DIY Money and Flowers Bouquet

In today’s post: Learn how to put together this beautiful money bouquet, which makes the perfect gift for graduation, birthdays, or weddings! This is an easy DIY gift you can complete in about an hour.

Beautiful DIY Money Gift

I love unique ways to give money, and this bouquet that pairs dollar bills with faux flowers does not disappoint! This bouquet turns out beautiful and it looks great in photos, but it’s not that hard to put together. You can customize the colors of the flowers to match a graduate’s high school or a bride’s wedding colors. Plus you can customize the amount of money you give by using different bills.

Start with a Pool Noodle

I made a different type of money bouquet a few years ago that was super popular (check it out here) but I like this one even better! It uses a pool noodle as the base for the bouquet, making it easier to keep things looking tidy and creating a nice “handle” for holding the bouquet.

Idea Source: I got this idea from Luxx_Roses – check them out if you’d like to order a bouquet or take a virtual class.

Supplies

Here’s what you’ll need to make this bouquet:

• Pool Noodle: You’ll cut a small section of pool noodle to act as the base of your bouquet. It doesn’t matter what color pool noodle you use as it will not show in the finished bouquet.
• Extra Long Toothpicks: I used Diamond L’Elegance Extra Long Toothpicks that are four inches long (I found them at Walmart for about three dollars). If you can’t find extra long toothpicks, you could use bamboo skewers instead – you’ll just need to cut them to four inches long.
• Faux Flowers: I used two stems of small roses from Dollar Tree for this bouquet. Each stem has six roses on it and I used 11 of them. The flowers should be 1.5-2 inches across at the top and about 2 inches tall – larger flowers will not work.
• Dollar Bills: You’ll need 18 dollar bills total, 5 for the inner ring and 13 for the outer ring. The finished bouquet will look much better if you IRON the dollar bills before beginning.
• Tape: You can use either scotch tape or masking tape to put the money petals together. I used masking tape this time because it is easier to remove when the recipient wants to take the bouquet apart.
• Tissue paper: You’ll need about six sheets of tissue paper for wrapping the bouquet.

How to Make a Money + Flowers Bouquet

Create Petals from Money

Before beginning, iron each dollar bill you plan to use until it’s nice and flat. For each petal you will use one toothpick and one dollar bill. You will also need three pieces of masking tape or scotch tape. Start with the bill face up on a table. Fold it in half and crease it, so when you open it back up you can see the exact center of the bill. Place the flat end of a toothpick onto the crease so that about half an inch of the toothpick is on the bill. Place a piece of tape over the toothpick, letting about a quarter inch of the tape extend past the end of the bill, as shown in the first photo below. Flip the bill over and place another piece of tape on the back of the bill in the same place, again letting the tape extend past the end of the bill.

Flip the bill face side up again. Grab the two bottom corners and bring them together, curving them in so the bottom sides touch. Pull the corners together to create a petal shape, and secure the bill by taping across it as shown below.

You can see what the petals look like in the photo below. Repeat until you have five petals for the inner ring of the bouquet and thirteen more for the outer ring.

Assemble the Center of the Bouquet

To assemble the bouquet, start by cutting a nine inch section of the pool noodle that you will use for the base of the bouquet. Also, cut each rose off the main stem, leaving about four inches of stem below each bloom. Slide any leaves off the stems. Grab one rose and place it in the middle of the pool noodle, poking the stem into the inside circle of the pool noodle as you see below.

Next, you’ll add the five money petals around the inside rose. Poke the toothpicks into the top flat surface of the pool noodle, halfway between the inner and outer edge. Try to distribute the five petals fairly evenly around the circle. It won’t look super full yet; that’s just fine.

Add a Ring of Flowers

Next you will add ten flowers around the inner ring of money. You’ll be poking the stems of the flowers into the outer edge of the top of the pool noodle, as shown below. Place one flower at the center of each money petal, and one flower in between each money petal, for a total of ten flowers. Try to poke the stems more down in the noodle than toward the center of it.

Add the Outer Ring of Money Petals

Now it’s time to add the outer ring of money petals. You’ll be poking the toothpicks into the side of the pool noodle about half an inch from the top. You will use thirteen money petals, so they will be spaced a little closer together than the ten flowers are, but don’t stress about making the spacing perfectly even. You can adjust a few if needed once you’ve placed all the money petals. You can also gently adjust the flowers and other money petals until you like how it looks.

Wrap the Bouquet

Grab a sheet of 20×20 inch tissue paper and fold it into quarters, offsetting each fold a bit as shown below. Repeat with four more sheets of tissue paper. Fold the last sheet of tissue paper in half and then in half again lengthwise, so you have a long strip of tissue paper.

Use the five sheets of tissue paper to gently wrap the bouquet, allowing the corners to show on the sides of the bouquet when you look down from the top. Secure the tissue paper to the pool noodle with tape or a rubber band. Then use the long strip you made from the last piece of tissue paper to wrap the bottom of the pool noodle. Secure it with tape, tucking the bottom edges in and securing those tape as well.