My son took these "Lottery Tickets" to school today.  They were fun to make but I was wishing he only had 15 in his class instead of 23!

I printed the tickets on card-stock,  cut them out and then covered them with clear laminate (contact paper).

DIY Scratch-off Lottery Ticket Download

I  made a little heart stencil out of sticky backed shelf liner (this is just slightly sticky). Place it over the scratch off area.

Paint inside stencil with acrylic paint.

It takes about two coats.  It worked better if I removed the stencil while the paint was slightly wet.  If some of the paint comes off it can be touched up later.  When I had problems with the words showing through I just went in with a small paint brush and gave the words another coat.

Trim edges and cut the tickets apart.

My son gave everyone a penny along with his Valentine to scratch off the message.

Before you roll your eyes and think these were way too much work-----please note that my son is in 6th grade. We have hit the end of the road for valentines! This was my last hurrah!

We thought bath bombs would make the perfect Valentine's Day gift when packaged to look like  a bomb along with a tag that says, "You're the 'bomb'!"

DIY Bath Bombs

Supplies:

2 Cups Baking Soda

1 Cup Citric Acid

4 teaspoons massage oil ( or 2 teaspoons essential oil and 2 teaspoons olive oil)

Spray bottle with water

mold (60 mm 2 part plastic ball)

This amount only made 5 bath bombs.  If I was making more I would buy the citric acid online in bulk. The small bottle  you see pictured (1/2 cup) was $2.50. I purchased it from my local health food store.  You can buy citric acid online for $2.25 per pound. BrambleBerry is offering all Skip to my Lou readers 10% off citric acid, use LOU10 at checkout to receive your discount!

Mix baking soda and citric acid in large mixing bowl.  Mix very well! You can use an electric mixer if you like.

Add in 4 teaspoons of scented massage oil (or other combination of skin safe essential oil for scent and another oil for moisturizing the skin). The scent is personal, so start with a teaspoon or so and add more until you are satisfied. Mix well.

This next step can be a bit  tricky because you don't want your bath bomb to start fizzing. Start by adding a couple of fine mist sprays of water to your mixture and mix well.

You will continue spraying until the mixture will clump in your hand when squeezed. (I used 5-8 sprays, however this will depend greatly on your local climate)

Fill one half of your mold.  Pack it tightly.

Fill the other half of the mold and place them together---don't snap together.  I slightly overfilled each half.  When I pushed the two halves together they became a ball.

Gently remove the ball from mold.  If I had problems with the ball coming out easily  I dumped the mixture back into my bowl, added a mist of water (carefully), mixed well and then tried again.

Cut out about a 10 inch circle of black tissue paper.

Wrap tissue up around your bath bomb and trim if necessary.

Place a silver pipe cleaner in the center and then wrap a shiny red pipe cleaner around the the tissue paper and silver pipe cleaner.  Add a tag and you are finished! You might want to write instructions for using the bath bomb on the back of the tag.

The bath bomb worked great. It provided fizz, bubbles and fun for my daughter's bath.

Enjoy!

These were very simple bath bombs.  If you are interesed in more recipes and detailed instructions, the internet is a great resource. Try Teach Soap for loads of bath and body recipes!