The Twice-Annual Money Gift, Christmas 2017 Edition

My nephew, Timothy, always knows what he'll get from me for Christmas. Sort of. When he became a teenager, I started giving him money for every birthday and Christmas... but it's never just money. Sometimes it's a 'tree'. Sometimes it's 'knitting kit'. Sometimes it's a 'can of crushed pineapple.' It's fun.

This year's gift was big and flat.

Actually, the gift wasn't quite as big as the cardboard I used to protect it. I just thought it was funnier to wrap it so that it looked huge. 

Any guesses what's inside? I'll give you some time. 

Let's see... money... 

gift...

creative... 

flat... 

large... 

Ready? 

If you guessed "Air Force 1 made out of posterboard with the Money Presidents riding" then you are correct!

Here's a closeup of the passengers on this most unusual plane. Andrew Jackson looks like he has air sickness issues. 

OK, so technically Hamilton was never President, but it's not unreasonable that he'd be aboard Air Force 1. (Well, other than for the obvious reason that he died in 1804, which predates air travel by just under 100 years...)

So how did I make this masterpiece? Well, first I found a photo of Air Force 1 online and printed it out. Then I did my best to draw it on posterboard. Turns out that's easier said than done! When I had something that resembled a 747, I cut it out, traced it on another piece of posterboard, then cut that out. Then I painted the plane to match the actual colors and used a flag sticker on the tail.

I traced around an empty roll of Scotch tape, which is the perfect size to make windows for Money Presidents.

Then I folded the bills and taped them so that the portraits were centered in the windows. Scotch tape comes off money very easily, so no worries. (You can even wrap a gift in money!)

When the money was secure, I put craft glue around the edge of one plane (nowhere near the money) and sandwiched the second on top.

Timothy has come to expect these gift shenanigans from me. He deemed this, "Clever." Total win, I'd say.

Another look:

And now I have 10 months before I have to come up with something REALLY creative for his 18th birthday...