How about some fun Money Origami? http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/

I am giving my older sons cash for Christmas and I bought one of those "Easy Buttons" in a box from Staples. I plan to put the cash in the box with the Easy Button.

I thought the "easy buttons" were just an advertising thing. What are you supposed to do with them? (what are they really made for)??

I am fixing money trees for the grandchildren using the styrofoam shaped cones or using posterboard rolled into a cone shape. Just use two sided tape and make a tree. I think I will try curling the bottom end to curl up like a tree branch. You can just use straight pens with colored heads to look like ornaments. Put a sequin on the pin and add more decorations, going to play with this and I know I can make it look like a tree rather than just hanging straight down. What do you think?

I don't have ideas to give money - just wanted to say how cute the Hard Cold Cash and Umbrella money gifts are. What great ideas.

Sal

I remember rolling up each dollar bill and tying a red ribbon around each. Then I stuck them into little box. One gift recipient didn't show up for hers and it ws in my drawer for a long time. I found when I need a one I'd go in and pull one out!!

I saw a book at Michaels about a bunch of ways to fold money . That was neat ! I also want to give some kids money for Christmas and I saw this Gizmo ( I can make for nothing ) it's just a box with a slot in it -- you tape the curency end to end and they pull it out like one long paper. I KNOW I can make something better . That's what I'm doing this year .

How about one of those bean jars with the hidden hidey-hole in the middle? Stick the money down inside it. They'll think you're giving them a jar of lentils or split peas or something. And who doesn't need a place to stash their goodies?

I saw the Money Origami book at Barnes and Noble the other day. That would be a good gift with money stuck in the pages and one folded one for the bow.

Some time ago, (well, maybe several years!), we had a similar post here. I saved the ideas. Here they are...

Money Books
I made "coupon" books with one dollar bills for them. I cut Christmas paper (2 pieces) just a little larger than the bill and one piece the width of the bill and just about an inch long (of a different color for more effect) for the binder. I paper clipped the bills together after making sure they were stacked evenly to hold them tight together. Then I used 2 way glue (Zig Memory System found at WalMart) and spread the glue on the short end of the bills and the binder. The bills and the binder will stick together, and just glue the binder and bills to the covers. It's just like making a mini book. The bills pull out just like a coupon. (I also ironed the bills flat, the bank did not have enough nice crisp ones.). I then painted the child's name on the front cover of each and added cute Christmas picture too. I'm thinking about adding ribbon too.

Jeanne This above is essentially what I did. I printed the covers using card stock, then covered the whole printed sheet with clear contact, then cut the covers to size (just slightly larger than bills). Used either AleeneÂs OK to Wash It glue, or AleeneÂs Stop Fray glueÂjust whatever I had around to glue the bills. I clamped the bills together (after ironing) and glued the "left" end. After glue had dried, I wrapped a length of double-sticky tape along the glued end, and used that to stick the covers on. Then I covered the sticky end with a narrow piece of clear contact that ran along the Âspine and slightly onto the front and back covers. See idea below, too. Very similar.

For college kids, and those going to college (and if I ever start going to weddings again) I make a checkbook. You can get clear plastic checkbook covers from most banks. Make a template on Print Artist. You can personalize it in any way. Then I take the money, usually singles, a piece of stiffer paper, and rubber cement or tacky glue. Line the bills up with the paper at the end. Put in a vice, or under a brick. Tacky glue the long end. Do this a few times. Take out, insert in checkbook. They can pull the dollars off as they need them. Did it for my friendÂs daughter going to college, called it $1 Beer Night Money. Did it for my 16 year old nephew. Called in Emergency Gas Money, etc.

The only one I can remember is taping the $$ to a long piece of string. Make a slit in the top of a shoe box. Put the money & string in the box and leave a little string hanging out of the slit the recipient will have to pull & pull to get the "treasure."

You can crinkle dollar bills up and stuff them in a 2 liter bottle with shredded paper. Make a label for whatever you are giving the money for ( birthday, wedding etc.) or unroll a roll of toilet paper. Take a few bills and tape them length ways to the cardboard roll then carefully put the toilet paper back on the roll. They will think you are crazy for giving them TP until they get to the last of the roll).

Or fold the bills into origami shapes, like hearts, trees, shirts, etc.

Or get a coffee can and fill it with sand or plaster of Paris. Right before it sets put in a branch of a tree (minus the leaves). When it is all set, you can either leave it the way it is or spray paint it. Then attach dollar bills all over the branches.

Or you can get a bunch of walnuts and CAREFULLY crack them opened where you have the 2 halves. Take the dollar bills and fold them tight so they will fit inside the shell. Hot-glue the shells back together. When they crack the nuts they will get a surprise.

Take a small jewelry box (cardboard), put a straight pin in it, wrap the box as a present. Then for the bow I used an inflated balloon with money rolled up in it. My grandfather saw the money in the balloon but couldn't figure out how to get it out. Finally, after he opened the box he realized to use the pin and pop the balloon. When he did money flew everywhere!

I once gave a $25 gift. I rolled up each single $1 bill and tied it with a bow then put them all in a fancy box.

Last year I made this for my husbandÂs elderly aunt. I bought a small artificial Christmas tree in a pretty pot. I folded 25 dollar bills in half, and then folded them accordion style and tied then in the middle with silver tinsel. If you can picture an X on its side, this is what they looked like after they were folded and tied. I used the tinsel to tie them to the tree. The tree looked like it was covered with green bows. It really came out pretty, and she still had a nice little tree to set out after she took the money off.

I did this for a neighbor's child's birthday gift, but you could adapt it. I took a shoe box, but a slit in the lid. Taped $1 bills together, included some of the Sunday comic strips, some wrapping paper strips, etc. and taped the beginning to the outside of the shoe box (it was wrapped appropriately). So when Nick started pulling the strip, he kept pulling and pulling and finally came to the good stuff, the money.

You can cut bill-sized pieces from magazines or newspaper circulars, lots of them. Group them together into piles, putting real bills on the top and bottom of each pile, securing each pile with elastic bands. Just like in the movies! Put the piles in a plain brown lunch bag, and put the lunch bag in a fancy box. You should get a few laughs!

I very carefully pried open around ten walnuts and removed the nuts. Then we folded 10 bills - some ones, fives, and tens, and placed them inside the walnut shells. Then, we carefully glued the shells back together, and mixed them with the other nuts in our nut bowl on the coffee table. We could hardly wait until someone started digging into the nut bowl. Finally, my 16 year old nephew was the first to get a nut with a $5 in it, and he screamed, "Look at this! This nut has money in it!" Well, needless to say, that nut bowl was a HUGE success, and we had the BEST time!

Last year I gave my niece a "money umbrella." In the middle of a one dollar bill, I pinched it together and tied it to a 12" piece of ribbon. I opened the umbrella and tied about 25 "money ribbons" to the metal frames. I carefully stuffed the money ribbons inside the umbrella and closed it. I attached a card (with a little poem)to the umbrella. I can't remember exactly how I worded the poem. When she opened the umbrella lots of money fell out. She was delighted.

I took a cardboard tube from wrapping paper. Inside I put crazy stuff like an old ink pen, candy canes, pennies, old keys along with money (I put the money in a baggie). After you seal the ends wrap it in paper. It sounds like one of those rain makers . My brother loved it and couldn't wait to open his noise maker.

I don't remember where I read this post (sorry to not give credit) but I am planning on giving my 19 year old cousin COLD HARD CASH. I put a $20 bill in plastic ware and froze it. Then I will wrap it and attach a poem/note about not knowing what to get...

Wrapping Toys R Us gift cards
I was going to get nieces and nephews Geoffrey money for Christmas, fold it up and put it in a balloon so they'd have to blow the balloon up and pop it to get to the money, but they only have gift cards (just like a credit card) so it's not going to work. Any ideas on how I can make it fun for these little ones to open it? They range in age from 5 to 10 years.

I use a lot of product boxes for unboxed items. I use cereal, puzzle, mac and cheese, cat food-- and any other box around the house, then wrap them. You can wrap the card in tissue paper, or wrap it in a smaller box, then in a bigger one. I've done it for years. The mind zooms right on the box picture, and really throws the contents right off.

Could you make the crepe paper gift balls that were discussed here some time ago? You buy roils of the crepe paper streamer used for decorations, put the gift card in the center, then start wrapping with the crepe paper. Once you get the center pretty well covered, then you continue to wrap, periodically tucking in little things like a coin, a piece of candy, balloon, McDonalds gift coupon, etc. then wrap some more. Use a holiday sticker to attach the end of the paper to the ball. Wrap as much or as little as you like. The kids must then unwrap the ball in the reverse of how it was wrapped, and discover all the little treasures along the way - no simply ripping it apart. When they get to the center, they get your gift certificate! As an alternative for the older kids, you could freeze the card in the center of a milk carton or can filled with water - the card is plastic, so it will be fine. You can slip the ice out of the container and present it to them, and they would have to wait for the "gift" to melt before they could see it. You could seal a gift card in the center with the credit card that says "For Christmas we thought you'd like a little cold, hard cash!"

1. How about using an empty 2 liter pop bottle, washed of course. Take the label off, cut a slit in the side where the label was insert some shredded gift bag stuffing, then the gift certificate. Make a label on your computer that has their name on it and a little poem about selecting their own gift etc. Cover the lid with tons of curled curly ribbon. Place the bottle in a gift bag that has tissue coming out of the top, so all that shows is the curly ribbon.
2. Purchase a large candy bar, like the huge HersheyÂs Bars. Insert the card between the wrapper and the foil wrapping. Wrap both, or put in a larger box that is wrapped.
3. Make a little Christmas stocking to put the certificate in, tuck candies in all around it.
4. Put it in a small box, and wrap it with paper and ribbon, then place this box in a larger box, and wrap it with paper and ribbon, then place that box in a larger box and wrap it with paper and ribbon...keep going until they have a huge box to unwrap...kids love the unwrapping!!
5. Tape it to a brick or other heavy object and then wrap it.
6. You can still put it inside a balloon it just requires a special balloon that has a wider opening. Or you might try to improvise and stretch a regular balloon opening larger, by inserting something larger like a curling ribbon spool into the neck to hold it open while you drop stuff in, then remove it and blow it up, or take it to have it blown up with helium.

Poems for gift of money

Been from store to store
Looking for just the right gift
I couldn't find it anywhere
It really had me miffed
And so I decided
After making my mad dash
The best thing I could give you
Would be some cold hard cash.

It was time to go shopping,
Didn't know what to do
Wanted to get something
Perfect, as special as you.
As I sat there in panic,
The answer came in a flashÂ
Along with warm, loving thoughts
Give the kid COLD, HARD CASH!

flamingo I'm doing the same thing with the little box of money on a roll, Money Machine....I even found money wrapping paper, quite by accident.

I found it in one of those millions of catalogs from Harriett Carter...

i was thinking you could fold dollar bills in 1/2 long ways and then roll/curl them around like you would to make paper roses,twisttie them onto lollipop sticks and make a bouquet of money...a dozen roses for a 12 yr old girl would be great as a b'day gift also...

I know it is a little late...but I got the pattern for folding a Christmas tree shape out of paper money of any demonination.

It was then put on the front of a red card stock card with the double side sticky tape. and Decorated with gold cord.

Then a printed message on the inside.

Made a cute card and a cute way to give money.

patti

Pattico, could you make a tree and show us step by step how it was folded?

I know this post is now late for Christmas but I did the money origami thing for the neices and nephew as they are college students and their parents buy them most everything they need. I figure they can always use some wild spending money over clothing and such.

I made an origami shirt out of a $100 bill for each of my neices and wrapped each tiny shirt in tissue paper and put them into full sized shirt boxes and said...Merry Christmas...ya'll are too old for toys so you're getting shirts from me this year!!!

For my only nephew I made a five pointed money origami star out of five $20 bills. Told him he was going to have to start decorating his own place and I was giving him a star for the top of his tree.

They got a kick out of it :o)

Got the instructions from the internet by googling money origami.

~ Cat

Well I have the pic. of the one I printed out...but I can't get the instruction to show you...

I got it from an advent calendar that net4tv.com put out for web tv'ers and it is gone now...but here is one that is sort of like it only the one I have the tree is just a triangle with a stem...
This one is more involved.

http://dev.origami.com/images_pdf/xmastree.pdf

it opens in word or some program like that...and it takes a bit to show up ...be patient.

if you google dollar bill origami...you will finds tons of things you can fold a dollar bill into.

patti

I was searching for a poem for cash or a general gift card. I am also looking for a money tree poem. I am giving the money tree as a gift for Christmas to my SIL. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I love the buskers, street musicians, in our city...they share their remarkable talents with everyone who passes by, regardless of who can pay. Every year I buy boxes of candy canes, tie red and green curling ribbon to the tops, then fold dollar bills accordian style and tie them to the canes. When you open the ends, they look like bows. I hang or place the canes on the buskers' money containers to add a festive touch and show my appreciation.

Last year, my mom got a frame and did a collage of money inside. It was so pretty the girls were reluctant to spend it (but they did anyway).
And for HS graduation presents last Spring, I bought a salad shaker bowl, crumpled up dollar bills and put inside and added a card saying "to help fight off the freshman 15, I thought I'd give you a bowl of greens!"

Make or purchase match boxes. Use brads and ribbon for drawer handles. Glue boxes together to form a little chest of drawers. In each drawer put money.

I did the "salad" idea for my daughter's birthday. Got a rubbermaid lidded bowl, crumpled up one dollar bills, enough to equal her age. I attached salad tongs to the top. I forgot that I wanted to send along a bottle of ranch dressing. LOL

My grandparents always used to tell my brother that "Money doesn't grow on trees!" So for his 13th birthday they gave him a money tree.
In our backyard they attached 50 x $1 bills to a rhododendron tree with paperclips.
When my brother came out he was so surprised to see that money did in fact grow on trees! It truly did make his 13th birthday memorable! He still talks about that to this day, and he's now 36 years old.

I saw a money gift this year, they used a large gift box and folded the money to spell out the boys name, they used different money amounts but when he opened the box his name was spelled with money and that was a neat gift..

I sometimes buy a bunch of silk artificial flowers...perhaps in the same colour as the notes you wish to use. I remove about half the flower heads & leave half as they are. I then fold in an accordian manner, all the notes I wish to give. I put a ribbon or florist wire around the centre & then use florist tape to attach these to where the flowers were removed. The money looks a bit like bows amongst the flowers. I have given this for Birthdays, Xmas & also Wedding gifts. I made the Wedding one look exactly like a Bridal Bouquet & the Xmas one was a table centrepiece, using red & white artificial silk flowers, mixed with mini pine cones, wrapped sweets, candy canes & mini bonbons made out of rolled shiny Xmas paper tied at each end bonbon style, all poking out with the cash notes....they all looked very nice & were so well received that no one wanted to ruin them by removing their cash gift!

Last Chritmas Florida DS sent me and DS here each a money tre a2 ft artificial tree with Dollar bills tied to many of the branches. DS here took his apart last week and there wer 36 ones tied to it. I'm keeeping mine intact

The past three years my nephews were all given money for Christmas. The first year, I glued a stack of 50 brand new crisp $1 bills together to create a book out of them, just like what was mention above.
The second year, I did the 2-liter bottle thing. I pit a slit in the plastic, crumpled up the money loosley then applied a new, personalized label when the original label would be to cover up the slit I made. To make it more difficult for them to open the bottle, I glued the cap on. Because the money was loosely crumpled, it took them a bit of thinking before they found out how I got the money in there in the first place. Now that I think of it, I should have done some sort of origami folding of the money so they would have really been scratching their heads. I finished off the bottle with curling ribbon around the neck
Last year, my mom rolled the money up in toilet paper (still on the roll of course) then wrapped it in various boxes from around the house (Mac n' cheese, pop tarts, etc.)
This year, I plan to do something different; different than I've done in the past and different for each nephew (5 of them). In the past, since they all got the cash in the same way, once one of them opened the gift containing the money, the rest of them were not as surprised. I have to say that the money pad was by far the biggest hit. My son didn't want to spend which I was happy he was saving it but on the other hand he didn't want to put it in the bank either. Oh well, at least he didn't spend it foolishly, right.
Lastly, if you are going to gift money, plan ahead so you can get brand new crisp bills. If the bank does not have any/enough, I'm sure if you ask them to "order" you some they will do it. New, crisp bills makes for a better gift!
For this year I am for sure going to do the cold hard cash and the umbrella ideas....now I just need to find 3 more and I'll be set!

Check out 'Just stick it right on the money' they sell kits that customise notes using post-it style stickers (that do not damage the paper) - look really fun and so easy.