A vertical wall-mounted cardboard box gravity maze mounts an intricate network of enclosed cardboard tunnels, peephole viewing ports, and angled ramps onto a large, flat cardboard backing sheet hung against a wall or door. This design uses full, cylindrical paper towel tubes interspersed with rectangular peepholes that allow children to track the marble’s hidden progress through the system. The solid backing sheet protects wall paint from glue and scuffs while providing a rigid canvas for drawing colorful cartoon arrows, scoring targets, and runway numbers. Mounting the entire maze onto a portable backing board makes it easy to move between bedrooms, playrooms, and classroom chalkboards.
To create this vertical maze, flatten a large cardboard shipping box to create a sturdy two-foot by three-foot backboard, painting the front face with bright poster paints or drawing playful road grid lines. Plan your path from top to bottom, sketching light pencil guidelines for your tube segments. Join two paper towel tubes into a long upper runway by securing the seam with colorful duct tape. Cut one-inch rectangular viewing windows into the front faces of the tubes at four-inch intervals so the rolling marble remains visible inside. Fasten the tubes along your sketched guidelines using low-temperature hot glue or heavy-duty masking tape, angling each run downward toward an intersecting drop hole cut into the next level. Install a paper cup landing basket at the bottom, and secure the backboard to a door using damage-free removable adhesive strips.