I’ve been waiting a long time to find a reason to try making scratch off stuff. This is the original post where I found out you can make the scratch off stuff yourself but I didn’t want to make an advent calendar for no reason.
But then one of my groups of friends wanted to do Secret Santa and the person I got had quite an extensive list of things on their wishlist, which included “lotto tix so I can become rich hahaha”. I bought her a scratch card*, but figured I finally had an excuse to try this scratch stuff.
(* Note: I actually bought her two scratch cards, but I’m almost 23 and have never bought any sort of lottery thing. So, err, I just… took one. And I lost. Duh. … EXCEPT THAT SHE WON $20 WITH THE ONE I GAVE HER.)
Incredibly sophisticated, I know. I didn’t actually make a winning card because I had no idea how to give her a gift (aside from tossing it at her), only in the case she scratched the cards in front of me (which I wasn’t anticipating, but which is what she did). I’m really good at making scratch cards (look at how the white lines of the borders just line up! I did that freehand. SKILLS.), but I’m also really bad as in I make losing cards and give terrible guaranteed prizes.
I’m going to give you some advice: try out your soap-paint mixture prior to your actual product, especially not the day you’re supposed to give the gift. This stuff takes longer to dry than regular paint and – I only realized this after I painted a few circles – there is the chance that your mixture proportions aren’t right, and you may just paint over what’s underneath.
Also, thoroughly read instructions and don’t leave things to the last minute. I hadn’t read the instructions to the link I posted above and didn’t know I needed some sort of paper. I scoured the internet to see if it was possible to do the scratch off stuff without the paper and, well, you can, but you’re getting wikiHow-quality crafts. I added a little bit more soap to the second scratch card and I don’t know if that worked any better, but, um, yeah, try things out before putting a mixture with ambiguous proportions onto your final product which took effort to make.
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Another thing that my Secret Santa recipient asked for was a Christmas tree ornament for McMaster University. Our budget was $15 and the ornament was $12, so like the excellent Secret Santa that I am, I put quite a bit of effort into making her a crappier version of what she actually wanted.
And because I do child-like crafts, you guys certainly don’t need a tutorial on how to trace a shape, a larger version of that shape, cut those out, colour things, and glue them together. Ta-da! Delicate and dainty crafts that adults make. (Why does anyone follow my blog?)
As you can see from all of these aerial shots of the work process and shit, I’ve been testing out more quintessential blogger angles. I guess I like them? Anyway, I wrap things in craft paper and twine because I’m a hippy (paper and twine are biodegradable and natural) and such a blogger. Look at that blogger-level skill of tying a bow and shoving some plant in for visual contrast. Nice.
The alternative is that I crappily colour the package in which your present was delivered.
As an experienced blogger, I took a blank card and added so much of my artistic skill and took a photo of the materials I used to make this creative and delicate pattern.
To contrast the vibrant and delicate lines of blue, yellow, and grey background, I wrote my friend’s name on in a darker colour and with more crude penmanship. And to contrast THAT, I wrote her name delicately and in a sleek fashion on the envelope. Needless to say, this friend got a present in an old Shoppers Drug Mart bag and a fold-your-own gift box sent in the mail by some dairy product company. Because I’m a blogger.
