Make a Graduation Money Lei Necklace

Make a Graduation Money Lei Necklace. Instead of giving money in an envelope for graduation, get creative and make a graduation lei necklace with MONEY leafs! After graduation the graduate can take the paper elements off and still have a cute wood necklace to wear and remember their special day!

I have TWO kids graduating this year! My older daughter graduated from college and my younger daughter graduates from high school. All in one month – whew!! I love seeing graduation money leis and I have always wanted to make one! So when I got a surprise package in the mail the other day I opened it and found my friend Brittany from The House That Lars Built new book – Craft The Rainbow!! It is the most beautiful book FULL of an amazing assortment of projects categorized by COLOR!!

You probably know Brittany’s blog- The House That Lars Built and all of her jaw-dropping projects. I love following along with her to see her DIY’s – they are always so innovative and inspiring. The scale and color that she uses spark my creativity!!

I promptly sat down and looked through all of the projects – there are 40! In the green section there is a Money Lei Necklace. It was perfect for my girls’! The book came the day before my first daughter graduated from college so I decided to make the necklace that night. I used what I had since it was so last-minute. So my necklace is a little different from Brittany’s. Be sure to grab her book to make her version. I also love that the projects in the book come with templates. All you have to do is copy the templates and it makes creating the projects SO fast and easy!!

Here’s my version of a Graduation Lei Necklace:

Supplies:

Wood Beads (I had these left over from my chandelier that I made a few years ago. You can buy similar wood beads at Hobby Lobby)

Twine

Hot Glue and Glue Gun

Wire

Paper (two different colors. One for the leaves and one for the flowers)

Money! (I used 20’s but you can make it with any denomination. It would be SUPER fun to make it with dollar bills and made TONS of leafs!)

Directions:

Fold the money in money leafs

Fold both corners in so they make a right-angle (see – that math DID come in handy after all!)

Fold the bill length-wise

Fold the bill accordion-style

Fold the bill in half

Attach the edges of the bill at the bottom with masking tape.

Do this with all bills

Set aside.

String the wood beads

You can paint the beads first if you want. Tie it off.

Cut out the flowers

I just free-handed some flowers

You can get the stencil in Brittany’s book

Fold the flowers

Use a pencil to fold the flowers so they are curved.

Cut out the leaves

I just free-handed the leaves but you can get the leave stencil from Brittany’s book.

Cut wire

I cut a 2-inch piece of wire for each flower and leaf I created. My necklace had five 20-dollar bill leafs, 8 leafs and 5 flowers. I cut a 4-inch piece of wire for each of the bills.

Hot glue the wire to the paper

Hot glue the wire to the leaves and flowers – NOT the money

Wrap the longer wire around the bills

Thread the wire through the loop at the top of the paper bill leafs. Make a loop around the middle of the bill and wrap the bottom around itself to secure the bill. Then attach the other end of the wire to the necklace, between the wood beads. Space out the money leaves evenly at the bottom of the necklace.

Hot glue the paper leafs and paper flowers to the wire

Then make a loop at the other end of the wire and loop it through the twine, between the wood beads. Space the paper leafs and the paper flowers between the money leafs at the bottom of the necklace.

One of the things I love about this necklace idea is that after graduation is over your person can take the paper elements off of the necklace and still have a cute wood necklace, especially if you paint the beads. I love that Brittany painted her beads ombre which is really pretty!

My daughter loved her necklace! And I am excited to give my younger daughter hers on her graduation day! Yay!

It’s so fun to be a mom!! Here are a few pictures of us on Hayley’s graduation day. It was SUCH a wonderful day for our family!!