Personalised Birthday Scratch Cards: Fun Reveal Gift Ideas

There's a small moment we love making: the pause right before someone scratches off the panel. A birthday card that actually does something, rather than one that just sits on the mantelpiece for a week. That's what our personalised birthday scratch cards are for. We make them by hand here in Hessle, personalised with the birthday person's name and whatever you'd like to hide underneath.

Some people hide a soppy message. Some hide a cash amount, a voucher, or the news that they're off to Disney. Here are six ways to use one, from a five pound card you can pop in an envelope to a foiled reveal ticket for a big milestone.

Start with a classic birthday scratch card

The Personalised Birthday Scratch Card is our simplest option and the easiest to post. It's £5 for the 6 by 4 size and £6 for the larger 5 by 7, printed on white or kraft brown card. You tell us the name and the message, we print it, and the surprise sits under a scratch panel for them to reveal. It works as the whole gift or as the way you announce a bigger one.

Pick a design that suits them

There are eight designs, so you can match the card to the person rather than settle for something generic. Eucalyptus Leafs and Eucalyptus Bottom lean soft and botanical, Hearts and Flowers are warmer, Daisy and Meadow are bright, and Blue Dots and Red Dots keep it simple. All of them come on white or kraft brown, and all of them start at £5 for the 6 by 4. Have a look through the birthday scratch card designs and pick the one that feels like them.

Hide a gift reveal instead of wrapping it

If the gift is money, a voucher or an experience, a scratch card is a nicer way to hand it over than a bank transfer. Our Happy Birthday Scratch Reveal Ticket is made for exactly this. It's £10 for the plain white card, or £11 with a foil colour, and there are over thirty foil shades including gold, silver, rose gold and a few glitter finishes. You choose the greeting, the name, the message and the exact words hidden under the scratch sticker, so something like "you're getting a spa day, love Mum" is waiting under the panel.

One honest note: if you pick a black card, very dark foils can be hard to read, so we'd point you towards a brighter foil on the darker stock. It's the kind of thing we'd flag on your proof anyway.

Reveal a surprise trip

For a big birthday, a Personalised Foiled Boarding Pass Ticket turns "we're going away" into a proper moment. It's a foiled card, £10 plain or £11 with a foil colour, laid out like a boarding pass with the destination, the airports, the passenger names, the date and the boarding time. We add a landscape or a landmark for the destination you give us. Hand it over at breakfast and let them work out where they're going. You'll find it in our foiled tickets collection.

Count down to a big day out

The Personalised Disney Foiled Ticket with Scratch Reveal Date does the same trick with the date hidden under a scratch panel. It's £10 plain or £11 foiled. You pick which park, add the name and a short message like "from Mummy and Daddy", and the reveal date stays secret until they scratch it off. It's a lovely one for a child's birthday where the trip is the present. Have a look at the Disney reveal ticket if that's the surprise you're planning.

Make it the keepsake, not the throwaway

A scratch card doesn't have to end up in the recycling on the 2nd. The foiled reveal tickets are printed on good card and finished by hand, so plenty of people keep them, pinned to a noticeboard or tucked in a memory box next to the old ticket stubs. If you want the surprise to last past the day itself, that's the version to choose. They sit well alongside the rest of our gifts for her and gifts for him.

How we make them

Everything is made to order in our studio in Hessle, just outside Hull. Lee and Sam lay out each card to what you send us, and we send you a proof before anything is printed, so you get to check the spelling, the names and the hidden message before it exists on card. Because every card is personalised to you, they can't be returned for a change of mind, which is exactly why that proof step matters. Get your order in with a little time to spare and there's no rush at either end.

Where to start

If you want the quick, postable option, start with the £5 birthday scratch cards. If it's a milestone birthday or you're hiding something bigger, the foiled reveal tickets are worth the extra couple of pounds. Both live in our scratch cards and foiled tickets collections. If you're still deciding how the scratch-and-reveal side works, our guide to how the wedding favour scratch cards come together explains it in more detail, and there are more scratch card ideas on a budget too.