Easy Crafty Gift Idea---Make Your Own Tickets!

Times are hard! And on top of that, it can be hard to shop for a guy! I like to balance out my gifts for my fiance. I don't spend crazy amounts of money, but I like to make the gift more personal and crafty. For Valentines Day, I bought a little stuffed lion and wrote 101 Reasons why I love him. I printed the list and decorated it with confetti hearts and marker. The list took me about two weeks to complete...mostly because of work and going out. The reasons aren't just the standard ones, but silly things that only we would understand and that's what makes it such a simple yet meaningful gift. You could even take the list and make it into a poster, with photos of the two of you and maybe add some mementos (like movie tickets or a clip from a menu or an empty candy wrapper- depending on the two of you).

I also bought Heat tickets (we are both biiiiig Miami Heat fans) and they were playing Atlanta for a VERY reasonable price (shocked me, since Atlanta was a conference game and were definitely going to the playoffs. Now, the problem with buying tickets online is that 99% of the time, you don't get the physical ticket...you print a ticket offline. I didn't want to just give him that...and I also usually hold on to our tickets for events because I don't lose them. And I didn't just want to tell him about the tickets...so I decided to MAKE my OWN tickets!!!

These tickets can be made for any team, for any event...I made these as Heat tickets because we are fans of the Heat and it was a home game for them!

The steps are easy....

1. You take the cardboard (you can use whatever type of cardboard you have, an old shoe box, a box from a package, the cardboard piece they place in cookware boxes to separate pieces...) *The best thing is you don't need a lot!

2. Cut out two ticket size pieces, as close to the same length as possible, or you can use a ruler and mark the lines to cut. Keep in mind, that you will need them to be slightly wider than an actual ticket, in order to write on them (unless you have REALLY good small handwriting!)

3. Next you cut out white poster board pieces to place over the cardboard (I only covered the "top" piece)  -I cut a single strip from the poster board, and cut it in half. I then cut it down to the size of the cardboard. I glued the poster to the cardboard and allowed the glue to dry before writing on them.

4. Next, I googled Heat ticket images and using red and yellow markers, created the lines on the top.

5. From previous games, I had the programs which had the Heat emblems in the perfect size. If you do not have something similar to this, you could google the emblem and print it and cut it out. I glued the images to the tickets and let the glue dry.

6. Finally, I wrote down the information for the game, just like a ticket has. The Section/Row/Seat...the date, time and location and who was playing.

I left them on a flat surface and put them in the lions arms for him for Valentines Day, along with the list! He thought they were real tickets at first glance but once he realized I made them he laughed and told me he loved it!!

 

 

 

Gift giving does not have to be expensive or difficult. I love making gifts! Even though, for this gift...you might have to buy the actual tickets...you could realistically...spend almost nothing on tickets...if you pick a game that isn't pricey and shop around on the various sites. The gesture in this gift is the time and effort you put into making the tickets and the fact that whether or not you are also a big sports fan of said team...you thought to buy him a ticket and one for you to join him, or send him with a friend!