Crafting: A Decoupage Toy Box

In an attempt to continue the "useful or beautiful" theme with Christmas presents this year, I decided to be slightly boring and email my stepsister to ask what my nephew would like (or rather, what she would like) for his Christmas and first birthday presents. 

She had decided that she was going to ask people not to give him a gift, but to donate a toy to an appeal instead. Or, if they really wanted to get him something, to choose a book or toy from a charity shop, as he has a lot already.

It was with that in mind that I offered to make something for him. The craft bug has apparently bitten, despite the Wreath Incident. I debated a crochet blanket, but after seeing an Instagram picture of Penny's incredible Spiderman comic wardrobe, I was inspired. 

On one of my lunch time walks around the charity shops near where I work, I saw a wooden toy chest for sale for £5. An idea was formed…

I started off by searching out comics. This was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be - in the end, I found some at the car boot sale I bought quite a few of my other gifts from - but only because my boyfriend stumbled across a stall where a boy and his dad were selling some of his old toys. He asked if they had any comics, and sure enough a huge stack was produced from the back of the car for 10p each - a bargain. 

I sanded down a couple of parts of the box - it had been drawn on a bit by the previous owners, and had a large blob of the ubiquitous glitter glue on the top! I then painted it with a satin effect wood paint (which we had lying around the house from decorating our living room). Satin has a much smoother finish than gloss, which makes it a lot easier to slap on! It took a couple of coats. I also painted the top (only one goat), even though I was going to decorate it, as I'd read online that wood absorbs the glue very quickly and the pictures peel off.

I then started to arrange my pictures on top (arrange them first! It's time consuming but makes sure you don't end up bunching all the same colours, and that you have enough). I glued them down using PVA - you can buy specialist decoupage glue, but it's very expensive and I didn't think it would arrive in time. The glue does wrinkle the paper somewhat. I discovered that by glueing the surface rather than the paper, this was reduced a bit, but you still have to smooth it down carefully. Most of the wrinkles do disappear as it dries. 

I finished it with three layers of clear varnish (again, using something that we had in the house, a wood varnish which was leftover from renovating our floorboards). The first coat did make the paper slightly see-through but that disappeared as it dried. I also hit on the slightly more childproof idea of covering it in sticky backed plastic, to preserve the top - but that idea occurred to me on Christmas Day, by which point it was a bit late. 

Simple, heartfelt and really rather frugal - the whole project cost me less than £10 - and even if I do say so myself, I suspect it will be around for longer than yet another plastic toy.

Share Advent: Recipe - Peppermint Bark

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I am not such a fan of Christmas presents. I've been mulling it over quite a bit in the last few weeks, thinking about what Christmas means to me. It's not the presents themselves that I object to. It's the hype that comes with it all. We seem to be moving away from the winter festivals and celebrations of light, the bringing together of family and friends, the sense of being grateful for what we have, and a quiet optimism about the coming year. That saddens me. I have really come around to the notion that maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store - maybe Christmas means a little bit more.

As I mentioned in the other post, this year I am trying to personalise presents - choosing things that are either practical or beautiful. Or tasty. Or combinations of the three.

It was in the spirit of this notion Mr F and I spent several nights this week playing with chocolate. As well as some fruit and nut concoctions, we also made quite a lot of peppermint bark.

I love the bright pink candy canes against the dark chocolate

Makes 1 large slab

1 bar good quality dark chocolate

1 bar good quality white chocolate 

3 striped peppermint candy canes

Melt your dark chocolate. Either do this in a bowl over boiling water (making sure you don't get water in the bowl), or in the microwave (making sure you do it slowly, stirring in any last few chunks of unmelted chocolate. If overheated, it'll burn and become gritty and bitter). 

Pour it into Tupperware - about 0.5cm thick. You can either do one huge piece, and break it up into shards, or a couple of smaller slabs, depending on how you like your presentation. Allow to cool for half an hour at room temperature. 

Meanwhile, bash up the candy canes. I find it easiest to put them in a sandwich bag and whack them with a rolling pin.

Melt your white chocolate. 

Drizzle the white chocolate on top. 

Sprinkle over the candy canes. 

Leave at room temperature to cool before wrapping. Store out of the fridge in a cool dark place. 

Review: Demijohn

I’m not a shopper, but I don’t half love shopping for food. Or drink. Or kitchenwares. This does mean two things – my nearest and dearest always expect some form of comestible as a presents, and I have a tendency to get a little over excited when purchasing.

My flatmate hit a ‘scary age’ last week, and therefore the purchase of alcohol was necessary on this occasion – luckily for her Edinburgh has some of the finest booze shops this side of the border.

One of my favourite shops in town is ‘Demijohn’. I discovered it while out shopping with my mum shortly after I moved to Edinburgh. We’d started at the bottom of the Grassmarket on Castle Terrace, where we’d got carried away at the Edinburgh Farmer’s market, and wound our way up the hill towards Victoria Street towards home. Victoria Street, despite its slightly random location, has some of the best independent shops in town. Demijohn is towards the top – past the knitting shop and the one with the exciting dresses, perched in a row along with Mellis’ Cheesemonger and Oink!, a shop I’m sorry to say I’ve never been in, but judging by the queues and amazing whole roasted pig in the window, I need to get my chops around one of their hog roast rolls.

The concept of Demijohn is simple, and I think that’s part of the reason why I love it so much. Even the name is pretty simple really. A demijohn is  the vessel used to brew wine, mead or beer, but it’s also the name given to the vessels that liquids are stored in. It also describes pretty succinctly what the shop contains – shelves full colourful globes of delicious liqueurs, golden oils and dark vinegars, each with a small rubber tube and valve to allow the liquid to flow out and a hand written description.

There are two things that make this shop so wonderful – the produce (all British, championing small producers, specialist products and unusual ideas) and the staff. The staff are knowledgeable, friendly and happy to advise. I once went in to buy a British version of Limoncello – they didn’t have any lemon liqueurs but they did have a lime vodka and a grapefruit gin, and I was provided with a slurp of each without even asking to help me decide. The same happened last week when I went in to buy my flatmate’s present. I’d had a gander on their website and was fairly sure that I was going to get her the chocolate orange crème liqueur, but they didn’t have any left on display. I was offered a taste of a caramel instead, while a member of staff went off to rummage and see if they had any remnants in the store room. He came back waving a container, saying rather apologetically there was only just enough left at the bottom for a 250ml serving “if that was ok”. Not just ok, but marvellous – there’s decent customer service for you.

The packaging of the gift was beautiful. I’d brought an old bottle, bought on a previous visit. They (reasonably enough) ask that you buy one of their containers, but when you have one you’re welcome to bring it back to be refilled whenever you want – all you pay then is for the contents. Nice way to encourage return visits and recycling. The contents of the bottle are written on the side using a white marker pen, stopped up with a cork and wrapped using white tissue and raffia. They look lovely– but nowhere near as good as they taste!

Demijohn, 32 Victoria Street, EH1

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