Introducing the “Prismic: Dog Lantern” – the DIY project that will have you questioning your crafting abilities and laughing with your family! This mind-boggling puzzle magically transforms into a dazzling Make Your Own Dog 3D Light lantern with the help of some fancy USB-powered LED lights.
It’s the perfect craft for those awkward teenage years when you’re not quite sure what to do with yourself. And hey, who doesn’t love a little quality time bonding over the frustration of trying to put this thing together? It may take a few therapy sessions, I mean crafting sessions, but the end result is totally worth it.
Plus, it makes a great gift for those hard-to-buy-for teens in your life. Just wrap it up in the snazziest box you can find and watch their faces light up (literally). And don’t worry, it’s been tested for safety so you won’t be causing any accidental fires.
So gather the family, put on your thinking caps, and get ready for a hands-on experience that will leave you feeling like a crafting master… or at least a crafting survivor!
What about Make Your Own Dog 3D Light?
- DIY 3D lantern that transforms into a stunning light
- Uses USB-powered LED lights for a shimmery glow
- Best built together as a craft activity for older kids and parents
- Takes a few sessions to complete, but the final result is rewarding
- Makes a great gift for teens, comes in an attractive ready-to-gift box
- Includes all necessary materials and step-by-step instructions
- Provides hands-on experience for spatial awareness, fine motor skills, focus, and following instructions
- Fills tweens, teens, and adults with pride and confidence when completed
Amanda Dexter –
This light is a great way to introduce kids to crafting. The kit includes all the necessary components and instructions, making it easy to assemble. Kids will love building their own 3D light and creating something unique.
Marie –
This dog building kit is definitely a challenge. The instructions are lacking and you really need to watch the video on the page to get it built. I got this for my son but I ended up having to build it for him as it was too much for him. It is really pretty once done and serves as a great night light for his room. I like it as it’s something different and more unique.
Joseph Boy –
This was a fun craft for my kids and I to do together. Even though the instructions could be better, we were able to figure it out and complete the design. I think this would be great for older kids to do, it’ll be fun and challenging. The end result is worth it, it is now become my kids favorite night light. It has a nice beautiful glow and the dog shape lights is actually better than I expected.
Majesty Marmaduchess –
Super cute art project that is then a night light. The color of the plastic is super pretty. Very easy to put together.
My girls are thrilled!
Mark –
The instructions were not easy to understand and my 12 year old son now wants me to build it by myself. He had fun when he started and I told him to put it aside and try again later. I think it is better for older kids but will have him try again when he is less frustrated. The quality of the pieces are great and I can’t wait to see the finished project. I am sure it will be a great night light in his room. The lights on their own look great so i am sure they will be awesome when it is completely finished.
Mark –
Vraiment beau, exactement comme sur la boite . Vraiment gros. Un peu long à montrer, doit plier les morceaux et clipper ensemble. Un bon 4 à 5 hrs de patience mais en vaut la peine. Aussi gros que sur la photo de la boite.
Un cadeau idéal.
M. Adelsberger –
This 3d light comes packaged in a box that shows exactly what is inside of it. The light is easy to put together and set up. My daughter loved getting this for her 12th birthday. It is so pretty and is a great addition to her room.
Amazonian Man –
My daughter loves puzzles and diamond art sl I figured I would try and get her something I had never seen before as a unique Christmas gift.
The dog is absolutely the cutest thing, but it is completely daunting to attempt to get this thing together based on the provided written instructions. She is 14 and it was something we had to attempt together at first while she got the hang of it.
The pieces are flexible and the lights create a great little nightlight, but I wish it had better instructions/dire as this is such a unique craft.
Lyndsey –
Gave it as a gift for christmas and they loved it!
Miech –
The Prismic “Make Your Own Dog” 3D Light is an interesting combination of puzzle and craft that is both challenging and rewarding once complete. The kit includes everything one needs to construct the 3D structure as well as additional battery powered lights to make it glow.
The light is constructed in various steps, with each step assembling an individual component of the whole. For example, Step 1 constructs the left year while step 2 constructs the right. Once all pieces are assembled, they can be joined together to form the whole.
Each piece is constructed from a thin, flexible, yet sturdy plastic material with a pearlescent color that changes in the light. The plastic is transparent enough to allow the included lights to glow. The plastic pieces themselves are simple for an adult to bend along the creases, though a younger child would find the plastic difficult to bend. Each panel has a clear protective film on both sides that must first be removed before assembly. Each individual panel also has a number of holes punched which are pinned together using the included plastic rivets. The center of each hole, while punched fully, is still attached which leads to extra steps of clearing the hole and a bunch of little plastic discs going everywhere, it would have been nice to have these cleaned out before being packaged.
The directions could use some improvement and actually had a few typos which led to some confusion during assembly. As shown in my attached photos, each step of the process identifies a piece of the puzzle that needs to be folded and then pinned together. Identification of the piece is simple as the picture is clear and one must orient their piece the same direction as that of the diagram. The instructions then highlight each of creases in either blue or red indicating whether the crease should be bent towards or away from the user. Unfortunately, we identified a few spots where the colors were applied backwards (i.e. a crease should have been bent away but was instead instructed to be bent towards) leading to some confusion in assembly. Furthermore, once one begins folding and assembling one of the various pieces, that piece is no longer oriented as it was in the instructional diagram (due to the changing shape), so it can often be confusing. Green, numbered, arrows indicate which of the creases should be pinned to the other.
Overall, the product is rated 8+, but I honestly found it a bit difficult at times, requiring significant attention to detail and absolute adherence to directions. My 7-year-old was completely at a loss as to how to proceed and I myself found it a bit frustrating to assemble, something to keep in mind.
Joseph Boy –
Gave as a gift to a 12 yr old. Love it but it’s difficult to put together so be prepared to help.
Majesty Marmaduchess –
Had enough challenge and was very pretty once all put together!
Miech –
I do want to note that the box is marked ages 8+, and the manual suggests a build time of 1.5-2 hours. The info currently on the product page – 12+ and something around 6 hours – is far more realistic in my opinion. I put this together with my 13yo daughter and there were a few steps she wasn’t comfortable trying to do. It took us two sessions, the latter lasting 5 hours with some breaks.
That said – I picked this up because I’d been doing wooden 3d puzzle/models lately and thought this looked like an interesting variation. The build process is very different but in spirit its a similar kind of project. In this case, the pieces are pre-cut plastic panels that must be folded into shape and then connected with little pins.
I do have a few criticisms, but overall the build was fun and the finished light is cool, so I still consider it a solid 5 star product. Here are the things I’d like to see improved, though, in case any of these would be a show-stopper for someone else considering the purchase:
The instructions aren’t the most clear. To be fair, they offer video instructions (via QR codes you can scan), which we did not use; those may be better, but I generally expect to be able to work from the printed instructions. They alternate diagrams and photos to show how things fit together, but photos of abstractly-shaped translucent panels may not be the best choice. The diagrams use red and blue lines to indicate fold direction; this was a problem for my vision – my daughter did most of the folding because I couldn’t reliably distinguish the lines. There are a couple pages of general instructions and they’re worth reading before you start if you’re not already familiar with this line of models; but even those are a little vague in places. (The angle of each fold varies and you mostly just have to figure it out as you’re connecting things. They mention that sometimes not all connections are marked – but they say it’s easy to figure out the omitted ones – but also they mention that if anything doesn’t look like it lines up exactly, it’s probably not meant to connect and is used in a later step. That leaves a lot up to judgement.) In practice this might have slowed us down a little, and I’d like to see it improved – especially the low-vision issue – but we were still able to figure everything out, so it’s not terrible.
Sometimes you’re folding a small tab at the edge of a panel, and it’s very easy to bend the tab instead of making the desired fold. They do have some advice about folding technique that helps somewhat, but it’s not easy to be consistent and once you mess one up, it’s not easy to set it right. That said, the build really was very forgiving of mistakes, as the connecting pins tend to pull things into the correct positions. There was one time I was worried about the possibility of breaking a panel, but we never had that happen. Mostly what this all means is, your finished work may not look “factory precise”; but it still looks great and functions, and I guess the silver lining is that we know we have the unique product of our own work. Still, if I were to do it again, I might keep pliers on hand to help with those tiny folds.
I wish they had some kind of way to better distribute the lights within the lamp body. In particular, I’d like if there were some way to “catch” part of a light strand down in the dog’s legs, and up in its ears. What I found is, even with some effort to distribute the lights, handling of the lamp during the finishing steps tended to cause them to fall out of these spaces. Again, it still looks really cool – but in this way it could be even better.
Not so much a criticism as just for awareness – it takes power via a USB type A cable (the kind that plugs into the bigger ports you usually see on the front of a PC). If you have a spare charger, or – as in our case – a fixture with USB charging ports near where you want to put it, then it’s fine. But if you’re expecting to plug it into a wall outlet… you’ll need an adapter that’s not in the box.
So, that’s a lot of words for a handful of criticisms that, in the end, I didn’t feel warranted decreasing the rating. The finished light has a home on one of our end tables for now, and might move to my daughter’s room for a nightlight some time in the future.