April 19, 2010

Essential life skill: money origami

Essential life skill #3: folding a shirt and tie from a dollar bill. In terms of usefulness, I rank this right up there with the ability to parallel park. This is my first-ever money origami attempt, which was much more successful than the parallel parking section of my driving test, which I failed. Granted, nobody needs to parallel park in rural Minnesota where I grew up, so the incentive to learn was not great. A more useful skill is avoiding animals in your path, such as my math teacher's escaped pig which was loitering in the middle of the road one morning during my lesson. Mr. math teacher came to the door in his boxers when we knocked to tell him his hog had gotten out. But I digress.

You can fold yourself a drawerful of shirts by following an instructional video. I used this one and then referred to this one when I got stuck.

60 comments:

  1. would make a cute presentation of money for a gift - I'm sure most guys would rather the cash than the shirt anyway. :)
    our money is plastic and not foldable so i won't get to have that kind of fun - yeah no more paper money here in Aus.

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  2. This "Essential life skill" series is killing me. So funny! I'm a banker, so I really should learn how to do that.

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  3. I feel like a failure. Somehow I missed teaching you these essential life skills when you were younger. But I'm sure glad you're teaching them to me now before it's too late! (Too late for what, I don't know.)

    Yeah... the hog/boxer story. Will he never live that down?

    Mum

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  4. I love these Essential life skill posts. I fold my money into frogs. Kaeru is Japanese for frog, and also Japanese for returning, so folding money into frogs means the money will come back to you.

    It's also fun to make the frog jump around the table when the waitstaff at a restaurant is ignoring you. I also will shoot stars made from straw wrappers at my husband (though I'll have to learn to make him roses, since that's nicer). Another essential life skill for restaurant boredom: I can make a bunny hand puppet from a napkin.

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  5. does this mean we should keep a supply of money origami on hand in case of parallel parking failure incidents?

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  6. You're a genius. I think a stack of shirts would go a long way toward soothing an angry dented car owner.

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  8. adorable :) I used to fold shirts, but the tie is new to me. I also knew how to fold money into a peacock at one time, too.

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  9. ooooo that is soooo cool! thanks!

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  10. I just did tried this! It was much easier than i thought it would be. Mine is a little wonky but i still like it :)

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  11. These essential life skills are great!

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  12. This series is cracking me up! One of my all time favorites!

    I tried a straw paper rose today. I need more practice!

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  13. Parallel parking is hardly necessary in suburban Minnesota, either, yet somehow me not doing so well on that kept me from getting my license the first time I tried...

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  14. Lovin' your random objects origami :)

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  15. Hello lovely, just wanted to let you know there is a little surprise waiting for you over at my blog (in the form of a Sunshine award). Thanks for adding a little sunshine to my days! xox

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  16. That is amazing and great for a father's day gift idea. I loved the toilet paper one the other day...which I might have to surprise my weekend guest with but i am sure they would rather me surprise them with a money shirt...lol.

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  17. Such a nice post, really interesting, really admire your work, to have some more of it,Thanks.

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  18. I love this as an "Essential Life Skill!" I used to have a book on money origami, maybe I should look around for it. I figured it would be funny to open my wallet and pay in shirts and rings! Great blog!

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  19. I knew visiting your blog would cheer me up today!

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  20. you are briliant!!! and sooooo talented!! bravo..

    cheers,
    puri

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  21. My friend used to always make a ring out of a dollar bill as part of a tip. I still have one in my jewelry box.

    I'm happy to teach you some awesome PP tricks, if you want. :)

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  22. Rachel, fortunately living in Chicago has improved my parallel parking ability dramatically, so I'm okay now. Took me a sec to figure out what PP was. I first thought PowerPoint. Which I'm not very good at, either. :)

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  23. One time this guy stopped me on the shirt and gave me a folded bill in the shape of a shirt...it had a piece of paper with his number inside. Creapy or cool? I wasn't sure.

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  24. My dad taught us origami so we would be quiet during church. At restaurants, he used to fold his tips into little hearts or elephants. The waitresses loved it. The waiters didn't seem to care either way.

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  25. Totally love this -- and am practising!

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  26. I made it !!!Thank you ,it was easy enough.i'll send it to my grand son who is held in Chicago instead of visiting us in Paris !!!Y.S

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  27. hahahah, i want a drawer full of cash shirts (hopefully all made out of 100 dollar bills?)

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  28. okay for some reason I can NOT get my tie to look right :( It is super wide - like a clown tie :(

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  29. More ideas to make cute presentations of money for a gift at
    http://www.baballa.com/2010/04/porque-necesito-ayuda-regalo-de-boda.html

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  30. i'd like a drawer full of ben franklins. :-)

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  31. too cute! i was thinking that this would make a great father's day gift or a birthday gift for a guy.

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  32. This is so cute. Now where is that last $ of mine?

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  33. I'm a origami lover, any piece of paper that happens to fall in my hands become something, usually tsurus. But I've gotta tell you, this shirt is one of the most difficult origamis I've ever tried to fold! I've managed to fold two so far and I won't stop till they're looking perfect :D Thanks and I love your blog

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  34. How cool are these?? Love it!

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  35. Bookmarked, a clever presentation!

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  36. Hi Jess!

    Wanted you to know I posted a link to this tut on my blog.

    As always, it's a terrific tut.

    Nancy Ward
    http://paperfriendly.blogspot.com

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  37. I hope you don't mind, I featured this on my blog today. such an amazing idea! now I just need to learn to fold straight.

    kathryn
    www.thedragonsfairytail.blogspot.com

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  38. I know lots of people who would enjoy receiving their very own "shirt", am about to start making some.

    Great present idea! I love it!

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  39. That is ubber cool!

    Sharing with my Facebook readers!

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  40. I'm having trouble with the video...is there a written instructionable for this? I sure want to try it...thanks

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  41. I made this a few years ago for my oldest son. We have a running family joke that one year at Christmas I wrapped a shirt for him and on the gift tag wrote "TO: Matt From: Shirt instead of From: Mom. So I folded a $50 bill as a joke gift for him and wrapped it with a tag saying To: Matt From: Shirt. He loved it! But one thing he mentioned that he wishes I had used only a $1 bill so he could have kept it. He hated unfolding it.

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  42. Anonymous #1, I haven't seen any written instructions, I'm afraid.

    Anonymous #2, your "From Shirt" story is funny!

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  43. I have written instructions with pics on my blog. No tie however :(
    http://clairscreations.blogspot.com/2011/06/fathers-day-folded-shirt-card.html

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  44. Probably a nice new crisp bill would be great to work with...definately will try this!

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  45. This is cool! But I'll probably make with only $1 bills .... might faint if a $100 bill gets torn by mistake, hehe! :)

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  46. Very essential tool. :) Thanks Clair for the written instructions with pictures. I was having a hard time following the video. lol i use origami to pass time during church and waiting for food at restraunts.

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  47. Dollar Bill Origami is a great way to make the TOOTH FAIRY even more awesome. My son was more excited about the origami than the money. Which was a great way to take the emphasis off "how much" he was or wasn't getting ;)

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  48. Wow! I love this so much!!! I made a shirt and pants and taped them together. then i added body parts made from sticky notes cut up. I Put it all on a card with a ten dollar bill to pop the origami man up when the card opens. It looks SO GOOD!

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  49. Where do I go to learn how to make this!!? I know my missionary would LOVE this!! :)

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  50. Haha! My uncle always asks for cash but my mom and I applaud ourselves for being awesome gift givers and find the idea of cash as a gift, impersonal. But since he insists, we can fold a bunch of these and put them inside a Macy's box, to tease him until he opens it, presenting them as the shirt he turned down for cash!

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  51. I give these things as tips, the waitress get a kick out of them and show them off to everyone. One waitress gave me a hug for making her two of them.

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  52. HI Jess! I was browsing for grad gift ideas on Pinterest and ran across this pin from your page! I feel almost like we got to catch up over coffee or something -- well, not QUITE like that -- but still really cool! Hope you're well!
    Jenny Fuller

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  53. Hi Jenny! Fun to hear from you, and hope you and the fam are doing great!

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  54. bonjour a tous et toutes,
    je parcoure souvent Pinterest et je vois de jolies chose
    le bonjour de la corse
    j'adore les Etats unis
    de la Corse je vous embrasse

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