new for us friday: homemade scratch-off tickets (fun stocking stuffers!)

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It’s been a busy few days–weeks!–with our December birthday and work and school and holiday festivities, but I’m totally over the moon excited to share something fun and completely new-for-me.

And on Christmas, when Maddy, Owen, and Cora open up their stockings, they’ll find something totally new-for-them: Homemade Scratch-off tickets!

These scratch-off tickets are filled with tons of fun activities that we can do as a family–kind of like the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day ticket books– but for the kids.

This is an especially easy, fun, and unusual New For Us Friday that I really think has a ton of potential–not only can these scratch-offs be used for holiday stockings, but they can be used for class parties, birthday party goodie-bags, fund-raisers, and just about anything.

I. Love. It.

I’m totally Scratch-off Ticket Happy.  I cannot wait to make more.

Here’s the skinny:

• Homemade Scratch-off Tickets: My crafty friend Karen found this idea on Pinterest, and the crazy and creative gal she is, she took the idea and ran with it.

our scratch-off workspace

She invited a few of our close buddies over for a night of gift-wrapping, wine-drinking, cookie-and-pizza-eating, and scratch-off-making.  And it was just what the doctor ordered for a few harried moms during holiday time.

magical scratch-off mixture: one part dish soap + two parts silver paint

Surprisingly, these Scratch-off tickets are totally easy to make.  All you need is some silver metallic (acrylic)  craft paint, some dish soap, clear contact paper, and craft paper or cardstock.

I asked my girlfriends for some ticket ideas, then I created some Scratch-off Tickets templates. 

Our ideas include:

• dinner of your choice
• breakfast date with Daddy
• dinner date with Mommy
• pick your seat at the table for one month
• pick your seat in the car for one month
• in charge of Family Game Night
• choose the night’s dessert
• visit park or playground of your choice

These Scratch-off Tickets can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Or, you can print out Blank Scratch-off Tickets and write in your own. Either way works!  And the kids will just be happy grabbing a coin, scratching it off, and finding the surprise inside!

Some of our scratch-offs, ready for painting. . .

. . . and some scratch-offs partially painted.

I printed out the Scratch-off Tickets and brought them to Karen’s.  She had everything we needed for a night of Scratch-off creating ready for us.

A few of my friends cut apart their tickets and mounted them on pretty holiday paper (I did not–I’m clearly one of the lazy crafters of our group–plus I was busy cutting apart the Family Memory Cards I’m making for my nieces and nephews. . . ).

We painted scratch-offs. . .

. . . and we painted more scratch-offs.

And after they glued the tickets to the fancy paper, all we did was place a small square of clear contact paper over the part of the ticket we wanted to cover.

The magical scratch-off mixture is simple: it’s one part dish soap and two parts metallic acrylic paint.  

We put about two coats of magical scratch-off paint on top of the clear contact paper, and we let it dry. That’s it! So fun and easy.

The finished scratch-offs look so pretty on fancy paper!

I’m going to try to find a shiny, new coin to throw in the bottom of stockings so the kids have something to use to scratch off their tickets.  Cannot wait!

One thing we noticed however, when we tried the scratch-off ourselves, was that the grey didn’t flake off like the scratch-off tickets we know.  Instead, this mix kind of moved to the side and got clumpy–but it was fine.   Maybe they were still not completely dry and they will flake away when the kids use them.  I personally don’t care all that much because they worked.

For those with super-nice houses, though, perhaps having a few paper towels or napkins close by may ease your nerves.  For those of you like me, whose houses are already a mess and in kid-mode, let the scratch-off fun begin, right there in the mess of holiday wrap, bows, and tissue paper.

 

And that’s it! Hopefully the kids will like this New For Us addition to their stockings.  I know that we’ll all love the time spent cashing them in, and it’ll be so interesting to see who ‘cashes’ their tickets in first and how the kids keep them safe.

Happy Scratch-off making!!

Many, many thanks to my pal Karen for this fun evening, for finding this activity, and for having everything ready for us to make Scratch-offs.  And huuuuge thanks to Summer, from More Designs Please, for sharing this homemade scratch-off idea on her awesome and beautiful blog.  Many thanks to Pinterest for bringing us all together!

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