Update: I’ve officially become Freshly Pressed! Yay! 🙂
Ever look at a scratch-off lotto ticket and think, “I wonder how they did that?” Well, you can create your own scratch-off cards in minutes! Use this technique to create save-the-date wedding invites, coupon scratch-offs for businesses or holidays, or hide a secret message!
To make your own scratch-offs, you will need:
Something you want to turn into a scratch-off
Clear packing tape or contact paper
Acrylic craft paint in any color (metallic makes it more realistic)
Scissors
Paint brush
Dish soap
Hairdryer (optional)
1. Create your card, or get your card ready if it’s already made. For this project, I am creating my own Florida Trivia scratch-offs, which I made using the GIMP photo editor. To reveal the answer of the Florida Trivia questions, someone will have to scratch it off. 😉 I created 4 different question cards and then printed them out on colored paper. Since you need the paper to be somewhat sturdy, I cut around my printed cards and pasted them onto a stiffer paper for support. To make them a bit fancy, I cut the edges with decorative scissors.
2. Use your regular scissors and cut a peice of clear packing tape or contact paper, the size you need to cover up the words you want to scratch off, and then place it on the card, sticky side down.
*Tip: If you use contact paper instead, you can paint the contact paper first, then cut out shapes and stick them over your text.
3. Then, mix 2 parts paint with one part dish soap. Using your paintbrush, paint a thin layer of this mixture over the packing tape. I used a hairdryer on a high heat setting to help dry the paint. You need to make sure the layer is completely dry before painting the next layer. It will take about 4-5 layers to hide your text, unless your text is fairly small. So you will follow this order: paint, dry, paint, dry, paint, dry, etc. until your text is covered. (I know mine looks a little messy, but it is just a demonstration for this DIY!)
*Tip: To know if it is completely dry, it should feel just like dry paint. If it has a soapy feeling, or if you can leave a fingerprint on the paint when you touch it, it is not dry enough.
4. After it’s dry, you are done! How easy was that? Now, just grab a coin and scratch away!
This is SOOOO cool!!! Nice work!
So easy! I will use this one! And congrats on being FP! 🙂
Love this idea! Cool
Thank you for sharing ,i like nice post
i shall have to try this. was going to make some business cards with this type of interactive feature (and was looking at special types of ink to create this effect). thanks for making my job cheaper 🙂
Just don’t accidentally make ones that pay out money and then give them to your friends, that was a big mistake 😉
Yay! What a fun idea. This will make it onto my crafting to-do list. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
Scratch-off cards are so addicting.
So much fun! Thanks for posting this. I can imagine a bunch of different uses – especially for fund raising events…. brain is working! 🙂
Apparently the new Canadian $100 bill has a scratch-and-sniff feature that smells like “maple”! Wonder if they were inspired by your blog post! 😉
How fun! I’m passing this along to a friend with a wedding coming up, she’ll love it!
Get out! I gotta try this!
This is a great DIY! Thanks for sharing!
What a great idea! I can think of a LOT of ways to use this!
Reblogged this on thenewqueenofpromise and commented:
Haha, so cool. I can see how I could use these as hints for a party game… or a gift!
I love that idea….consider it officially pinched 😉
Great idea, and congrats on being freshly pressed.
Great idea! Thank you for sharing. I checked out your other tutorials too. Some nice idea. Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!!
Nice! Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed! 🙂
This looks like so much fun! For my next get together I’m going to make these! I love arts and crafts 😛
Katie
http://katieraspberry.wordpress.com/
K
Let me know how it turns out! 🙂
I have to do this for my students! They love this stuff. Thanks for sharing!
http://stepstochangetheworld.wordpress.com/
Fantastic! wow! I need this! 😀
This was very creative and so much fun to do and you can think of so many ideas that this could be used for weddings or birthdays. Thanks a lot with comming up with this and posting. Loved it!
Greetings from http://www.dressupforme.wordpress.com
Brilliant! To make it look more professional, you could cut a rectangle out of a cardboard and use it as a stencil while painting over the text. In fact, the stencil shape (and text area) could be a circle, a heart, or any other interesting shape.
These are too cute…
That is so cool! I am totally gonna try it! Thanks for the idea!
lovablekitties.wordpress.com
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Great idea! Thanks for sharing this post, and congrats on getting freshly pressed!
Thank you! 🙂
Reblogged this on heyitsgrace.
Nice Article
I would love to make some of these for a party.
That is very neat! My mom is addicted to scratch offs (I hate them) and loves to receive them for her birthday – I will have to do this and surprise with her with an extra special gift. It will be a lot of fun! Thanks.
I love it!!! How have I never thought of this before?!? I think I might do this at a shower. Thanks!
Very cool! Congrats on Freshly Pressed!
Thanks! 🙂
What a great idea! We have a road trip coming up- this would be a terrific game to use on the way home.
Brilliant idea :> This is good for mystery games 🙂
As easy as one-two-three. It is a novel idea and your explanation for how to make it happen is classic. Thanks.
Love to try this one. It’s very cool. I like guessing game.
So clever!
This is extremely cool! I’m totally going to use this. 🙂
This is so cool. If you have a video please post it on http://www.NewVideos.com I will use this for my kids next party
Reblogged this on cathrynicious and commented:
DIY Scratch-Off Cards
congratulations on being FP!
Wooooow! Very simple but we never think before..This is creativity.
Creativity means every body feeling something and only one can do this. This one is you. Very simple.Like the useful,interesting idea……
Such a good idea for a game night or something. Nice job!
Im gonna give it a go. Thanks
thank you for sharing this!!!
Oh wow. Best DIY post I’ve seen so far!
This is very useful. I am going to do it if I have some surprises to reveal. And oh, I want it in different colors! 🙂
Very cool… I will be filing this one away for a future project. Have you tried putting “scratch here” on top of the paint using Lettraset decals?
Reblogged this on rustyblue85 and commented:
This is an amazing idea!!! I’ve got to try this for something… Now frantically thinking what for…
Reblogged this on Kenrick's notes and commented:
Cool!
Oh man my friends that are addicted to lottery tickets would love this! I’ll start giving them scratch-off birthday cards with fake prizes!
Thank you for this, amazing!
I think this would be a great way to resign from a job. “Guess who’s quitting…” *scratch off* “It’s me, mullafuggas!” Or I guess you could use them to fire a bunch of people too – probably how Romney does it. Formal, yet interactive for our simpleton monkey minds, plus we get coins! 😀
My wife is an elementary school teacher and she could totally use this for test question trivia games.
I think I might try these for a baby shower game. Thanks for posting and congrats on being FP!
Can’t wait to try it!!! Cool.
What a wonderful idea with so many uses, I bet they’d work well on a Hens night out 🙂
So cool! My brain is racing thinking of all the things I can make into scratch-offs. This will be fun. 🙂
I used to make my own lotto ticket to play with. I think it involved wax crayons. Kudos for FP today!
Very cool! How did you come up with this? I look forward to seeing some of your other ideas!
Wow! So cool. Where did you get the idea? Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
Nice! Wedding invitations, eh? Maybe party invites too? How about a scratch-off business card? Me likes! Kudos on getting Pressed like Freshly scratched winning lottery tickets!
I love it!
I of course love that the cards are Florida trivia, wooo hooo! Great idea!
Well, I love my state!
Very cool!! I will have to give this a try.
Hey, it’s cool. I think I can use this as an art project in my class (consider it as a request of permission ;))
Congrats for being in freshly pressed.
Reblogged this on My PIDP Corner and commented:
sweet….Never new it was done like this…Gonna use it my classroom, thanks 🙂
instead use that plasticized goop used to coat tool handles. available at fine hardware stores everywhere
no excessive manual labor required
Else employ an Aztec code: QR is gay
That is a great idea. Passing it on to one of my grand daughters. She will love it.
This is pretty awesome! Never knew it was this easy. Makes perfect sense though. I’m now very glad I checked Freshly Pressed =D
Can’t wait to try this!!!
Awesome gives me ideas to do for the kids!
Reblogged this on Pencils and Fountain pens.
That’s awesome!
These are so cute !!! Great idea 🙂
So cool, what a cute idea!
What a great idea, so many uses for so many things. I can think of many things that I will want to use this for.
Great idea! Will have to give this a go, thanks.
Never thought it was as simple as this!
That is just too cool. Next time my friends and I have a craft sale or event, we can give out scratch off tickets with discounts or something on them. Epic! Thanks for sharing!!
Goodmorning! Great post, I was looking for something like this!!! Thanks so much!!
Wow, nice work. I’m going to try to make this; for my children – they will surely love this. Congrats on making this post to freshly pressed. 😀
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I hope once in a life time every blogger gets freshly pressed
Thanks for the idea! I might use it for my wedding.
SO GREAT! the possibilities are endless! Very nice.
awesome – the next logical step I suppose is to try and include some sort of scratch ‘n’ sniff element… not quite sure how you’d get Sellotape to hold a smell though?
maybe the guys at @SellotapeUK could help?
I think if you added an essential oil to the soap/paint mixture it would have a smell.
I am going to have so much fun with this, you have no idea. Thanks!
These are great for doing small amounts of scratch off cards. If you are doing a lot you may find that scratch off stickers work a bit faster:)