With 3 kids, we have quite a few birthday parties to attend throughout the year. The kiddos absolutely love it and it has helped me to see what kind of gifts kids like to recieve. While we do have a go-to list of gift ideas for friends, this one has made the top of the list as it is super easy to personalize and you just can’t go wrong with the gift of money! The recipient can buy what they want, and you don’t have to spend half your afternoon searching for the “perfect” gift. Just set your budget and you’re good to go! It’s also perfect for any age, and you can even switch out the gift wrap to do the same idea for Christmas gifts.
We like to add a personalized touch to it by handwriting on the card pieces of the gift, but if you don’t care for a handwritten message, you can easily type it up and print it off as well. Now, read along to see just how easy it is to make your own Money In A Box gift and you’ll wonder why you’ve never done this before.
Start by setting your budget and get that amount in $1 bills. For this gift, we had a budget of $15 (not including the gift wrap and bow). Line up your $1 bills, end to end, and secure with a piece of clear tape. Flip the money over and repeat on the back side as well so that the sticky side of the tape is not exposed. You will want to leave a small gap between each bill so that it is easy to cut them apart for use.
Next, you will want to cut a hole in the top of your box, slightly larger than the width of your bills, and about a 3/4 inch wide.
You will then wrap your gift, as usual and use a craft knife to slice through the paper at the same size of your precut opening. Secure the opening with tape.
You’ll now want to write a couple of little notes to go with the gift. We cut these to be the same width as your bills, and then make them as long as you’d like. You’ll want one for the beginning and one for the end. Your first note can same something like “Happy Birthday (recipient’s name)”. Secure one end with some curly ribbon and the gift bow, then tape the other end of the “Happy Birthday” note to the beginning side of your bills.
The second note is where we write something like “I hope you have a wonderful day. Love, (giver’s name)”. This gift, in particular, was for my niece and from our entire family so you’ll notice it has a lot of names. Tape the ending note to the opposite side of your bills as where you attached the first note. You’ll have a long string of notes and bills.
You may notice my son helped me with this one since it was for his cousin. He absolutely adores her!
You can now start feeding your notes/bills into the opening of the gift box. Think opposite at this step. You’ll feed in the last note first so that the curly ribbon/bow end is at the top of the gift.
For the final touch, attach a quick little note that says “PULL HERE”. This is not a necessity, but it adds to the excitement of the gift and makes it look super cute, in my opinion.
And there you have it! A Money In A Box gift idea. We’ve done this for boy parties and used a more masculine gift paper, girl parties like what you see here. You could also tape small candies to the end note, if you’d like. Money is a fun gift, no matter the age. My 4 year old niece absolutely lit up when she realized she was getting her own money. My son’s teenage friends love it because it’s a fun way of saying “buy what you want”.
I think it would be so fun to give to someone when you have a larger budget as well. Can you imagine the amount of bills they would just keep pulling and pulling, just to wonder “When will it end?!” So fun!!
Leave me a comment below and let me know how your recipient liked their Money In A Box gift.