Make A Photo Memory Lantern

During the holidays we miss our family and friends who are far and can’t be with us, and family who have passed away.  You can create a photo memory lantern that lights up in honor of those who have passed, as well as other ideas to honor those we miss.

A few years ago we lost our “first baby”, our Siberian Husky. She was an amazing dog and we were blessed to have her for 15 1/2 years. Our family wanted to do something to honor her so we decided to do a couple projects. This first one was a memorial lantern.

I had a lantern from Ikea that I used. We spent time picking out some of our favorite photos of her over the years. I was only going to use one per window, but we couldn’t just pick one. I decided to use real printed photos as I wanted the pictures to be strong. I have used Vellum paper before and it is more transparent but the photos are a little harder to see by day.

We put the pictures on all 4 sides on the inside of the lantern.

I taped the double pictures together and there were tabs on the inside that I slid the photos into.

I bought a timer pillar candle from World Market – you turn it on at a certain time, it stays on for 5 hours, off for 19 hours, and then automatically turns back on.

Here it is lit up.

This is another memory shadow box we made in honor of her. It is actually an art frame that has a front door on it that you can open and put different art in. We bought it on Walmart.com. We put a paw print we had made in it, her collar, and one of our favorite pictures.

We miss her very much. We love having this light up lantern and when we see it we think of her and talk about all our great memories with her.

I made one of these for my mom and dad of my grandparents – one side is of their wedding pictures, and the other side is a picture of them later in life after celebrating many years of marriage together.  I’ll have to get a picture so I can add it for all of you to see.