The Funeral.com Journal

Resources to help you create tributes as unique as the people (and pets) you love. Learn how engraving, photos, colors, and symbols add meaning; discover scattering rituals and at-home memorial ideas. We focus on the details that matter—because small choices can carry a lifetime of comfort.

57 Meaningful Things to Do With Cremation Ashes: Ideas Beyond an Urn

57 Meaningful Things to Do With Cremation Ashes: Ideas Beyond an Urn

After cremation, many families describe a strange quiet: the logistics are “done,” but the heart still wants somewhere for love to go. If you’re searching for things to do with...

Creative Uses for Cremation Ashes: Memorial Jewelry, Art, Plantings, and Modern Keepsakes

Creative Uses for Cremation Ashes: Memorial Jewelry, Art, Plantings, and Modern Keepsakes

After cremation, families often expect a clear “next step.” Instead, you may be holding a temporary container and realizing the logistics are finished while your heart is still looking for...

57+ Meaningful Things to Do With Cremation Ashes: Keepsakes, Scattering, Burial, and Memorial Ideas

57+ Meaningful Things to Do With Cremation Ashes: Keepsakes, Scattering, Burial, and Memorial Ideas

After cremation, many families experience a quiet pause that feels strangely hard to name. The big decisions may already be done, and yet the question of what to do with...

Memorial Keepsakes Made From Ashes: Jewelry, Glass Art, Diamonds, and 50+ Urn Alternatives

Memorial Keepsakes Made From Ashes: Jewelry, Glass Art, Diamonds, and 50+ Urn Alternatives

If you have cremated remains in your care and you do not want a traditional urn on the mantle, you are not being “less sentimental.” You are trying to make...

Photo Displays and Memory Tables: What Works

Photo Displays and Memory Tables: What Works

A photo display and a thoughtfully arranged memory table can do something that words alone often cannot: it gives people a place to land. At a visitation, a celebration of...

Keepsake Jewelry Gift Etiquette: When It’s Appropriate

Keepsake Jewelry Gift Etiquette: When It’s Appropriate

There is a particular kind of love that shows up in grief: the quiet urge to do something tangible when words feel thin. You want the person you care about...

Keepsake Urns vs Scattering Tubes vs Jewelry: What’s Best?

Keepsake Urns vs Scattering Tubes vs Jewelry: What’s Best?

After cremation, families often expect the “next step” to feel obvious. Instead, it can feel surprisingly personal—and surprisingly practical. Someone may want a steady memorial at home. Someone else may...

Keepsake Sets: When They’re Worth It

Keepsake Sets: When They’re Worth It

There’s a specific kind of moment that makes people search for a keepsake urn set. The cremation has happened. The calls have slowed down. And then the reality of having...

Mailing Keepsakes to Relatives: Safer Ways to Do It

Mailing Keepsakes to Relatives: Safer Ways to Do It

There are a few moments in grief that feel deceptively small, but weigh a lot. Putting a portion of someone’s ashes into a box, taping it closed, and trusting the...

How to Fill a Keepsake Urn Without Making a Mess

How to Fill a Keepsake Urn Without Making a Mess

If you’re searching how to fill a keepsake urn, you’re probably not looking for a “perfect” method—you’re looking for a calm one. This is one of those tasks that sounds...

How Much Ash Goes in a Keepsake Urn

How Much Ash Goes in a Keepsake Urn

The question usually arrives in a very human way. A family is holding a temporary container, or looking at options online, and they realize that the urn decision is not...

Fur Clippings as Keepsakes: How to Store Them Safely (Moisture, Odor, and Long-Term Preservation)

Fur Clippings as Keepsakes: How to Store Them Safely (Moisture, Odor, and Long-Term Preservation)

Sometimes the most powerful memorial isn’t complicated. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and ordinary enough that you almost feel surprised by how much it...

Resin Keepsakes With Ashes: DIY Options, Safety Precautions, and Mistakes to Avoid

Resin Keepsakes With Ashes: DIY Options, Safety Precautions, and Mistakes to Avoid

There is a particular kind of quiet that settles in after cremation. The appointments have happened. The paperwork is done. The container is on the table, and suddenly the question...

Keepsake Urns: Why Families Buy Multiple (and How to Decide How Many You Need)

Keepsake Urns: Why Families Buy Multiple (and How to Decide How Many You Need)

After a cremation, families often expect the hardest decisions to be behind them. Then the ashes arrive—sometimes in a temporary container, sometimes in a simple urn—and a new question appears:...

Keeping Ashes at Home: A Practical Safety Guide

Keeping Ashes at Home: A Practical Safety Guide

After a cremation, there’s often a moment when the “busy” part of loss fades—the calls slow down, the paperwork gets filed, and life returns in small, uneven steps. Then you...

What to Do With the Remaining Ashes After a Partial Scatter

What to Do With the Remaining Ashes After a Partial Scatter

A partial scatter is one of the most common ways families try to balance meaning and practicality. You get to honor a place that mattered—an overlook, a beach at sunrise,...