How to Make a Simple Bouquet of Origami Money Flowers

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Updated on 12/07/19

Dollar bills — Jupiterimages / Getty Images

Dollar bill origami flowers are a fun alternative to giving a bouquet of fresh flowers for a special occasion like a birthday or graduation. They look complicated at first glance but they are actually quite easy to fold.

This design uses four bills, but you can use the same basic technique to create a variety of dollar bill origami flowers by adding more petals and adjusting the fullness each of each petal. You can also make the flowers smaller by folding in the smaller sides of the bill before folding the four corners to the center line.

If you want to make an arrangement of flowers, but don't have a budget that permits making them all from bills, you can cut a sheet of six-inch square origami paper in half and use the two rectangles to fold a paper version of this flower design.

01 of 07

Iron Your Money

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This design only looks nice with crisp bills. If your bills are wrinkled, iron them with low heat. You can spray them with a bit of Aleene's Stiffen Quik if needed. This technique works well for money origami because paper money is made with 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen fibers in order to make it durable enough to handle being used by large numbers of people in multiple transactions.
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Make the Initial Creases

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Fold the first bill in half lengthwise. Unfold. Fold the four corners in to meet the middle crease. Fold the top and bottom edges in to meet the middle crease. When you are finished, your bill should look like the one here.
03 of 07

Fold in Half

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Next, fold the bill in half again.
04 of 07

Create Four Units

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Repeat the steps to make a total of four identically folded units. Check to make sure all of your bills are the same size and shape.

Continue to 5 of 7 below
05 of 07

Add Wire

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Stack the units on top of each other. Twist the wire around the units to join them together. If you don't have floral or beading wire handy, a pipe cleaner also works. Do not glue or tape the money under any circumstances. Section 333 of the United States Code states that it is illegal to cut, deface, mutilate, disfigure, perforate, or rejoin paper currency. This law mostly applies to attempts at counterfeiting, but damaging the bills makes it hard for the recipient to spend them.

If you will be putting your flower money in a vase, twist the wire around a wooden grilling skewer or a thin wooden dowel to make it stand up properly.
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Shape the Petals of Your Money Flower

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Open up each petal and fold the end corners backward to give your origami money flower the desired shape.
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Display Your Dollar Bill Origami Flower

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Either add your flower to a vase or tie it to an origami box as a package decoration.

If your recipient is not familiar with money origami, it's a good idea to include a note about how to untwist the wire to free the individual bills. You don't want the recipient to rip the bills and be left with no money to spend.