Christmas Craft
Handmade cards and edible gifts for an extra personal touch
What's not to love about brown paper packages tied up with string? We're with Julie Andrews on this one. Give your parcels a new twist this festive season by generously winding them with twine and tucking in a few painted twigs, robust blossoms or long-lasting greenery.
Have fun personalising basic brown paper with painted dots or stars. Roll out the paper and use a small soft watercolour paintbrush for easy-to-paint dots or make a star print using star-shaped biscuit cutters of varying sizes, dipped in a little paint. I used Resene Swiss Coffee for the dots and Resene Blast Yellow for the copper coloured stars. Once dry, fold into paper gift bags, cut into large stars to sew together, (see both on previous page) or use to wrap your parcels (above).
Paint stiff card with dots and cut into gift tags. Add reinforcement stickers (used in ring binders) to punched holes or finish with metal rivets squashed into place using eyelet
pliers. Thread with twine. Create bunting cards using fabric scraps and twine, glued into place. Make cute tree cards by sewing heavy art paper back and forth with green cotton. Glue onto stiffer card and finish with a star cut from gold tissue. See good.net.nz/ papercraft for tips and a reindeer card video.
Orange & Lemon Shortbread
This delicately citrus-flavoured shortbread makes a classic Christmas treat that's perfect with a cup of tea. I use Trade Aid Golden Cane Sugar, ground in a blender, for a special caster sugar that adds a subtle caramel colour and taste – and Fairtrade goodness! Makes approximately 25 star biscuits.
For the biscuits
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 50g caster sugar, with extra for sprinkling 125g butter 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp vanilla essence 1 lemon, zest and juice 1 orange, zest and juice
For the icing
¼ cup icing sugar remaining orange and lemon juice silver cachous balls, optional Preheat the oven to 170°C / 325°F. Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub it into the flour mix using your fingertips until it is like breadcrumbs. Add baking powder, vanilla essence, lemon and orange zest and combine together using a knife. Add just enough juice to allow the mixture to come together as a ball. Dust a surface with flour and roll out the dough to 2cm thick. Cut into stars, re-rolling the dough scraps as necessary. Transfer onto an oven tray lined with greaseproof paper. Sprinkle with a little sugar. Place on the middle rack of the oven to bake for approximately 10 minutes, until just starting to turn golden. Allow biscuits to cool on a rack, before icing and decorating half of them.
Things to collect and use
Rolls of brown paper and stiff brown card Stiff white card and heavy art paper Natural or stripey twine Watercolour paintbrush Paint: Resene Swiss Coffee for the dots, Resene Blast Yellow for the copper stars Plastic animals Star shaped biscuit cutters Fabric scraps Glue stick or double-sided tape Washi tape Greenery such as ivy or olive branches, long-lasting herbs such as rosemary, thyme or bay laurel leaves Eyelet pliers and metal rivets