Thread: Aged Family Dollar lanterns

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Here are 2 of the Family Dollar lanterns that I painted the other day....A really quick and easy project.



Also a little FYI: Wa-lmart has 6 pack led tea lights ($3.50) in their candle section but to me they are not as effective as the ones at Walgreens, which by the way are currently on sale for $4. If your project requires the faux flame to be seen I'd go with the Walgreens tea lights but if all you need is the flickering effect then the Wal-Mart lights should do.

I'll be using the Wal-Mart versions to light up my skulls atop my pillars this year.

Those look great!How'd you age them?

Spray painted with flat black, then hit random areas with a brick color. Sprayed the whole lantern with water and then hit the brick colored spots (and anywhere else I felt needed some rust) with a rust color over the water. Lastly I lightly sprayed the glass with the same rust color. All the spray paints were the cheap spray paint from Wal-Mart.

Thanks so simple.

Is family dollar the name of the store where you bought these lanterns? Ive been looking to find some electric lanterns just like this. I see them online everywhere, but battery operated, not electric. Even some really inexpensive ones I can modify would work...

Thanks
J

Great prop! Never thought about using tea lights in them.... Great idea! Thanks!

I waited out side Family Dollar for 30min this morning for it to open, saw signs that said "Halloween Headquarters" on all the windows. Finally went in and guess what.....no Halloween stuff except candy, but there were a few isles of Christmas stuff.
I asked the cashier about the lanterns and she says "We had some but we dont have any anymore"............

Originally Posted by jamesravenwood

Is family dollar the name of the store where you bought these lanterns? Ive been looking to find some electric lanterns just like this. I see them online everywhere, but battery operated, not electric. Even some really inexpensive ones I can modify would work...

Thanks
J

Yep, Family Dollar is the store's name, there's a thread on here somewhere that mentioned them. They were 3 or 4 bucks each but you have to snag them in the summer. Wal-mart has/had similar lanterns in their camping section but they are 10 bucks apiece.

There's also a thread that mentioned aging these and using the tea lights in them, it was not my concept, I was just showing off my results....don't want to take credit for someone else's original prop. Some have also converted these to AC instead of the battery tea lights.

I had the same idea. Got mine at an army surplus for $4. (The bottom can be opened with a can opener btw) I threw in a flicker flame bulb for effect but didn't think it was bright enough. Sure it looks like a candle flame but it doesn't throw enough light for the open grave I'm doing. Thinking of doing a florescent starter inline with a nightlight bulb.

I found that a good way of making it look like soot was to use chalkboard spraypaint. It's really coarse and flat sheen.

i have a whole bunch of laterns like these that run off batteries i need to find something to do with them