How to Make Decoupage Coin Banks

Encourage your kids to save their hard earned money by making these fun coin banks. Using recycled containers and old magazines, you can transform garbage into functional items, all while teaching your kids the importance of managing their money.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• BOY'S BANK ----
• For Boy's Bank
• empty potato chip cylinder
• old magazines you can cut up (we used Dirt Rider and 4-Wheel & Off Road)
• scissors
• Liquitex Basics Gesso (an art medium found in the artist section of craft and discount department stores)
• decoupage medium (or our homemade recipe below)
• medium paintbrush
• white piece of paper
• GIRL'S BANK ---
• empty drink mix cylinder
• decorative paper in offset patterns (stripes and florals, checks and circles, etc)
• Liquitex Basics Gesso
• decoupage medium
• Lace, enough to go around lid
• 12" sheer white ribbon
• hot glue gun

1. To make your own decoupage medium, use equal amounts of white craft glue (Tacky Glue) and water. Squeeze some white craft glue into a small container or cup. Add water and mix until this reaches a milky consistency. Mixture should be paintable, but not too thick.
2. BOY'S BANK ---Wash out the potato chip container and dry it completely. Excluding the lid, apply a coat of Liquitex Basics Gesso to the outside of the can. Set it aside to dry. While the can dries, go through old magazines and find scenes with grass, dirt, mountains, sky, anything that those earth shades (blue, tan, brown, green). Also, look for a picture to be your main center focus of the completed project. Ours were a dirt bike rider in mid air and a four wheeling Jeep. Set aside the center focus picture and using the other pages you have selected, you will need to cut the various colors into squares. Cut grass, mountain, sky and dirt scenes into long strips, then cut the strips into squares. Sort these by color and set aside.
3. Go back to your can and paint on another coat of Liquitex Basics Gesso. This should give you a good solid white background to work with. The Gesso is a medium that will keep your project from peeling. While this is drying, move in to the next step.
   
   Cut out your focus picture, moving slowly and cutting out around the entire figure. Once cut out, use your paintbrush to apply a thin coat of decoupage medium to the back of your focus picture. Place the focus picture, glue side down onto the white paper. Smooth out the picture so there are no bubbles or creases and flatten it to the paper. Now, cut around the white paper so as to create a border for your focus picture, leaving about 1/2" border all the way around.
4. Once your can is completely dry, you can start decoupaging the "tiles" on. Place your entire hand inside the opening of the can. Use your hand/arm to hold the can up while you decoupage the squares onto the can. Smaller children may find this challenging and can simply leave the can on the work surface.
5. To decoupage, dip your paintbrush into the decoupage medium, then remove excess on side of the container before removing paintbrush. Your paint brush should be wet but not dripping. Paint a layer of decoupage into the can in the section where you will put your first square. You can use the tip of the paintbrush to pick up the square from the work surface. Simply touch the square with the tip of your brush and the square will lightly stick to the square. Lift it to the can and paint over the top of the square. Now you have decoupage underneath the square and on top of it. If the square is stubborn, add a little more decoupage to help stick it to the surface. If your child has difficulty lifting the square with the paint brush method, simply have them use their fingers.
6. Repeat this process around the can, starting with blue squares on the top two or three rows, then use green for the next couple of rows, and finish with browns and tans. The squares do not have to line up perfectly! That's part of the fun in this project, everyone's will turn out unique. Just be sure that the gaps between squares are not too large, or the tiling effect will be lost.
   
   Do a once over with the brush and decoupage to ensure that all squares are glued down. Remove excess decoupage from your brush and give the whole can a quick "wipe down" to get rid of any stray glue or droplets.
7. Apply some decoupage medium to the back of your focus picture, which is now glued to the white paper. Position the focus picture wherever you would like it to go on your can, then use more decoupage to flatten it to your design. Smooth out rough edges and get rid of excess glue with your paint brush. Use a household sponge that has been rinsed and wrung out well to smooth the focus picture flush to the can. Let your project dry completely before adding your lid. Parents can cut a coin slit in the lid with scissors or a knife.
8. girl's bank - copyright Amanda Formaro GIRL'S BANK --- The process is ultimately the same with the girl's can as it was with the boy's can.
   
   Instead of using magazines, we used colorful papers found at our local craft stores. There are tons to choose from and all at different prices. You can use pictures from a magazine, construction paper, or anything else you can think of. However, print outs from your computer do not fair well when the glue is applied.
   
   Follow the instructions above for applying two coats of Gesso to your can. Once dry, you can decoupage your background paper onto your can, again following the same process as above.
9. Flower Design ---
   On the back of a colorful piece of patterned paper (in our case, white with tiny blue and green flowers) draw a simply 5 petal flower, doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, this type of flower looks better when some petals are bigger that the others. Cut out your drawing. Apply decoupage to the back of your flower and glue down on top of another contrasting patterned paper (ours is green with a circular pattern). Use scissors to cut around the flower so as to create a border for your smaller flower, leaving about 1/2" border all the way around. Cut a circle from another contrasting colorful paper (ours is blue with small bubbles) and glue to the center of the flower.
10. Heart Design ---
    Using the same concept as the flower above, cut a heart design from your patterned paper (ours is white with dragonflies) and glue it to a contrasting piece of colored paper (ours is blue with bubble design). Use scissors to cut around the heart so as to create a border for your smaller heart, leaving about 1/2" border all the way around.
    
    Apply some decoupage medium to the back of your flower. Position the flower wherever you would like it to go on your can, then use more decoupage to flatten it to your design. Smooth out rough edges and get rid of excess glue with your paint brush. Use a household sponge that has been rinsed and wrung out well to smooth the flower flush to the can. Repeat this process for the heart design on the other side. Let your project dry completely.
    
    Tie a bow from the sheer ribbon. Once your can is dry, put a dot of hot glue on the back of the ribbon and press it to the center of the heart.
    
    Use the hot glue gun to glue lace around the edge of the lid. Parents can cut a coin slit in the lid with scissors or a knife.

Tips & Warnings

• Any type of cylinder with a lid can be used. You can also use empty vegetable cans, though you won't have a lid for your creation. Alternatively, you can make a larger bank from a coffee can.
• We used Sizzix brand paper pads, known as Little Sizzles. We used papers from both the Pastels (40-0014) pad and the Watercolors (40-0015) pad. These pads can be found in the scrapbooking aisle of your local craft store. Ours cost $4.99 per pad, each pad has 4 sheets of each solid cardstock, 3 sheets of each pattern paper, there are 80 acid free sheets total per pad.