Creative dollar bill suggestions?

[Hedy]

A friend is graduation from college soon, and I'm giving her the always useful gift of cash. What's your favorite way to present cash creatively? Google is not helping me right now.

 

[Parkhopper]

A friend is graduation from college soon, and I'm giving her the always useful gift of cash. What's your favorite way to present cash creatively? Google is not helping me right now.

Try this website. They have several creative origami things you can make with dollar bills. http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/

Suzi

 

[senoragilbert]

We have made Christmas tree ornaments and put them on a little tree, maybe you could make a "money tree". I've also given calendars with little bits of cash on each page. Dollar bills can be rolled into "roses" and made into bouquets as well.

Or you could throw it in a card, and add $5 for not using your creative energies.

 

[marissat]

I gave my niece a bag of gold dollars on her graduation...I found a nice draw sting bag at Michaels

Two years ago for my son's preschool teacher we folded money into fortune cookies and place a piece of paper stating what the kids favorite things in school was. I got take out boxes and stamped them to matched the cards.


some ideas for you to start with!

hth
Marissa

 

[dmaz]

Our Family has always made money trees of some sort. I made a cute 25th anniversary one a few years back. I carved the numbers 25 out of styrofoam from our craft store and stood them on a styrofoam stand then I painted them. I folded the money to look like fans and stuck them all over them. It was a big hit.
You could do something similar in the shape of a grad cap. a styrofoam square on top of a circle.
Whatever you decide I'm sure the cash will be appreciated by the Grad.

 

[Hedy]

We have made Christmas tree ornaments and put them on a little tree, maybe you could make a "money tree". I've also given calendars with little bits of cash on each page. Dollar bills can be rolled into "roses" and made into bouquets as well.

Or you could throw it in a card, and add $5 for not using your creative energies.

I have a feeling that'll win

 

[Green Tea]

there was a thread about this not too long ago on here!

 

[feedindy]

I made a dozen roses out of $5 and $1 bills last year for my sis. Another thing you could do that would be neat and useful is get one of those photo holders-the kind that have paper clips on a stick to insert the pic. They make some that are like trees so you could put a bill in each photo slot. That would give the graduate an extra gift to use, especially helpful if they go away and want pics of friends & family with them.

 

[Mono~rail]

My uncle gave me a card with money in it. The card had a cow on the front, and it said, "Some moo-lah for you-lah!" I thought it was funny.

 

[Accentuate+]

I've taped bills together end to end to make one loooong bill, rolled it up, put it in a small box with a slot cut in the side and pulled the end of the "long bill" to peek out through the slot. They then pull, and pull and pull the money out. If you're feeling creative you can decorate the box and label it "the money machine". I'll put a lot of ones and then have a twenty or higher be the last bill or start with ones, move to fives, to tens etc. Depends on how much money you're giving.

You could get a small bank, trinket box or wallet to hold it. Probably take some googling but I've seen money holders that are a puzzle, they have to solve the puzzle to open the box and get the money out. Always wanted to try one of those. Here's one http://www.frik-n-frak.com/Bilz-Box--Money-Puzzle_p_134-2044.html there were lots more in google. I've done the money tree thing with a branch and paper clips. The dollar bill origami sites on the web have some amazing stuff as previous posters mentioned.

Been ages since I did any of this, though. These days it's Visa gift cards all the way. You can spend them pretty much anywhere as opposed to a store-specific gift card.

 

[LSchrow]

~ unroll a roll of toilet paper, leaving the last piece attached to the cardboard. place a single dollar on the paper, roll paper & bill onto cardboard, repeat rolling paper & bills until you reach the end. if you used a single roll package (like scott's) you can wrap it back in the original package.

~ make a treasure chest, use all gold dollar coins (post office norm has lots)for the treasure. it's fun to add some gold covered chocolate coins & mix well.

~ cut up newspaper the same size as dollar bills (even better is to use ads that have greenish tint ). crumble dollar bills & the newspaper rectangles. put in large box with silly directions for a game called "find george".

~ a less expensive present (but something that is special to your friend), wrapped in cash with pretty matching ribbon & bow.

~ cash inside a picture frame.

~ the money tree as others have stated.

~ if you decide to give a check rather than cash, make the amount odd (i.e., $103.56 instead of $100). i do this whenever i give a check for a present...fun especially for weddings cos it messes up their accounting

amazingly, people have told me that they enjoy getting gifts from me

hth

 

[Accentuate+]

Oh, another thing...if you want to put in the effort and you think this is the kind of thing your friend will enjoy.

There's a website www.wheresgeorge.com. You enter the serial number of a bill, stamp or write the web address on the bill (yes, this is legal, the site explains that part) and then spend - or give away - the bill. The idea is that as the bill 'travels' from owner to owner some people will see the web address on the bill, go to the website and enter the serial number and you can track where your money goes.
The site is addicting, I've had bills end up traveling back and forth across the country. You can also add a note about where you got the bill or where you'll spend it. My favorite was a bill I won at a casino. I spent it, it made it's way to a church offering and before all was said and done it had been to a strip club.

Anyway, that would be some work and you don't always get hits on the bills you enter but your friend could see where some of her money ended up.

 

[Nolcrest]

How about buying a photo album and filling the picture slots with a bills.

My mother has done this for showers and it is always a big hit. The recipient is usually very surprised when they open the album and see it filled with $.

 

[Plantlady]

My parents gave my husband and I a book one Christmas and told me to not lose the bookmarks. the bookmarks were $100 bills.

 

[tifandjim]

My mom always does really cool things with money for my birthday. She started this when I was 16. As an example, for my 25th birthday, (she apparently took months to work on this) she gave me 25 pennies (each one was a different year, one for each year I have been alive, starting with 1976 and going up). Then she also gave me the nickels, dimes, and quarters (one with each of the years, for all 25 years). Then 25 dollar bills, and then 25, $5 bills (no particular years). I still have all of the coins, still in the little bags she gave them to me in....I could never spend those coins after she took all that time to sort them. BTW, I also got 25 balloons, 25 roses, 25 packs of gum, and 25 birthday cards! She is insane....and dedicated! Every year she brings me all sorts of gifts having to do with the number of my age.

 

[Plantlady]

My mom always does really cool things with money for my birthday. She started this when I was 16. As an example, for my 25th birthday, (she apparently took months to work on this) she gave me 25 pennies (each one was a different year, one for each year I have been alive, starting with 1976 and going up). Then she also gave me the nickels, dimes, and quarters (one with each of the years, for all 25 years). Then 25 dollar bills, and then 25, $5 bills (no particular years). I still have all of the coins, still in the little bags she gave them to me in....I could never spend those coins after she took all that time to sort them. BTW, I also got 25 balloons, 25 roses, 25 packs of gum, and 25 birthday cards! She is insane....and dedicated! Every year she brings me all sorts of gifts having to do with the number of my age.

What a great idea! I might have to do this for my kids! my oldest is 10... maybe for his 13th birthday, the teenage years, I could do tons of things in groups of 13!

thanks for sharing!

 

[storzo]

Is he/she out on their own? A salad bowl filled with crumpled up bills (the lettuce) goes over well with my friends.

 

[feedindy]

Oh, if you decide to go with a simple check the amount $20.07 is always a hit for the year of graduation.

 

[Newfie2000]

I am loving these ideas! I too hate to just give a card with a check or bills in it and am always looking for unique ways to present $$$. At Christmas one of my favorite is to take one of those big plastic candy canes that are filled with individually wrapped hard candies, take out the candy and put it back in occassionally adding a wadded up bill. It is great fun to watch the receivers face as they think they just got candy in a plastic cane until either they notice or someone else notices the balled up bills inside. I imagine you could do the same thing with a candy jar of wrapped candies. I have quite a few books on making origami creations with dollar bills and even have a book on folding bills into paper airplanes. There is also a neat shirt frame floating around out there that is a plastic frame where you use I think it is five or six different bills folded on it to ultimately look like a brand new dress shirt, I really like the completed one. I also will take a common object such as a mayo jar and fill it with crumpled bills, put it in a gift bag and then write a funny story to go along with it. Of course you have to make the person read the story before they open the bag... and don't forget you must also weigh the object down - for example in the center of the mayo jar I used rolls of quarters to get the approximate weight. That one came out sooo cute, the story really played with words and pulled on BIL heartstrings and he was so not expecting what he found in the bag! Anyway... good luck with whatever you decide! It actually can be quite fun to give money!

 

[Katy Belle]

These are sooooo great! I am going to be doing some creative things at Christmas!!!!
Thanks Everybody!
Katy