This is my favorite way to give money as a gift. I’ve been making these forever. Years ago, I posted ones that I made here and here.
This weekend my sister threw her husband Billy a surprise 50th birthday. I thought a money book of 50 singles would be perfect. I took photos of the steps so I could share it with you.
Unless perhaps if you live in Mayberry and know Betty the bankteller personally, you’ll need to try to hit up your bank at a time when they are not busy. Here’s why…you need to ask the bank teller for a stack of nice clean one dollar bills. I think sometimes they get stacks of nice clean new ones but mostly they get stacks of ones that have been circulated. And some of them are disgusting. You just can’t make this project with flimsy ugly dollar bills. It works best with brand spanking new dollars but they can be hard to find…especially if you need 50 to 100 of them. If you are thinking of making this project for a Christmas project, plan ahead and get the money soon. Banks get busy at Christmastime. While you are there, and especially if the bank teller is nice, you can ask for a money band like the $50 money band shown above. It’s a nice way of telling how much money is in the book.
You can make this book with $25 and up. Less than $25 makes really too flimsy of a book. The bigger the stack, the better!
You’ll need to cut 2 pieces of decorative paper to 4.5″ x 8″.
Also cut 2 pieces of decorative paper to about the size of a dollar bill: 2.5″ x 6″. For the spine you’ll need a piece of paper 1″ x 3.5″ (not shown)
Cut three pieces of chipboard:
two 3.5″ x 7″ (covers) and one 1″ x 3.5″ (spine)
You’ll also need:
Bookbinding tape (like that found here)
Hot glue gun and wooden sticks
Binder clips (at least 4)
Your favorite dry adhesive. I used the extra strong gluestick from Elmers and Alene’s Tacky double-stick sheets (LOVE!).
Take one of the papers cut to the size of the dollar and put it at the bottom of the stack of bills, right side up.
Use binder clips to secure the stack, making sure that the ends are lined up nicely. The better you do this, the better the money pad you’ll make. It’s easiest to do with crisp new ones.
Add binder clips along the side of the stack.
Slip the binder clips at the end of the stack off and carefully replace the ones on the side to very close to the edge. Essentially, you want to squeeze the stack together as much as you can.
Use your hand to squeeze the inside part between the binder clips…
I couldn’t take the photo of me squeezing the stack and applying the hot glue but that’s what you want to do. Be carefully not to get the hot glue on your fingers!
Working quickly, use a wooden stick to spread out the hot glue before it sets.
It’s a little messy. You can use the side of the hot glue gun like an iron to reheat the glue and then use the stick to spread it out some more. Check for loose bills. You can reglue these to the top of the stack.
Now let’s make the covers. Glue the chipboard covers in the center of decorative paper.
Fold and glue the ends up. See below for how to fold and glue the corners.
For the front cover, glue the decorative piece of paper in the center to create the inside of the front cover.
Likewise, glue the bottom page of the money stack (the decorative sheet) into place as the inside back cover. I really like using the Alene’s Tacky double-stick sheets for this!
Adhere the decorative paper on one side of the spine chipboard piece.
Use binder’s tape to cover the outside of the spine. Expose the adhesive of the binder’s tape and center the spine piece over it.
Assemble the book by laying the front and back covers over the exposed binder’s tape and secure.
And there you have it…a money book!
I used the money band to wrap the stack. It’s a good way to quickly show how much the stack is worth.
I decided to redo the spine with red binder’s tape that I wrapped around the spine.
Here is the book open. I used the inside cover to add a birthday message.
And I used a sticker to decorate the front.
