We swore it would never happen again. Never EVER would we put together another miniature library kit. Gentle people of the jury, I present exhibits A, B, and C as evidence. But then Katie found the most adorable Alice in Wonderland miniature puzzle kit at our local toy store, and she went right back down that rabbit hole. Was it an adventure in wonderland for Katie? Read on to find out!
Here we go again! Leave it to our friends at Princeton’s fabulous toy store, Jazams, to convince us to break the promise we made ourselves to NOT build another miniature library kit. To be fair, this Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland inspired diorama bookend is so cool, it was basically a forgone conclusion we would change our minds.
The Tonecheer Alice’s Adventure 3D Puzzle (HTQ128) is quite similar to the Sunshine Town book nook I tackled in 2023, though there are some differences that make this kit both faster and easier to build. It is available for purchase on Amazon for $42.99, the difficulty rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars and, like our other three kits, the age suggestion is 14+.
Upon opening the box, I found multiple precut wood plates with various sized pieces and parts that needed to be carefully popped out. There was an 11 x17 inch folded instruction sheet, the electronic lighting kit, and construction items to assist with the build (batteries not included).
The most important tool was the “Three-in-one Tool” wood piece, which was critical in saving my fingertips and, in some instances, my sanity as I was trying to push smaller pieces out of the plates as well as connecting bits and parts together.
One extremely nice touch to this kit is all of the pieces are ready to go right out of the box. Zero paint required. There are parts that need to be glued together, but even those are few and far between. Assisted by the handy “Three-in-one Tool,” I quickly put together the two levels of Alice’s adventure. The instructions were clear and very easy to understand. All told, it took about three hours to finish.
During the build, I had one struggle and made one mistake. The struggle was building the stump that surrounds the infamous rabbit hole where Alice falls. It took nearly ten attempts to connect the smallish pieces in a circle and then push the tabs of the round stump into the wood base. My once nimble fingers are clearly not as nimble.
My mistake was forgetting to tuck the light power cord behind two bars that connect the ceiling of Wonderland to the grassy ground. I completely missed the arrows and typed message alerting me to route the wires in a certain direction. Thankfully it was relatively easy to work backward, take sections apart and correct the error, but it was still a “duh!” moment.
There’s a lot to look at in the 3D Puzzle book nook! Alice herself is floating inside, along with the White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat. The mirrors at the back of the nook offer a deeper look to see all of the charming details.
As I mentioned, this kit is wired for lights, and it has a motion sensor to wow your friends as they walk by. The motion light illuminates for one minute before turning off, but the sensor is sensitive enough to quickly turn the light back on with gentle movement.
Has Alice surpassed the other builds as my favorite miniature library? No, I’m still enamored with the Sunshine Town cats! I will say Alice’s Adventure 3D Puzzle was the least tedious mini library build. It would also be much better for our younger crafters, though they may need an adult to help with installing the electronics. Another 4.5 out of 5 stars rating from me!
Our unicorn is the stick horse we designed for this 
Where there’s rubbish, disorganization, and debris, you will find a happy herd of piggies, ready to roll! The perfect indoor game to combat the winter blahs…it’s trash time!
First, the pig! Wrap a large oatmeal container in pink paper, then add a circle of pink paper to the lid as well. Next, cut a paper cup down to approximately 1.75″ and cover it with pink paper. This is your pig’s snout. Use extra paper for the ears, and a curl of paper (or corkscrewed craft stem) for a tail. Draw the eyes and nostrils on with markers. Finally, tape 3 paper towel rolls together to create the “steering stick” for your pig. You can color it with markers, or fancy it up with colored tape. You’re ready to race!
Time for the race! Scatter “rubbish” in a large area (we used plastic eggs, old film canisters, and toilet paper tubes because they rolled smoothly). Have all the contestants line up, standing behind their pigs with the steering stick. On the shout of “Go!” players push their pigs forward, zero in on a piece of rubbish, and push it across the finish line.
A less competitive version is to turn a table into the “goal,” and have kids roll the rubbish underneath it. When all the garbage is under the table, everyone wins!