Many people visit shrines to pray and draw omikuji during major events like New Year’s and entrance exams, don’t they?
It can be a bit worrying if you get a bad fortune, but the excitement of not knowing what you’ll get is fun, isn’t it?
This article introduces ideas for making your own omikuji.
With origami or recycled materials, you might be surprised at how easy they are to make.
Since most designs are simple, they’re great for crafts with children.
Give it a try as a little New Year’s entertainment!
- Handmade Lottery Draws Kids Will Love! A Fun Collection of Ideas to Make and Play
- How to Make a Senbon Kuji (Lottery Strings Game) with Everyday Materials: Fun Handmade Ideas to Liven Things Up
- A collection of handmade ema ideas: easy crafts perfect for New Year’s
- Handmade ideas to create and play the traditional Japanese game “Daruma Otoshi”!
- Handmade games: DIY craft ideas you can make and play
- Handmade sugoroku ideas: exciting original sugoroku
- Adults will be hooked! A collection of craft ideas using toilet paper rolls
- DIY ideas for bingo cards
- Simple yet amazing crafts: craft ideas that elementary school students will want to make
- Fun for kids and adults alike! A collection of DIY beanbag (otedama) ideas
- [Childcare] Easy! Make a DIY target game. Playful craft and fun game
- [For Kids] Today’s Handmade Craft Ideas
- Fun crafts using straws
Handmade omikuji ideas: DIY crafts you can make and play with (1–10)
Scratch-card fortune
Let’s make a handmade scratch-card fortune that’s fun to scrape while you wonder what will appear! Write the fortunes on construction paper and cover the parts you want to make scratchable with clear tape.
Then, mix acrylic paint and dish soap in a 1:1 ratio, paint it over the tape, and let it dry—that’s it.
If you want an even simpler method, you can just glue aluminum foil over the area instead of using paint.
You can customize it in lots of ways—like rock-paper-scissors cards or choosing household chore turns—so give it a try at home!
Candy fortune (omikuji)
These candy fortune slips look adorably like sweets.
All you need are origami paper and a pen.
Fold back about 5 mm on three edges of the origami paper, then fold it in half and stick it together with double-sided tape.
Fold the open parts on both sides, puff out the inside to make a pouch, then press in to shape it like a candy.
Draw faces—like the zodiac animals—cut both sides with a zigzag edge, tie up a fortune slip and put it inside, and you’re done! You can also handcraft a box from origami to line up the fortune slips, so give it a try.
Easy omikuji with Koala’s March
The Koala’s March box is originally a hexagonal prism, so it’s perfect for repurposing into an omikuji fortune box! It’s very easy to make—just paste paper around the box.
Close the top that you opened to take out the contents and secure it with tape, then make a hole so you can pull out the fortunes.
Paste construction paper around the outside, and cover the top with paper too, making sure not to block the hole, and your omikuji container is ready! Wrap small strips of paper with messages like “Great Blessing” around the ends of straws and put them in the box, and you’ll have an omikuji setup to rival a shrine’s.
[Origami] Mini Omikuji
![[Origami] Mini Omikuji](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1zlWaWzX_b4/sddefault.jpg)
Let’s make a mini omikuji (fortune slip) that’s easy to craft with origami and can be redrawn many times! Prepare a small sheet of origami paper and make eight crease lines.
Fold the top and bottom edges back so they’re perpendicular to the creases, then unfold once, and cut eight slits up to those fold lines.
Roll the paper into a hexagonal column and glue it in place; fold the slit sections at the top and bottom inward to finish the fortune holder.
Cut off the pointed end of a toothpick, write the fortunes on it, place it inside the hexagonal column, and try your luck each day!
Shake-Shake Fortune
There are also omikuji where you shake a box and draw a stick, right? I’ve heard that in recent years, more children have never tried that type.
So why not do a craft together and let them experience it? For the tube part, which seems the hardest to make, use the cardboard core from a roll of plastic wrap.
Then attach a bottom, put in the chopstick sticks, and it’s done.
Traditionally, you draw a fortune again from the box that matches the number written on the stick, but it’s also fine to write the result directly on the stick.
Since writing directly with a pen can bleed, the trick is to wrap the stick with paper first and then write on it.
