How to Make Personalized Wedding or Party Matches

Well, just call me cheap. I make my own wedding, party and gift matches that look just as nice as the kind that you order from the wedding stores. Here is what I do to make my special occasion paper and wood matches:

Pick Your Matches:

You can decorate matchbooks, the 32-piece little boxes of wooden kitchen matches, or the fancy long handle fireplace matches. When buying your supplies it does not matter what is printed on the covers or the box, you will be covering that up.

Pick Your Matches Color:

What color would you like on the top of the wood matches to be? Gold? Silver? Gothic-Black? Rainbow? Glitter? You can make any color that you would like. Simply get out your favorite color of nail polish.

Dip Your Matches:

To make the tips of the matches colorful, pour a little nail polish into a butter-pat sized dish and carefully dip the head of the match into the nail polish. Be careful not to let the polish drip down the stick for a professional look.

Dry The Matches:

After your wood match is dipped into nail polish, let it dry hanging over the edge of a book or other flat surface so that the polish is not touching anything.

Decorate The Ugly Box:

Choose your box paper wisely. Fancy gold, silver, and elegant or comical tiny print paper can be found inexpensively in the scrapbook department of your favorite craft store. This scrapbook paper can be glued carefully over the original matchbox.

Another idea is to use your computer printer to make monograms on the scrapbook paper or to have it print clip-art or photos onto plain bumper sticker paper that works like a sticker.

Paper Books Of Matches:

To decorate a paper book of matches, carefully pry open the staple holding them to the cover. Wrap your cover in any material that you would like to use: fancy scrapbook paper, elegant material, stickers... whatever.

When you are done decorating your cover staple it back onto the inside matches with a staple-gun shooting against a hard surface so that the prongs will bend on the heavy staple. I work against the back of an old iron frying pan.

Dipping Paper Matches:

You can dip your paper matches into nail polish to make them have pretty colored heads. To do this, you must dip a whole row of matches at a time after removing their outer cover. These matches are harder to dip because the polish tends to soak into the paper sticks. I get better results by brushing on a few light coats of color, drying each coat as I go.

Waterproof Matches:

After dipping your matches into the nail polish, you have made the expensive upgrade into the waterproof matches for your party that the wedding stores will charge you extra for. If you have any matches left over after the party, put a few into your emergency kit.

Waterproof matches will light even after getting damp.