Creative DIY 18th Birthday Money Gift | Tutorial

Congratulations, finally an adult! But in order to enjoy their new freedom, newly turned 18-year-olds need a financial injection or two. Find out here how to creatively spice up an 18th birthday money gift!

The 18th birthday is a day like no other! Finally coming of age means for many young people: finally being able to do what you want and – finally being allowed to drive a car. But not only the driving licence costs money. Many young adults also have travel plans or want to move into their first own flat.

A 18th birthday money gift is therefore more than welcome for most birthday children. And the joy is even greater when it comes in a creative design and you can see that the giver has put some thought into it!

Recently, I had the opportunity to make such a gift for a niece on her 18th birthday – you can see the result in the photos. Here are the instructions!

DIY 18th Birthday Money Gift

As a motif for the 18th birthday money gift, we have chosen a road leading through a green landscape. A car made of banknotes, whose wheels are made of 2-euro pieces, drives along the road. There is also a stop sign on the side, which is also made of a 2-euro piece. On the green “meadow” next to the road, there are also other symbolic objects folded from banknotes : a heart, a small boat, a flower and a fan.

In addition to the reference to the driving licence, the winding road also represents, in general, the adult life that now lies ahead of the birthday child, the “life journey”, so to speak.

This Is What You Need for the Craft

Subsoil and Road for the 18th Birthday Money Gift

Simply use the green paper as the background. Cut out a street in the desired shape and size from the grey paper. To be on the safe side, you can also draw it out in pencil beforehand.

Glue the finished road onto the green background. All that’s left are the central stripes, which you can cut out of ordinary white writing paper and stick on.

The Car Made of Money

Empty out the 3 matchboxes. Then glue 2 boxes together “lengthwise”, i.e. with the smallest surface. For more stability, we used all-purpose glue as well as scotch tape, which we wrapped around the “body”. Now wrap a 20 euro note around the whole thing and fix it with easily removable double-sided tape.

We cut the third matchbox into a trapezoid shape so that it resembles the upper part of a car with a windscreen and rear window. Then wrap money around this part as well, a 10 euro note is sufficient in size for this.

It is a bit tricky to fix both parts of the money car on top of each other in such a way that they hold together but can be taken apart again without tearing the banknotes, but it works with good double-sided tape. In a pinch, you can also put a rubber band around both parts, but that doesn’t look quite as nice.

As wheels, we then stuck on four 2-euro pieces with scotch tape and stuck the finished money car to the road again with double-sided adhesive paper.

The Stop Sign

For the pole of the stop sign, we simply wrapped 4 matchsticks with sellotape. But just loosely enough that you can wedge a 2 euro piece between each 2 and 2 matches, the actual stop sign. With a drop or two of all-purpose glue it will hold. As a base for the stop sign we folded a small mini box out of white paper. An alternative is to use a little bit of modelling clay.

The Little Ship

To symbolise the birthday girl’s travel plans, we also folded a little ship out of a dime. Most people have probably known how to do this since primary school; for those who don’t remember it so well, here’s a reminder:

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The Fan

The fan or bush is also quite easy to fold: to make a 180° fan, you first need 2 notes of the same size, in our case two tens. Now fold each of these banknotes lengthwise, alternately to the front and to the back, so that a fine ripple pattern is created. Then fold the banknotes exactly in the middle and carefully stick the edges together from behind with double-sided adhesive tape. Do the same to glue the 2 banknotes together.

The Heart

The heart is also very easy to fold, here is another tutorial on YouTube:

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The Flower

The flower is minimally more complex and you need the craft wire for it. But there is also a video tutorial for this:

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Finalising the 18th Birthday Money Gift

Finally, attach all the elements to the background, again using double-sided tape. In a central place you can now write a wish like “Happy Birthday” or “All the best” with a sharpie. The 18th birthday gift is ready!

Have fun making it and enjoy giving it!

You love to craft and when you give something as a gift, it is either completely DIY or, if bought, then at least spiced up with an original self-made packaging? On Greatime you’ll find lots of crafting ideas for occasions like Easter, Halloween and Christmas, as well as lots of tips for DIY gifts, from homemade choco crossies to the concrete hand bowl.

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