The Money Machine!

It's the season of giving!! I love finding the perfect gift for all the people on my list, but some people are just difficult to shop for or you just know a gift of cold hard cash could be most appreciated this time of year.

So enter in the need to find gifts for two very special ladies. One of them put together an entire government/constitution class for two of my kids (and 15 others) and the other opened her home to us to have that class for 12 weeks! The families of the students wanted to get together and bless these ladies in some way. After tossing around several places to give gift certificates to, it was decided cash would be the best gift and since I never want to just "give cash" I had to find a creative way to present it. So enter in

"The money machine"

I saw several of these "premade" boxes online ranging from $5 to $17 dollars (plus shipping) Thinking I could make something that would be much cuter I decided to try making my own.

Start by taping your bills together end to end (I used a small piece of tape on both sides for extra strength.) The "store bought" ones came with a roll of repositionable tape. I experimented and found the scotch "matte finish" came off the bills nicely (as long as the tape didn't over lap the entire edge of the bill.)

When your money chain is finished rolled up the bills and place in a box that will fit not only the roll but big enough you can cut a slit in the top to feed your chain through.

Never being one to want a "plain" box I decided to decorate mine some. I got out the Mod Podge, printed off some "play money" and went to town "Podging" the money onto the top of the box and adding the letter stickers when done. I gave it a final coat of Mod Podge to act as a sealer to make sure the stickers stayed in place.

I added some directions I created and printed off and then also realized I wanted some type of "pull tab" to thread through the top of the box so this I also printed off and then taped to the end of the dollar bill roll.

Then it was just wrapping them and waiting the agonizing couple of days till we could give them away!

Supplies used: Mod Podge, play money (images printed from online), letter stickers (stickabilities), Fiskars fingertip craft knife.