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May 7

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This post is still a work in progress.

Basic Red Chinese Lantern Photo Cube

Whether you make the basic Chinese Lantern or embellish yours with tassels or dragons, this photo cube is simple to put together and versatile. And if you don’t have any Chinese ancestors all you have to do is change the color scheme and embellishments and you can make this lovely “Mothers Day Tulip” shaped photo cube.

Photo of Female Ancestor Tulip Photo Cube

Simple lantern decorated with Dragon Heads, A Tassel and the Chinese Character for “Wong”.

Photo of Chinese Lantern template.

Drop your favorite photos into the Chinese Lantern Template in your preferred photo manipulation program. If you don’t have a photo manipulation program you can print the FREE PRINTABLE (link below) as is, cut out the squares for the photos, print the photos separately and tape them behind the template. (Example Below). Use photos of all the same person or multiple generations. For this lantern I hand colored photos of all the same person at different ages, in Photoshop. I also put the Character for “Wong” above each picture, and the characters for his first and generational name below the photos. I also replaced the bright red background from the Free Printable with an acrylic dirty pour that I made using Red and gold and black acrylic paint. I had the Chinese Lantern art printed at a commercial printer on Luster Photo Paper. Gloss ends up with hard to remove fingerprints. I also printed several on 50lb coated paper on a laser printer at home and the results were quite pleasing

For Bright Red Chinese Lantern template CLICK HERE

For Dirty Pour Chinese Lantern template CLICK HERE

For Tulip Lantern template CLICK HERE

I would recommend printing several copies at home on your printer if you have one to practice your cutting and folding.

Cut out the Chinese Lantern Template.

Fold each section of the Chinese Lantern template and press crisply.

Repeat the folding process at the bottom of the photos and press crisply.

Lay on the table and press firmly with your finger.

Gently flatten the Chinese Lantern Template.

Photo of folding all of the Vertical lines of the template.

Fold all of the Vertical lines of the template.

Photo of pinching the vertical lines crisply.

Pinch the vertical lines crisply.

Photo of folding and pressing crisply all of the glue tabs.

Fold each of the glue tabs.

Photo of folding and pinching the template crisply.

It is important that the fold is pinched crisply.

Use double sided tape on all of the glue tabs and the side tab. It is important that the tape cover the entire tab. Either use glue tape which I found worked best or hot glue. Trying to use contact cement was frustrating (for me) and it was next to impossible to hold position while regular craft glue set up.