Creative Ways to Give Money as a Gift

What do you get for the kid who has everything?  Money!  While kids do love to receive money in a card, sometimes you just wish there was a more interesting and fun way to give it.  Here are a few ways to give money that will be interactive and entertaining for kids and adults alike.

1. Tissue Box- Recycle a square facial tissue box for this gift.  You can cover it in pretty designer scrapbook paper if you like, but it’s not necessary.  Gather the number of one dollar bills that you want to give as the gift.  Tape the singles together end to end until you have taped them all together.  Use transparent tape so that it won’t damage the money when the recipient wants to spend it.  Gather up all of the money and tuck it into the tissue box leaving the last dollar sticking out of the box.  Put a tag on the box or make a card that says, “Don’t blow it all in one place!”  The longer the string of bills the more impressive the gift is.
2. Filled Balloons- Gather up the number of one dollar bills that you want to give as the gift.  Get the same number of balloons.  Small water balloons work well for this project and they are inexpensive.  Roll up the dollar bills and insert it into the balloon and then blow up the balloon.  Don’t blow it up all the way because changes in temperature could cause the balloon to pop if it’s too full.  Fill a box full of these dollar balloons and you can wrap it up and mail it or you can wrap it up and give it to the birthday child.  Other small trinkets and toys will also fit into the balloons so you can do as many balloons as you want.
3. Money Tree- You will need branches, an 8-inch terra cotta pot, Styrofoam ball, plaster of Paris, white spray paint (optional), ¼” ribbon, and dollar bills.  Get a Styrofoam ball that fits tightly into the pot.  Force the Styrofoam ball into the pot and push the branches into the Styrofoam ball in a pleasing way.  Mix up some plaster of Paris according to package directions and pour it into the pot to help weigh it down.  Allow the plaster to dry and harden.  Cover the pot with a plastic bag and paint all the branches white using some spray paint if you choose.  Allow paint to dry.  In the meantime; accordion fold some dollar bills and tie some ribbon around the bills.  When the tree is ready tie the money onto the branches using the ribbon tails.  Try to fill up the tree.  Put a note on it that says, “Today, money does grow on trees!”
4. Streamer ball- Gather together the dollar bills that you want to give, little trinket toys, a roll of streamers, and a sticker.  Fold up a larger bill if you have one or one of the other ones and start wrapping the streamer around it in all directions to form a ball.  As you wrap keep inserting toys or cash.  Keep wrapping until you have wrapped all of the money and toys in the streamer ball.  Take the sticker and attach the end of the streamer to the ball to hold it all together.  Give the ball as is or put it into a box and wrap the box.  The recipient will have to unwrap the entire ball to get all of their gifts.
5. Coupon books- Start out by ironing dollar bills so that they are crisp.  Cut out a piece of card board that is the same size as the bills.  Stack all of the bills on top of the cardboard and clamp them all together using binder clips.  Bind the money on all except one end.  On the open end apply some padding compound or sometimes called padding glue and allow it to dry.  Remove the binder clips and now you have a coupon book of money.  The money can be pulled off neatly without tearing just like you would on a note pad.

Now that you’ve learned a few creative ways to give money, hopefully you will try it the next time you need to give a money gift to a child or an adult.  The more clever the gift the more memorable it will be.

Source: http://www.aupair.org/blog/5-creative-ways-to-give-money-as-a-gift/.