Graduation Season Part 1: DIY Name Sign and Money/Paper Lei

Here are two things I made last month for my sister's grad school graduation from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Knowing ahead of time it would be a huge graduation with a ton of people, I wanted to create a sign that would be easily spotted from afar--nevermind that the security at Yankee stadium wouldn't allow us to bring "sticks" into the graduation (we were able to sneak in two of the letters unscathed). With my sister being a superstar director, I wanted gold and glitter, of course.

Step 1. Found these large flat wooden letters at Michael's.

Paint letters in acrylic paint. 2 coats should do. Let dry.

Step 2. I sprayed the front with a can of spray adhesive--do this outside if possible.

Step 3. Shake on glitter.

Step 4. Flip over and using wood glue, attach wooden dowels or sticks. Let dry. I applied tape as well for extra security.

The second thing I created was a lei made out entirely of paper rosettes, using cardstock and dollar bills. *WARNING* This project is very time consuming and tedious, and I would only recommend this for very special occasions!

Step 1. Cut cardstock into the size of a dollar bill. Including my dollar bills, I had 56 pieces of paper.

Step 2. Score paper lengthwise first, then score in 0.25 inch increments.

Step 3. Start folding in an accordion fashion--the most tedious part! Have a movie or tv show going in the background!

Step 4. Take small hair elastic bands and place along the middle of each rosette.

Step 5. Cut two strips of thin ribbon, 5 feet in length each. Tie both around something sturdy--I used the back of my chair. Begin alternating paper rosette with plastic bead. To get both ribbons easily through the bead I unfolded a paper clip to create a "hook" to thread the ribbon. For the paper rosette, you basically want to sandwich it in between the two ribbons, with the bead holding it in place.

Step 6. Create rosettes by fanning out the paper and attaching the ends to each other. I attempted to just use tape at first, and this was a big fail. It is much faster and easier to just use your hot glue gun. In case your recipient actually wants to use the money in the lei, I would recommend NOT hot gluing and just using tape for the dollar bills.

Step 7. Tie ends of ribbons together to create a loop.

It looks great in the end, though it took a lot of work!