Handmade Lottery Draws Kids Will Love! A Fun Collection of Ideas to Make and Play
Get excited with family and friends! How about creating special memories with a homemade lottery draw? We’ll show you how to make surprisingly simple raffles—like dropping-lot lotteries, garapon wheels, and gashapon-style draws—that kids and adults alike will love.
Using everyday materials like cardboard and origami, you can achieve a professional-looking finish.
Perfect for festivals and events, and great for doubling the fun during everyday playtime too! From working together to build it to the thrilling moment of drawing a ticket, you’ll enjoy wonderful, smile-filled moments.
Handmade Lottery Games Kids Will Love! A Fun Collection of Ideas to Make and Play (1–10)
Air Lottery (Virtual Raffle)
An air lottery where tickets whirl around inside a transparent case.
You reach your hand into the case and try to grab the flying tickets.
You can easily make it yourself by creating a base and a transparent case to set on top.
Be sure to leave space in the base for the device that blows air, and openings in the transparent case for air intake and for inserting your hand.
A hair dryer is a convenient air source, but for larger builds a fan is recommended.
If you use a hair dryer, always set it to cool air.
Put the tickets into the transparent case, turn on the airflow, and it’s ready to go.
Rabbit fortune slip
These are super cute rabbit-shaped omikuji (fortune slips).
If you have an event with a prize drawing or lottery, this quirky style of omikuji is sure to be a hit! The method is very simple.
You can make four rabbit omikuji from a single sheet of origami paper.
First, divide one sheet of origami lengthwise into four strips.
Use a pen to write fortunes like “Daikichi” (Great Blessing) on the cut strips.
We recommend water-based pens or colored pencils that don’t show through the paper easily.
Next, fold each strip into thirds to make a long narrow band, then fold it into a rabbit shape.
For the ears, fold them outward to create a rounded look.
Finally, draw in the ears, eyes, nose, and other details to finish!
Ichiban Kuji (lottery)
The Ichiban Kuji lottery, popular at convenience stores and bookstores, features themes from anime and manga, with prizes from those works.
It uses tickets with slits in the paper that you peel open—and this is an idea to make a handmade version.
You don’t need any special materials; just paper and scissors will do.
However, adding the perforations and slits—making tiny circles with the tips of the scissors and doing lots of fine cuts—feels like it could be a mind-numbing task… Still, wouldn’t it be an idea that kids would love?
Tetra goldfish
Let’s make a cute, pop 3D goldfish fortune slip (omikuji)! You can easily create it using two sheets of origami cut to quarter size.
Use one sheet for the goldfish’s head and the other for the tail fin.
Before attaching the head and tail together, tuck the fortune inside the head! Adding googly eyes at the end makes it extra adorable.
It looks stylish not only with plain origami, but also with patterned paper like polka dots or stripes.
When using it for a raffle or drawing, it could be fun to use a scooper (poi) made from thick paper, too.
drop stitch
Why not try making a nostalgic “otoshikujI” lottery? As the name suggests, it’s a prize draw where you win by dropping the prize.
First, connect cut pieces of bamboo skewers or chopsticks to the prizes with rubber bands.
Next, make an outer frame with cardboard, cut holes in the top surface, and suspend the prizes from the inside—and you’re done! A nice bonus is that you can freely customize the prizes to suit different ages and occasions.
Once you make it, you can enjoy it over and over, so give it a try!
Present lottery
Here’s a version where the prize-filled bag itself becomes the lottery ticket.
You often see these sold at candy shops and the like—idol photo cards and similar items are packaged so you can’t see what’s inside and sold as a lottery.
It’s very easy to make.
First, prepare a bag that can hold the prize.
You can even make the bag out of origami paper.
Once the bag is ready, put the prize inside and seal the bag.
Then punch a hole for a string, thread the string through, and you’re done! Just grab the bag with the prize and pull it down to easily claim your prize.
triangle lottery ticket
If you want to do a quick raffle, you can just fold up some paper and toss it into an empty box—but here’s an idea for making the kind of triangular tickets you see at shops.
That crisp tearing sound when you peel them open is so satisfying and really builds excitement! You can make them with things from a 100-yen shop: your favorite origami paper, cardstock, a perforation cutter, double-sided tape, and so on.
Making a lot of them can be a bit of work, but once you get the hang of the perforation cutter, it’s easy.
Try making them with origami featuring characters kids love!
Gashapon lottery
Let’s try making a handmade capsule toy machine out of cardboard for kids who love gashapon! Prepare 15 sheets of A4-size cardboard.
The key is to measure carefully and cut precisely.
Create the plans according to the size of the capsules.
If you take your time to make sure the gears mesh properly, the capsules will come out smoothly.
Adding a plastic sheet to the finished machine gives it a more authentic look and is highly recommended.
It’s also fun to complete it together by having the kids put on stickers or draw pictures.
Thousand-String Lottery
Senbon-kuji, the “thousand-string lottery,” is a common sight at festival stalls.
There are lots of strings, each attached to a prize, and you randomly pick and pull any string you like.
You can see what prizes are available, but because there are so many strings and you can’t tell which one connects to which prize, that’s what makes it fun! To make a senbon-kuji, first prepare a large box that can hold a fair number of prizes.
Make as many holes in the box as there are strings, and thread strings through the holes, attaching a clothespin or clip to one end.
The key is to lightly bundle all the threaded strings together with a rubber band or a tube-shaped item like a toilet paper roll.
Bundling them makes it even harder to tell which string will win.
After that, just clip the prizes onto the clothespins or clips and you’re done! Decorate the area where the strings come out however you like.
Scratch card
A scratch card you scrape with a coin to see if you win or lose—you might wonder, can you really make one? In fact, it’s very easy.
All you need is paper, clear tape, dish soap, acrylic paint, and a pen.
First, draw your “win,” “lose,” or any illustrations on the paper, then cover the drawings with clear tape.
Next, paint over the tape with a mixture of dish soap and acrylic paint.
Once the painted layer dries, it’s done! Just like the scratch-off tickets you see in stores, you can use a coin to scratch the surface and reveal the image underneath.