We have been making 3D Puzzle Baubles today as a part of the Ravensburger Puzzle club. We were sent three of the 3D Christmas Puzzle balls and it was an ideal after school activity to do with Mr Z.

ravensburger

The puzzle balls are marked as age 7+ (7-99!) but I found that Mr Z was fine with it, although we did do it together so he had some support from me.

We had never tried a 3d puzzle ball before although the boys all enjoy regular puzzles. I was actually quite intrigued to see how it would work as I always wondered how the 3D puzzles go together and keep their shape!

The process was a little different than with a regular puzzle, as you need to find the correct numbers and start from 1 and work your way up. Mr Z loves numbers so that kept him very happy, and he straight away put himself in charge of finding all the correct numbers which we would be needing next, and needing soon. There are arrows on the the back of the pieces along with the number, to give you guidance of how to place the next piece in and this was all easy enough to follow.

The pieces are all quite thick and strong, so we found that once you have about 3 pieces in you can see the ball starting to shape up already.  There are 54 pieces in each puzzle and it did not take too long to make the puzzle, but its not over in a few minutes either! The pictures on each of our Christmas puzzle balls are different, featuring scenes of Christmas trees, snowy houses and santa and his sleigh. They all have a traditional look to them and remind me of the kind of pictures you would see on traditional Christmas cards in very festive reds and greens.

ravensburger christmas 3d puzzle ball

There is a stand included if you wish to have the puzzle ball as an ornament or a string if you wish to turn it into a bauble or hanging decoration. Once the puzzle ball is made it stays in place well – I did wonder how fragile it would be but it is not really fragile at all it can handle being touched by the kids.

Mr Z and I enjoyed making these and I will definitely look for more 3D puzzle balls in the future for us to do together, or once Mr Z gets slightly older for him to do by himself if he wants. They make a change from flat puzzles and are pretty cool. The added bonus with these of creating a usable Christmas decoration is also a very handy idea!