Yup

Happy Valentine's Day! And what a great one it's been. Since the day is now mostly over, and all of my gift-giving has occurred, I can now reveal the uncensored photos of the gift I made for L. This year, I decided that I wanted to stray away from traditional, store-bought gifts (mostly) and stick with something that was a little more unique. I came up with the idea of making a set of lottery-esque scratch-off tickets for L, each with a different "prize" that had some significance to him.

Among the prizes on the tickets that I created are things like "movie night - your pick," "I'm doing the dishes tonight," and "breakfast in bed." The fun part is that he doesn't get to scratch off the ticket to reveal his prize until he redeems it, so he won't know what he's getting until he's chosen to use it (and neither will I!). But since it was Valentine's Day, I made one ticket that had a special prize on it - a Blu-ray of his favorite show that I pre-ordered for him - so that he'd have something to scratch off right away. Even though Valentine's Day is now nearly over, these would make a great gift for almost any occasion ... birthday, anniversary, just because. And let me tell you, the whole scratch-off thing is a real crowd-pleaser ... L got such a kick out of it!

Lottery of Love Tickets with Printables

Supplies

• Kraft cardstock
• Printable lottery ticket template
• Clear Contact Paper
• Metallic paint (I used gold, but you can use any color you like)
• Liquid dish soap
• Paintbrush
• Scissors
• 1-1/4" circle punch (optional)
• Glue (optional - see notes below)
• Pen

Mix two parts of metallic paint with one part liquid dish soap, and paint a thin, even layer onto your Contact Paper. Allow to dry and repeat, until the paint is solid and opaque (I used three layers, but your results may vary). Set aside. Print the template onto a piece of letter-sized kraft cardstock (8-1/2" x 11"). Use scissors to cut the the tickets out. Write your prizes onto the tickets. Punch or cut a 1-1/4" circle out of the Contact Paper. Peel off the backing, then stick to the ticket over the circle where the prize is written. Note: I had a few of the scratch-off layers start to loosen around the edges while I was peeling off the backing. If this happens to you, add a tiny drop of glue to the clear layer and stick the paint back down. It holds up perfectly and looks great as long as you smooth it out after you stick the paint layer down.