Jack's Crafts · Crafty Chill Things to Do
🎁 SWEET — OR NOT SO SWEET — PRESENT
Cube colouring, officially
A wrapped present with a ribbon, a bow and absolutely no wrapping paper.
Sugar cubes? Sweet present. Ice cubes? Not so sweet. Either way? Cool gift.
Craft photo coming to this spot
At a glance
TIME
20–30 min + freezing time for ice
BUILD WITH
Sugar Cubes OR Ice Cubes
TOOLS
Paintbrush + bowls + spoon + trays
DIFFICULTY
Easy
ADULT HELP
Recommended
What you'll need
- Sugar cubes OR ice cubes
- Food colouringMix it into the water before freezing for coloured ice
- Simple icingFor the sugar version
- WaterFor the ice version
- Ice-cube trayFor making your coloured cubes
- Small clean paintbrush, bowls, spoon and a plate or freezer tray
Build it
Jack: “You've heard of watercolouring. This is cube colouring.”
- 1Choose your colours. Sugar cubes can be painted sparingly with food colouring; ice cubes are coloured before freezing by mixing food colouring into the water.
- 2Lay a rectangular or square bottom out of cubes.
- 3Stack upward until it looks like a present.
- 4Run contrasting cubes across the top and down the sides as the ribbon.
- 5Use a different colour on the very top as the bow.
- 6Do not attempt to wrap it.
Grown-up help, please
Grown-up help recommended, especially for the ice version — freezers, trays and melty puddles are a grown-up job. Never use ordinary craft glue on sugar cubes: simple icing is the only mortar here. If you add any non-edible craft bits, the finished build is for looking at, not for eating. Ice builds melt, so build on a tray and pop them back in the freezer between steps.
Jack inspects it
HOW DID YOUR PRESENT TURN OUT?
Pick a verdict. Jack has opinions about all three.
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MAKE MISCHIEF. MAKE MAGIC. DO GOOD.