Graduation Gift with Dollar Diplomas (with video)

Give the gift of money for graduation this year.

Graduation Gift with dollar diplomas

Give your grad the gift they want most…money! We have a few good friends and family graduating from High School this week. We all know that grads love the money, so put together a few simple graduation gifts that any grad would love: a mason jar filled with…money! Actually they are dollar bill “diplomas” and the jar is topped with a paper graduation cap and tassel.

We recently made a quick video for this easy grad gift, and you can watch it here:

We love using mason jars for gifts, and they especially worked perfect for this.

What you need to make this Graduation Gift Money Jar

The How-To is simple. To make one, you’ll need:
– a low temp hot glue gun
– a 3 inch square piece of black card stock
– a 1×10 inch strip of black card stock
– a pint sized mason jar with ring and lid
– embroidery thread (yellow or orange)
– a brass brad
– a long reach hole punch

How to make a Graduation Gift Mason Money Jar

To start, you’ll need to make the tassel with embroidery thread. We used this simple tassel tutorial to make them. Then you will punch a small hole in the center of the square piece of black card stock. First pull the long piece of the tassel through the center hole, then push the ends of the brad through the hole. Wrap the long piece of embroidery thread around the brad and secure it down with a piece of tape.

Now you’re ready to hot glue the ring of the mason jar to the square piece of black card stock. Add hot glue to the flat top of the ring and press it upside down centered onto the black card stock. Now hot glue the long black strip of card stock around the mason jar ring. That’s it! Super simple!

To make the dollar diplomas, you can use a sharpie to roll each dollar up. We also used inexpensive plastic balloon string to tie each one up.

The rolling of the bills was the longest part. Grab a friend to help and it will go quick. Once you’re finished, just screw the lid and ring on tight and you’re good to go!