10 Fun DIY Ideas for Leftover Foreign Money
1. Coin Art
If you have a lot of foreign coins, you can put them all together in one (or two) frame and display all of them at once. It makes for an unexpectedly beautiful piece of art.
However, if you’d prefer not to glue the coins to anything, this tutorial shows you how to hold your coins in a frame without any glue.
Have a small collection of foreign coins? You can spread out the coins in a pattern for an elegant effect.
2. Coin Magnets
It’s so easy to turn your foreign coins into magnets and they’ll look great on your refrigerator.
3. Floating Framed Currency
Some countries have such colorful paper currency that it’s such a shame to hide them away. Put your leftover foreign paper money into floating frames and enjoy their beauty!
4. Coin Vase
This great DIY coin vase was done with pennies, but you could easily do the same thing with foreign coins.
5. Coin Frame
Glue your foreign coins to a frame with hot glue and add a picture from your travels. A quick DIY project that would look great in any room!
Also, check out this coin frame tutorial that also includes a clever way to clean your old foreign coins!
6. Travel Collages
Create eye-catching travel collages with leftover foreign money, maps, tickets, and other travel mementos.
7. Map and Coin Shadowbox Art
Combine a map from a country you’ve visited with the leftover foreign coins from that country in a shadowbox frame to create a striking addition to your gallery wall.
8. Blown-Up Art
Memorialize a special trip by blowing up paper currency and framing it as art. So colorful, beautiful, and unique!
See another great example here. Follow this tutorial or this one to create your own blown-up photograph of your leftover foreign money.
9. Bookmark
Laminate your foreign paper currency and use them as bookmarks. What a great way to turn a travel memento into something you can use everyday!
10. Coin Jewelry
Wear your foreign coins as jewelry by putting holes on them and turning them into earrings, necklaces, charm bracelets, and more. This great tutorial also shows you how to stamp dates on your coins, how cool!
What do you do with your leftover foreign money? For more ideas for your travel mementos, don’t miss 5 Ways to Organize and Display Travel Mementos and 6 Clever (and Useful) Travel Souvenir Ideas.
“I’m Elisa and I live in Austin, Texas with my husband and our two little girls. I used to teach reading and writing, but now I stay at home with my two kiddos and read and write in my spare time. I also love to undertake DIY projects, find new recipes on Pinterest, and dream about someday finally completing our home. Above all, I love to learn about new things and sharing my new-found knowledge with others.”
The tooth fairy brings only foreign currency to my kids. This gives us a chance to learn about where it came from and avoids the inevitable “Tommy in my class gets more than I do!” syndrome. There’s also a built-in excuse if Mom and Dad forget…the tooth fairy had to travel so far that she didn’t make it back by morning and will be by later on. My friends all know we do this and are very generous about sharing their leftover coins and notes from their travels, thus my kids have a pretty extensive collection from all over the world. Once they finish losing their teeth, we might try some of these ideas to preserve their collections in a fun way. Thanks for all the great ideas!