I need to pick the brains of all you creative board memebers.

Here's the situation:

I'm giving a cash gift to a friends daughter for her 13th birthday. Cash is the best thing because she LOVES clothes but is very tall(I think she's around 5'6") and thin(oh, to have her problems, heehee!), so has a hard time finding clothes at many stores.
Anyway, I'm thinking $15 is probably a good amount but I want to come up with a cute/fun/clever way to present it that won't break the bank. Money in a card is nice but there has to be something better.
The only other time I gave money to a kid for their birthday was to a boy who was turning 5 and I gave him $10 in Gold Sacageweia(sp?)dollars and he thought it was a pirates treasure. Pretty sure that won't work this time.......

Please help me! I'm fresh out of ideas. Also, if $15 is not in the right ballpark, please clue me in as to how much is right.

Thanks so much!

Oh, her birthday is in 2 weeks so I have some time.

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I would go with $20 on the low end if you want to have her be able to treat herself.

My SIL does origami with cash bills to my boys.. You could try that for a neat presentation.

cj/

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I was going to suggest origami also. Here's a website that has a lot of ideas and instructions:
Money Origami

I think $15 or $20 would be acceptable.

In a wallet or a coin purse or makeup pouch. Or in a box with a necklace or watch. Or in a decorative tin. Go to $ Tree you will see all kinds of neat stuff you can put with it. An annual planner, a makeup bag, a decorative gift bag, a toy, the choices are endless!

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My grandmother did this once for my daughter.
In a square box wrapped up was a mylar balloon (you could also put it in a gift bag) and attached down the curling ribbon were dollar bills. They were tied in the middle so they looked like bowties. When my daughter opened the box the balloon floated up and the string just kept going with dollar bills.
Dollar Tree even has mylar balloons.
ALSO, not to look cheap you could give 13 dollar bills for her age. (I have done this in the past for a friends sons birthday and I get a Target g/c for $13.13 and this year $14.14)

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My son and his friends used to always give money to each other for birthdays. They usually gave the amount the child was turning. They would try to make it very hard to open. Duct tape was usually a big part of the wrapping. Think small box lots and lots of duct tape. lol Once $15 worth of pennies were put in a big bucket of sauerkraut. That one was funny and a big mess.

One time for Christmas my aunt gave me a big box with crumpled up newpapaer and in every paper was a coin. I had alot of fun with that one. Let us know what you end up doing.

I like all the ideas, but I still think 13 gold coins are REALLY cool, even for a girl. Placed inside a make-up bag or beautiful box would be fun.

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Thanks everybody!

So many choices, I don't know which to do. I'm going to try the origami first, but if it doesn't work out(I can barely fold a paper football, lol!)I have lots of other cool ideas to try.

I'll keep everyone updated.

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I used to make gum wrappers chains out of money. Kids thought that was cool!

(I don't know how to import a picture but if you google images gum wrapper chains you can see one)

My mom did a gift similiar to this for my niece's 13th birthday. It was actually her golden birthday. My mom did a baker's dozen of golden eggs. She painted an egg carton and 13 plastic egg with gold spray paint. She then gave her a gold dollar in each egg.

I like this...very neat idea! ~Lisa

Have you thought of getting two or three mylar baloons, then 13 regular balloons that you put $1 in each of the regular balloons before you blow them up. Then tie strings around them to make a bouquet. Have her break one balloon at a time till she collects all $13. Or you could use the gold dollar coins instead. 13 is a fun age. Have fun with it.