Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich... Sort of...

My nephew, Drew, recently turned 18-years-old.  When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he responded, "A peanut butter sandwich."  Attempts to prompt him into giving me a real answer were futile.

I realized that I was just going to have to give him money for his birthday.  However, I really like to be creative with my gifts, so I decided to make a peanut butter sandwich out of art foam.  Initially, I thought I would make the peanut butter out of cardstock and put a check in to represent jelly.  This didn't suit my vision of a peanut butter sandwich, as the nothing but the "bread" had any real substance.  I decided to see if I could find a peanut butter-colored clay.  I found Pluffy, a clay that can be shaped and baked in the oven, which preserves the shape of your design.  They had a wide assortment of colors and, fortunately, there was one that was very close to peanut butter.  I found some light yellow cardstock that was the color of banana slices.  This was the perfect solution to my dilemna, as banana slices would be a great disguise for $1 gold coins.

I bought one sheet of white art foam, two pieces of light yellow cardstock, and one package of Pluffy clay.  I fished twenty-five $1 coins from one of my banks and dragged out the Cricut Expression machine for the very first time. I took my X-acto Knife and carefully cut one "slice of bread" from the art foam, then took that piece and used it as a guide to cut a second "slice".

 A brown Sharpy was used to color the edges of the "bread".  Next, I molded the Pluffy clay to the shape that I wanted to best resemble peanut butter spread. The Pluffy is baked at 275 degrees for 15 minutes. 

 

After the clay had cooled, I placed it on the "bread" and set out to make the "banana slices".  After watching the Cricut DVD and doing a bit of trial and error, I cut 50 1-1/4" circles out of the yellow cardstock.  I took a black Sharpy and added dots and lines to imitate the seeds and natural markings of bananas.  

 Double-sided adhesive was placed on the unmarked sides of each "banana slice".  A $1 coin was secured to one circle and a second circle was pressed onto the coin.  The edges of the cardstock circles were slightly depressed.

The "sandwich" was now ready to assemble.  

When my nephew opened his "lunch", he said, "Ha!  That's funny!"  He later told me the gift was "awesome", which made all the work worthwhile and was why I wanted a more creative way of giving him cash than just writing a check, anyway.