Make a Glow Home lantern with your kids

Light the way!

Kids love to draw their family and home. Here’s a charming way to take those drawings and make something special: a little lantern in the shape of a house — their house. You put together the frame, and their drawings come alive as the walls. When it’s finished they’ll have a lovely warm reminder of where they live and how warm and safe it is.

Glow Home Craft Activity

You’ll find the eight simple steps below.

Download template

You will need:

glue
electric tea lights
scissors
12 popsicle sticks (4.5″)
orange card stock
print out templates
coloring pencils

How to make your Glow Home

Step 1

Right – you’ll be making this craft together, so we’ve helpfully color-coded the steps…

Grownups: The things you’ll be using are on the orange side. And you’ll need to print out the templates for the kids (so their drawings are the right size).

Kids: You take care of everything on the green side.

Step 2

Grownups: Take four of the popsicle sticks and glue them as shown, like a square capital A. Repeat.

Kids: Draw the four walls of your house on the printed templates. Include a front door on one wall, with your number. Add windows to the others and show what’s inside.

Step 3

Grownups: Glue the frames together into a box with the remaining popsicle sticks. (If your kids are too little for scissors, do their step as well.)

Kids: Cut out the walls, following the guidelines.

Step 4

The next three steps are for making a flat roof. If you want to make a fancier slanted roof, skip to step 7.

Grownups: Glue the walls together using the tabs. Trace the roof onto the orange card stock and cut it out. If you’re feeling extra crafty, go for a slanted roof (or let your imagination run wild).

Kids: Draw tiles on the rooftop like tiny fish scales.

Step 5

Grownups: Time to lay on that roof. Glue the tabs to the inside of the walls when you put it on top.

Kids: Place the house over the frame. It will be a cozy fit.

Step 6

Your house is ready! Place over an electric tealight and dim the lights.

If you want to also make a slanted roof, go to the next step.

Step 7

To make a slanted roof, trace the template onto the orange card stock. Then cut it out, and lay it flat before gluing.

Step 8

Glue the tabs and attach to the sides in the shape shown above. When dry, the roof will simply sit on top of your lamp. Fancy!

Your little Glow Home is now ready. You can use it as a nightlight, or put it somewhere everyone can see as a lovely reminder of the comfort and safety of home.