Scratch-off Tickets

You know those lottery tickets that you scratch off to see how much you win?  I made some!  I saw a tutorial online, I forget where, but the instructions seemed really complicated and involved supplies I don't keep on hand.  But the concept was so simple!

Here's what I did - I used Word to design the tickets.  I wanted to make six tickets, so I made a table with six cells, dragged the bottom of the table to the bottom of the page and used the row distribution tool to make the cells all the same size.  I added text and a heart, then put a small box inside the heart.  The small box contains the text for the prize and is the part I wanted to cover with the scratch off goop. 

Yes, that's the technical term.

I printed the page and cut the cells apart.  To give them some rigidity and color, I cut a sheet of red cardstock and used a glue stick to mount the paper to the cardstock. 

I needed a way to keep the silver goop from sticking to the paper, so I cut a small square (about an inch and a half square) of packing tape and centered it over my design.

The silver goop?  Acrylic paint mixed with dishsoap!  Brilliant!  On a small plate I mixed two parts metallic silver paint with one part Dawn original (what I happened to have on hand - I would think that any dishsoap would work).  Mix gently, you don't want bubbles. 

Then I simply painted that mix onto my cards.  I tried painting it on really smooth and nice, but it's so thin that I'd have needed way more coats than I have patience for, so I kinda glopped it on and smeared it around with the tip of the paintbrush.  After it dried for about 20 minutes I gave the paint a touch up wherever I could see the text, then I let them dry completely. 

I used silver to give them a traditional look, but I could see these in all kinds of color combos - Red and green, silver and blue, orange and black, party colors, etc...  The possibilities are limitless!