Penny Social Idea...Quilt Guilds, Schools, Churches etc

This post is so random, but that's what makes life interesting...little bits of crazy thrown in here and there. Lol

I wanted to share one of those little bits from my childhood with you...a summer memory from our church bazaar. Bazaar, that's a crazy word for it, isn't it? Well, any who...our bazaar was in the church parking lot and was filled with homemade food, games, raffles and family fun. I do remember some details of the bazaar from when I was little, but one thing I remember best was the penny raffle.

Do these look familiar to anyone or is it just me? My fondest memory of the summer...the penny social or penny raffle. Can't remember the exact name, but this was my favorite part of the bazaar.

Let me tell you about them and show you how to make them...

My parents were always involved in the committees for the church, so not only did we attend, we helped out with all the behind the scene things.

My job...making the penny rolls. I can still do it in my sleep!! Lol There were thousands of these little penny raffles and lots of people were involved in making them. We only rolled the blank ones and the head of the committee rolled the winners.

Here's how it worked...

• thousands were made by many families from the church, but only a select number of them were marked as WINNERS. The number of winners had to match the number of prizes the church had to give away
• you would buy them for a penny a piece, I think, or by the cup full for a certain price.
• then the best part was sitting in a chair off to the side and slowly unrolling each one you bought to see if you were a winner. 

That memory is so clear I can still feel the excitement of opening a "winner". You would then bring up any "specially marked" winning papers and turn it in for a prize of YOUR choice!!

Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. 

I wanted to show you how to make them. Maybe your church, school or guild could use the idea for your penny social or raffle to raise money for your organization.

Each little penny raffle is made from a square of paper. This example is with computer paper, but I'll show other paper ideas later.

Fold the 8 1/2" x 11" sheet in thirds the long way, then in half twice the short way to make 12 squares.

Cut with a paper cutter with multiple sheets or rip with a ruler along the seam. I just cut these with scissors.

You will start at one corner and roll diagonally up to the other corner. It must be diagonal to make the roll long.

The best way to make it tight is to roll with your pointer finger and your thumb to start, but whatever works best for you.

Once you roll to the other corner, that corner should end up in the center. Sometimes they don't roll exactly to the center, but that's ok, it doesn't have to be neat.

You will then bend it in half at the center and you're done!!

This is a great project for kids to make from your school or church. Give them the "blank" paper squares already cut up and let them be a part of the process.

Now to mark the winners. Stamp the winners with the theme for your raffle or your groups logo. Don't just hand write the winner, they need to be consistent with the same markings for all the winners.

This one is great for quilt guilds.

When it's rolled you can't see the winning mark.

Just make sure you only make enough WINNERS to match the number of prizes you have to give away, the rest will all be BLANK. You need to make a ton of blank ones to the number of winners.

You will take all the blank ones and mix the winners into that and then sell them from one big box or several boxes. You decide the price. Maybe a penny a piece, that 100 rolls for only $1.00, but then the pain of counting them out.  How about a small cup full measured at 100 for a certain price.

Maybe put up a sign with what a "winning" ticket looks like.

Now for other recycling paper ideas. Newspaper and magazines!

Cut through lots of layers.

Mark with your favorite stamp for the WINNER...

and roll!!

Then I remembered I bought all these rolls of adding machine tape at a thrift store for $1.00.

Just cut of your square and roll.

I'm going to make these for my Ladies Christmas Party I have every year. I already have tons of raffle prizes that I buy throughout the year for the regular raffle, so this will be a fun addition.

The regular raffle I have is so much fun at the party. I buy these double side tickets at Walmart or a party store and everyone gets a long strip of them (for free, of course).

I have all the raffle prizes set up in another room with cups beside each prize. Each guest puts a ticket in the cup that's next to the prize they hope to win. When everyone is done, we hold up the prize and pick one ticket out of the cup, read the number and see who the winner is.

We have so much fun with this...lots of laughs and joking around. It's the best time. I buy the prizes all year long at the clearance section after each holiday...great items for Christmas, Easter, Valentine's day, Halloween and summer items too.

I think these little penny social rolls will be another fun way for my guest to win a little prize. I hope they feel the same excitement I did when I was younger!

Hope you enjoyed this 40 year old blast from my past.

Well, I better get rolling...literally!

~Karen~