We had a college graduation party to attend this past weekend and had decided to give cash as the gift. What college graduate can’t use a little extra!! Since putting money in a card is so boring, I tried my hand at making a money rose!
I found a fantastic tutorial here but also took pictures of my own and thought it might help to tell you in my own words what I did. I always find it helpful to have a couple different perspectives. You never know when the right wording will click!
Here are the supplies you will need:
- 5 crisp bills
- 6 pipe cleaners
- Scissors
The first part you will make is the center of the rose. Fold the bill in half as shown above, then curl the edges (one side towards you, the other side away from you). I just rolled the bill with my fingers to form the curls. Slide about an inch and a half of a pipe cleaner into the fold and gently gather the bill as you squeeze the pipe cleaner closed. Twist the pipe cleaner to secure. Use your finger to push out the two sides of the center to form a bubble shape. Remember to keep the curls together. Set this aside.
To form the outside petals, fold the bill in a “V” shape as shown above. Curl all of the edges in the same direction. With the curls to the back, slide about an inch and a half of the pipe cleaner into the fold and gently gather the bill together. As you squeeze the pipe cleaner, cup the petals slightly so that the inside of the cup is towards you and the curls are to the back. Repeat this three more times to form the 4 sets of petals.
Gather all of the petals around the center section, adjusting their position to form a circle, and twist all the pipe cleaners together to form the flower stem.
Cut two pipe cleaners in half and fold like the above picture to form leaves. Twist the leaves onto the stem of the rose. Leaves on roses come in sets of three but use what works best for your arrangement. I was only making one rose so I used three leaves on mine. If you were making a bouquet, you might want to use less leaves on each rose so that the bottom of the arrangement doesn’t get too busy.
Fluff the petals as needed to create soft curves and to fill in any blank spaces.
I displayed my rose in a pottery vase I had made and put the entire arrangement in a gift bag with some tissue paper. This was way better than money in a card!
As you can see from the picture, I used $10 bills. However, any denomination would work just fine! If I had wanted a bouquet instead of a single flower, I would have used $1 bills. It also depends on how much the money gift is…higher amounts use more bills! With graduations, weddings and bridal showers in abundance at this time of year, this is a great way to give cash with a little creative flair.
Who would you make a money rose for? Would you go for the single flower or a whole bouquet?
I link up at these great parties!