Rosette Ornaments from Monopoly Money

Create Rosette Ornaments from upcycled Monopoly money.

I always enjoy creating Christmas ornaments from unusual things, and lately I’ve been finding Monopoly games at thrift stores for just a dollar or two. Two were vintage and one was more recent, but they all hold the same creative opportunities.

It’s so funny how sometimes I just start finding the same thing at different thrift stores. I think it’s creative fate. And who am I to question fate?

Now my brain is swimming with all kinds of upcycling ideas.

I played Monopoly a lot when I was a kid and these games bring back a lot of fun memories. And I love to create with things that mean something more than just what they actually are.

Like the project I’m sharing today, rosette Christmas tree ornaments made from Monopoly money.

I should note that I have one Monopoly game that I’ve had for years that I save for when we want to play. I’m only crafting with games that I find in thrift stores.

I’m joining a bunch of creative bloggers for the Do It Over Designers blog hop. There’s no theme this time so we’re all doing our own thing, which I think is fun and I can’t wait to see what everyone has created. I’m sharing my project with you first, and you can find links to all the talented creators at the end of this post. Be sure to visit and check out all the fabulousness. I’m sure you’ll be inspired!

Creating rosette ornaments from monopoly money

These rosette ornaments don’t take a lot of fancy tools to create, just your fingers and a few supplies that you may already have in your crafting stash.

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Supplies needed for Monopoly money rosette ornaments

• Monopoly money
• double sided tape dispenser
• glue stick
• clippy thingies
• glitter
• small baggies
• low temp glue gun and glue sticks
• scissors
• decorative bits and pieces

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Assembling the rosette ornaments

For my first rosette ornament I’m using pink 5 dollar Monopoly bills. All you have to do is fold the bills concertina-style length wise. About 1/4″ for each fold will do. I was able to fold the bills five times. When doing this folding always fold away from you. That way you can see the paper underneath to make sure the folds are lined up properly.

To create one rosette you’ll need 8 folded bills.

In my world glitter makes everything smile, especially me, and especially for Christmas. But it’s definitely optional. I found the easiest way to add the glitter to the bills was to pour some into a small baggie.

Then I ran my double-sided tape dispenser across the ends of the bills. Don’t do this before folding, because folding after the glitter is applied is not fun. Ask me how I know. lol. I didn’t use my glue gun for this because that glue is just too bulky, and wouldn’t allow the bills to folds nicely.

Adding glitter to the rosette ornaments

To get the glitter onto the bill you just stick it into the baggie, without letting it stick to the inside, and shake it a bit. Not too much now. You don’t want glitter everywhere.

Shake the bill out a bit in the baggie before removing it, just to get rid of any loose glitter. You might want to use a slightly bigger baggie than I did, but this worked fine for me.

After I glitterfied all the bills, I used the very handy clippy thingies to hold them in place while the tape glitter adhered itself to the tape. This is important because you don’t want the folds to stick together when assembling the rosettes. I just put these aside for a bit while I did something else.

Gluing the bills together to create concertina triangles

To create the parts that will make the rosette I used an extra strength glue stick. I found this glue was strong enough, even on the glittered ends. Again, I didn’t use my glue gun for this because I thought that glue would be too bulky.

Here are my eight parts that will make up the rosette.

I glued those parts together in the same way to create four parts.

And then two parts.

And then the rosette was complete. Along the way, if any of the pieces needed a little extra pressure to stick, I used the clippy thingies to hold them until the glue was secure.

And here’s my finished Monopoly money rosette.

I liked the pink one so much that I went ahead and created a white rosette with a 1 dollar bill, a green one with a 20 dollar bill, and a blue one with a 50 dollar bill.

Zhuzhing up your rosette ornaments

There are many ways you can zhuzh up these rosette ornaments.

You could keep them simple by just adding something to the center. I’m using bits and pieces from my collection of thrifted earrings, which I collect for projects just like this. But buttons would be fun too, whatever you have really.

But I wanted my rosettes to have even more glitz and glitter, so I made some smaller rosettes by folding the Monopoly bills width wise. These rosettes took only two bills each, folded 12 times, and I also added glitter to them… to the long sides rather than the ends.

I wanted to try different looks before gluing my rosettes together. Here they are with the small rosettes in the same color. These are quite pretty, but since I’m a gal who loves color I decided to mix it up.

There are actually quite a few combos you could do, but here’s what I decided on. I glued the small rosettes onto the front, and the earring as well, using my low temp glue gun. Low temp makes for fewer ouches on your fingers, and is often all that’s needed.

Adding hangers to paper rosette ornaments

I’ve always loved the combo of jute and glitter so I used twine for my rosette ornament hangers. In my opinion jute twine goes with everything so for me this was a no-brainer. But anything that you like can be used.

To add a bit of fun I cut out the middles of the Monopoly bills and glued them on the back, over the jute twine. I laid the twine down flat with a teeny tiny bit of glue and then glued the bill circles on top. I kind of like the way these look, and I might actually make some in the future with these circles cut out more carefully and glued to the front just to see what that looks like. Because they were on the back I didn’t worry about my cutting too much.

And here are my finished Monopoly money rosette ornaments. I think they’re so fun, and would be perfect for any game lover’s tree. They would also be fun on packages, or added to a Christmas wreath. And you can customize them any way you like so they match your own Christmas decor. The possibilities are pretty endless.

I hope this project has inspired you, and now for more inspiration be sure to check out the other Do It Over Designers listed below.

Purple Hues & Me
Sum of Their Stories
The Apple Street Cottage
Pandora’s Box
Birdz of a Feather
Exquisitely Unremarkable
Little Vintage Cottage
Modern on Monticello
Color Me Thrifty: that’s me!

It would be greatly appreciated if you would pin this project to your favorite Pinterest board, and also share it with your friends.

Thanks so much for reading and until next time,

keep on keepin’ on!

XOX