Scratch Off Labels: A Beginners Introduction

Here at My Scratch Offs, LLC, I respond to about 90% of all of our inquiries, be it by phone, e-mail or tweet. From how-to’s to product suggestions to pricing, our customers’ questions come in all shapes and sizes and I’m happy to answer each and every inquiry. But the number one most frequently asked question is: How do those Scratch Off Labels work?? 

Our product is unique and in turn, it can be difficult to fully conceptualize without an inherent knowledge of scratch off products (though you can get to know our products by requesting Free Samples!). There are endless practical uses and options for customization of Scratch Off Labels and it can be easy to get lost in the planning process. 

If you’re a little confused about how it all works, don’t sweat it, that’s what I’m here for! So, let me explain a little bit about our products…

What is a Scratch Off Label?

Our Scratch Off Labels are a clear, adhesive backing that has had scratch off pigment professionally applied on top. They are a simple peel-and-stick application (like any ol’ regular sticker) and can be applied either by hand or machine applied using a labeler or tabber.

What Do They Say Underneath?

That’s the fun part because our Scratch Off Labels can reveal anything that you have pre-printed on your card. Yes, literally ANYTHING! All of our labels are “blank,” meaning there is no text printed on the label beneath the scratch off pigment. The customization of what you scratch to reveal (ie. “try again” or “winner”) would need to be printed directly on your card and then the Scratch Off Label is applied on top of that.

What Kind Of Material Will They Stick To?

Most commonly, our Scratch Off Labels are used on paper products, but we have completed projects in a number of mediums including:

• Glass
• Porcelain/Ceramic
• Glossy/ UV coated Photo Paper
• Acrylic/ Plexi-glass

When choosing what type of material to adhere your Scratch Off Labels to, the only suggestion I will make is to avoid a very rough material (ie. unfinished wood or brick). The smoother the material the better, as a course texture can make it difficult to evenly apply pressure while removing the scratch off pigment from the label, resulting in a partial reveal.

How Do They Scratch?

Our Scratch Off Labels are designed to be resilient and require that you use firm pressure and a coin to remove the pigment (using your fingernail is not recommended). Our labels are even designed to withstand the rigors of the postal system without accidentally scratching. The labels themselves are permanent once the adhesive has fully cured, which can take up to 48 hours.  We produce our Scratch Off Labels in a variety of shapes and colors and all of our labels are designed to have roughly the same “scratch-ability,” meaning they will all scratch with about the same amount of effort. 

What Can I Use Them For?

As mentioned, the possibilities are endless! Some of our suggested uses are:

• Business Promotions/ Customer Rewards
• Employee Incentives
• Wedding & Event Save The Dates
• DIY Gender Reveals
• Baby Shower and Bridal Shower Games
• Classroom Rewards
• DIY Potty Training & Chore Charts

I hope this information will prove helpful when planning your next scratch off project. Now that you have been brought up to speed about the ins and outs of Scratch Off Labels…how will you use your labels? Comment below or share your ideas with us on Facebook!

New Product Arrivals at MyScratchOffs.com

At My Scratch Offs, LLC we are proudly progressive in our product offerings (how’s that for some alliteration?)! I would like to take a moment to share some appealing scratch off products that we’ve recently added to our stock, as well as some exciting new additions on the horizon.

New Scratch Off Labels

I am LOVING our new Baby Blue Boy and Baby Pink Girl Footprint Scratch Off Labels! These super cute, 1-inch round (US quarter-sized) labels are available in both pink and blue with tiny silver footprints. They are perfect for a DIY gender reveal, baby shower game or baby shower invitation. Oh, the possibilities!

Needing a more versatile, all purpose scratch off label? We now offer a 1.5 inch Silver Oval Scratch Off Label as well as a Mini Zebra Security Slit Scratch Off Label sticker. Our Mini Zebra labels measure 3/16 x 5/8 inches and have micro slits to add an additional measure of tamper resistance. Both our Oval and Mini Zebra labels will suit a wide range of uses and applications.

Coming Soon…

Look what’s to come from My Scratch Offs, LLC:

•          Scratch Off Bingo Cards
•        1.5” Silver Square Scratch Off Labels
•         Full Sheet (8.5 x 11”) Scratch Off Labels
•        New Gender Reveal and Baby Shower designs!

Try something new with one of our brand new labels! All of our scratch off labels are blank. They feature a clear adhesive backing that has had scratch off pigment professionally applied on top. To use, you simply peel and stick over-top of whatever you want to scratch to reveal. It is that simple!

With endless possibilities to create and inspire…how will you use your scratch offs?  We’d love to hear some of your ideas!  Find us on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter to share photos or comments about this post.

Labor Day Sale

We at MyScratchOffLabels.com hope that you are enjoying your long Labor Day weekend. In store today you can receive $5 off a $30 purchase using coupon code 5OFF30. Now is a good time to think ahead for Halloween Party Games, Fall Wedding Favors, Save the Date postcards, and even Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotions.

Our DIY Design contest continues. All designs must be submitted by midnight Sept 20th for judging. The winner will be rewarded with 250 CUSTOMIZED SCRATCH OFF PROMOTIONS!

MyScratchOffLabels.com DIY Design Contest

MyScratchOffLabels.com announces our DIY Design Contest

One lucky winner will be chosen from contest entries to WIN 250 CUSTOM SCRATCH OFF PROMOTIONS. Simply create a design that best suits your needs and uses scratch off labels in a creative or innovative way. We have said that our products have many uses such as business promotions, giveaways, door prizes, save the date cards, gender announcements, teacher incentives, party favors, games, grand opening celebrations, black Friday/cyber Monday sales, and more. You are only limited by your imagination. We are giving you a chance to sit in the designer’s chair.
Submit your design (in .jpg, .png, or .pdf format) the following ways:

Email amanda@myscratchofflabels.com (preferred)subject: Contest Submission
or Facebook http://www.facebook.com/myscratchofflabels

One entry per email address please.
See our facebook albums or our gallery http://bit.ly/byBK29 for inspiration.


Prize Details:
250 CUSTOM designed scratch off cards that measure 3.5" x 2" (business card size) that will be professionally printed and shipped to the winner for immediate use.

Contest Ends at midnight September 20, 2010. The winner will be notified by email within 24 hours of the contest ending and the winning design will be proudly displayed on our blog, twitter, facebook, and in our newsletter.


PRIVACY STATEMENT: Your private information is important to us. We will NOT use your information other than to notify you if you are the winner. You will NOT receive any correspondence from us unless you opt in to be a subscriber for the newsletter. No record of your personal information will be kept or stored.

We were featured of 5MinutesforMom.com

Yep...Twice- www.myscratchofflabels.com was featured on www.5minutesformom.com

READ here :) :)

http://www.5minutesformom.com/mom-owned-stores/513/myscratchofflabels/

http://www.5minutesformom.com/our-readers-blogs/1557/myscratchofflabels/

So exciting with it having an excellent Alexa ranking (which we are trying to improve right now) SEO is a hot topic right now in the Mom Entrepreneuer Support Group that I belong to http://supportgroup.themomentrepreneur.com/community.html (which I HIGHLY recommend). My main cometitor- has 4 years worth of experience over me...so I am just trying to catch up with her. Our prices are basically the same, but she has the google rankings. My Scratch Off Labels Stickers business is doing well and I think all of my hard work is paying off!

DON't forget to enter my giveaway for 500 custom Scratch off game cards here: http://www.myscratchofflabels.com/giveaway.html Ends 31 March Winner will be drawn on the 1st of April!

Google Ad Words for My Scratch Off Labels

My Google Ad Words account has been active for 8 months now. And crazy as this seems but I really do notice a difference in sales when I have more Ad words traffic by clicks...I try to go in and adjust the keywords that are getting clicks every so often- and I also try to add suggested keywords from google. The constant change seems to bring a different variety of visitors. Here recently I have created business relationships with a few printers, a few small business owners, and quite a few Moms. I swear by the use of google ad words. But I use this in combination with quite a few other strategies. Twitter has become a new marketing strategy- as well as our "Giveaway" for 500 Scratch off game cards that you can find here: http://www.myscratchofflabels.com/giveaway.html

What is your best strategy for marketing your business?

Want to exchange links with www.myscratchofflabels.com ? Let me know- I am up for it!

Giveaway details- 500 Custom Scratch off cards

Enter Here: http://www.myscratchofflabels.com/giveaway.html

The hottest way to increase repeat customers- offer them a discount on a future visit- but put a little bit of excitement into it!Make them work for it by scratching off to see what discount they won.

So here is what the winner will get in this $165 giveaway:
500 CUSTOM designed scratch off cards that measure 3.5" x 2" (business card size) that will be professionally printed and shipped to the winner for immediate use- The winner doesn't have to do anything but hand them out or mail them to their customers. 500 cards include 3 promotions- 250 of one, 125 of one and 125 of one. They will be shipped to the winner wrapped separately so the winner knows which are which. We are available to discuss the most commom promotions or uses for these cards. Just drop us an email to karen@myscratchofflabels.com
Samples shown are only examples. Winners design will be unique to their business! Winner can provide us input on how they want theirs designed to include their business logo etc... We will work with the winner to get the proof exactly where they want it before the cards go to print! Approximate design, print and ship time is 21 days.

Giveaway Ends March 31, 2010. Winner will be selected by randon on April 1, 2010.
Only one entry per email address, but EXTRA entries will be given to those that:
• Sign up for our newsletter (Sign up in left navigation bar)

• Fan us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/myscratchofflabels

• Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/myscratchoffs

• Promote this giveaway on their own Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Article, etc... (Email us links to verify...)

PRIVACY STATEMENT: Your private information is important to us. We will NOT use your information other than to notify you if you are the winner. You will NOT receive any correspondence from us unless you opt in to be a subscriber for the newsletter. No record of your personal information will be kept or stored.

WOW Its been awhile since I posted

And my only excuse is http://www.myscratchoffgames.com/

It is now officially launched in time for the Halloween Season- Check out the Halloween ones- my bestseller on eBay! http://www.myscratchoffgames.com/holiday-scratch-off-cards.html

I am now restocked in the square scratch off labels in Gold and Silver and I have added Gold Rectangle to the inventory! Check out the recent updates to the webpage http://www.myscratchofflabels.com/ and come check out http://www.myscratchoffgames.com/

Enjoy- I am always available to answer any questions!

Karen
http://www.myscratchofflabels.com/
http://www.myscratchoffgames.com/

AND THE WINNER IS...Bella

Congratulations to Bella!

the winner of my Blog giveaway for 50 personalized scratch off tickets for any event or business promotion.

The winner was drawn today at 4pm CDT by my daughter Madison! She loved being a part of this!

Look next month for another chance to win another 50 Personalized scratch tickets!

Thanks all who entered- If you are interested in ordering anything- just let me know~!

My Monkey Turns 1- Giveaway celebration-

So tomorrow is my daughter Molly's (Molly Monkey- we call her) first birthday- and what a way to celebrate by offering my first Giveaway-



So the winner will receive 50 (Actual printed- Not digital)- Personalized Custom Scratch off Tickets designed however you want them designed with whatever color scratch off labels you want used. Tickets are printed on high glossy photo paper for the utmost professional look and feel. Giveaway valued at $20. Tickets will be mailed to you by USPS First Class mail.

You may offer more than one promotion in this giveaway of 50 Personalized custom scratch tickets for example, my last customer wanted 10% off, 25% off and 40% off, so I did all 3 promotions and split up her order according to her request!


**BONUS** I will also email you the completed electronic version (.pub, .jpg, or .png ) of the Scratch off ticket that you can use for personal/business use in the future. Just print them up on your own printer, cut and place the scratch off labels over the promotional area.



The digital examples are posted with this blog posting. See the other posts in my blog for other designs that I have done for ideas of what might interest you!




You can use these for ANY event or for your business promotion- I often do promotions where I sent these discount scratch off tickets with all of my outgoing mailed orders. It REALLY increases the repeat sales.






So all you have to do is comment on this blog posting with you name, business name &/or website (If applicable) and your blog.

I will end the Giveaway on the 4th of July-- and Post a special Giveaway winner blog that day!










Email me at allweddingsrelated@gmail.com for any questions!

New monster truck birthday scratch ticket design

So my friend Amanda has been in town for the last 4 days hence the reason I have not posted anything in 4 days...we have been busy with 4 kids between us! Lots of pool time, too little down time :)

So I designed a scratch ticket as favors for Joseph's 4th Monster Truck Birthday party! Perfect for the Adults and the Kids!!! The adults were going to play for a "Beer" :) I think the kids were going to play for a Monster truck goody bag!

These match the Ticket Invitations that I made up for her to send out--

Feel free to send me some feedback of other ideas that I could use for Boy Birthday favor scratch tickets...

So I took a few days off...

So Ron and I took the girls to Six Flags St Louis yesterday and had a great time. Ended up getting home around 11 pm. That is pretty late for a 12 month old and a 4 year old, but a treat like that everyonce in awhile won't hurt them!

Ron went back out of town AGAIN today for 1 week. So now I have the little monkeys all to myself for the next 5 days and 6 hours... yes the monkeys are my kids. Lets just hope that I can maintain my sanity. My friend Amanda might be coming up on Wednesday from Arkansas for a few days! That will be a nice break.

So for my scratch off labels-- I have been working on new designs for scratch off tickets and cards. In the past I created my own scatch off tickets for promotions that I included with all of my outgoing orders from eBay and http://www.myscratchofflabels.com/. The promotion was quite a success. But today I also created 2 for a Princess Birthday party. And a Fundaraiser scratch off ticket.

So I am always available to design a scratch off ticket for anyone, so that they can print them on their own printer at home saving you tons of cash. I recommend printing on high gloss photo paper and cutting them with a photo cutter. Tickets are crisp looking and professional this way. I can format the ticket to whatever format necessary so that you will not have to worry about it. Cost to do that is $7.50. Then just purchase the scratch off labels separately and stick them on and you have the perfect game for ANY occasion.

Feel free to contact me directly at allweddingsrelated@gmail.com for any questions or to inquire about a design for yourself!

Announcing my grand opening on ETSY!

http://www.myscratchofflabels.com/ a division of http://www.allweddingsrelated.com/ is announcing my brand new shop that just opened on Etsy. http://www.myscratchofflabels.etsy.com/ I am so excited to join this group of amazing people and offer my scratch off stickers and scratch ticket design.

My store has only been opened for 3 days and I already have 2 sales. I think I owe that to the Etsy forums!! I went on the Critiques forum in Etsy and posted that I wanted honest feedback on my shop appearance and I had several people who gave me great advice on my banner, and my content. I started out with just the basics and in just a few days the shop is looking great- and I think I finally captured the essence of these cool little stickers.

Want an example of how to use these stickers? Say you are throwing a Happy 13 Birthday party for your Niece- and she is going to have 10 friends over. Plan a prize (Say $20 Gift Card to Target), Create 10 scratch cards on your computer and print one that says "winner" and 9 that say "Sorry" (or whatever text you want to use) then place these labels over that winner/sorry spot, put into a small envelope with a pennie and hand to each guest at your nieces party...That example can be used for many different occasions...just change the design of the scratch card to match the event...

So what kind of event can you use these scratch off stickers for? Bridal Showers, Baby Showers, Wedding Receptions, Business Promotions, Business Rewards, Housewarming parties, Kids birthday parties, Anniverssaries...etc. The options are endless.

Here are the links: As always- Free Shipping!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26285802 Mix & Match 1" Round and Heart scratch off stickers- Quantity of 100 for $6.00.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26159496 Rectangle scratch off stickers that measure 1" x 2 1/8". Quantity of 100 for $8.00.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26159350 Heart with "Scraatch here" 1" scratch off stickers. Quantity 100 for $6.00

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26159212 Gold Round 1" scratch off stickers. Quantity 100 for $6.00

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26155072 Silver Round 1" scratch off stickers. Quantity 100 for $6.00

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26155971 Red Round 1" scratch off stickers. Quantity 100 for $6.00

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26158518 Green Round 1" scratch off stickers. Quantity 100 for $6.00

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=26158719 Blue Round 1" scratch off stickers. Quantity 100 for $6.00

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26154077 Silver Round with "Scratch Here" 1" scratch off stickers. Quantity 100 for $6.00

And lastly is the actual graphic design for the scratch ticket that you can print on your own computer to save lots of money...http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=26300809

I am always available to answer any questions- feel free to email me at allweddingsrelated@gmail.com

And also check out my primary business website: http://www.allweddingsrelated.com/