post to the group board Small Victories Sunday.
So fascinating! Those puzzle cubes are one of those things I could never work out, but seeing how you can make your own is pretty cool!
Love this idea, would be a great gift for someone who loves puzzles.
cool idea! cheers!
Thank you! I’m getting ready to make four of these later today, thanks to this post. But the cubes were more expensive at my Hobby Lobby; they don’t seem to carry larger bags like you got. Not a complaint — just putting it out there for anyone else considering it, so they can plan properly. I think mine were closer to $4 each. But still worth it (and would’ve been cheaper if I’d made them far enough in advance to wait for the wood stuff to go on sale!)
I think this is brilliant! This keeps those kids thinking. Thank you.
This is such a great gift idea! I’ll be featuring it on The Crafty Crow!
Here is my mini tutorial on how to make your own cubes out of 3 strips of paper. It is a wonderful thing to know! I have made these puzzle cubes out of paper cubes. I should also make tutorials for other forms that you can make: A larger cube puzzle with holes through the middles. A ‘flip’ cube that folds and unfolds. Gotta do that!
Lynette, I would have never gotten it back together if I hadn't of taken so many pics! You could always let the gift recepeient paint it 🙂
ok I just did it! It took me longer to figure out how to put it together after I finished than it did to make it! Thanks for the pictures, or I would have never gotten it together right! 🙂 I was going to paint mine, but I may leave unfinished in the interest of time.
That looks so fun and the price cannot be beat! You are right, it is the perfect stocking stuffer. I am new FB follower visiting from Sugar Bee Crafts. Vicky from Mess For Less
Really cool!
My husband would love this! I am pinning it, and maybe if I'm lucky I could make this before Christmas. 🙂
My Grandparents used to have one of these and it was the "favorite toy" I will definitly be making some of these soon!
great idea
This is such a great idea!! My grandma had something similar made out of plastic and I would play with it for hours…I think one of these might end up in my husband's Christmas stocking. 🙂
It was called SOMA. I had the same puzzle. I would keep the pieces all the the same color, like the original.
That's really cool! I taught myself the Rubix cube 2 years ago (via YouTube lessons too)…I figured if my 14 year old students could do it than I could too.
And I agree, Tetris is awesome!
We made these in our middle school technology class (wrongfully named because we only made things out of wood. lol)
Felicia, pictures would be cute! Also, to make it easier, you could put dots or X's on all of the outside squares…!
I think it would be cute to do pictures on each side too! Very cute, will have to keep an eye out for blocks!
Mandanya Rafa, I would like to tell you I'm just a genius 🙂 But all of my crafts are inspired by something… a student I teach at school has one of these…and I thought, "hey, I could make that!"and so I tried! and Nancy, it so reminds me of tetris too… LOVE that game!
So very cool! What a fantastic idea!
I wonder how you always come up with those wonderful ideas…
this one if ridiculously easy, but genius nonetheless..
This is such a great idea. With the different colors it makes me think of a game I love…Tetris! This will be going in my son's stocking!
Ok thats way cool! I love puzzles and I already have these little blocks on hand! I thought they would make a cool project, just hadnt figured out what that project would be.. well until now! 🙂
This is a great idea! Thank you for sharing the how-to!!!