Homemade Skittles vodka recipe

This is a really easy recipe that will produce a delicious and colourful rainbow of homemade Skittles vodka.

A rainbow of Skittles Vodka brewing!

You could make a batch as home-made gifts. Getting into a thrifty mindset, it is a great idea to make and prepare DIY Gifts all year round. Have a little stockpile of beautifully-made, special presents, ready to give loved ones, family and friends. Making your own gifts can save you a small fortune.

It’s easy to believe that the more you spend on a present, the more the recipient will feel loved. The truth is, the more thought and time you put into a present, the more the recipient will KNOW they are loved.

Why not put even more thought into the gift by personalising and decorating the labels for each bottle. You could write on the glass with a Sharpie, or decorate the bottles with 3D Embellishing paste – as in this previous article: 3D embellished glass jars

You will need

First off you will need clean, sterilised, small glass bottles with screw top or stoppered lids. You can shop around kitchen stores or supermarkets during the sales to find cheap, empty, glass bottles.

You can save even more money by recycling your empty small glass bottles. Supermarkets sell small wine bottles that you can re-use once you’ve enjoyed the contents.. or try using empty soy-sauce or vinegar bottles.

To recycle your own bottles, ensure you wash each bottle and lid thoroughly. When you have a good stash, sterilise in bulk, all the bottles and lids using sterilising solution. You can buy a pot of sterilising powder for under £2 which will make a few batches of sterilising solution – available from anywhere that sells home-brewing equipment, or here is one from Amazon – VWP Cleanser and sterilser – 100g

Skittles vodka recipe

Ingredients

2 family-sized bags of Skittles
1.5 litres of vodka (two 75cl bottles)
feel free to double up if you want to make a large batch for presents

Method

Separate the Skittles into piles of each colour
Place each colour in a clean mason jar or bottle
Top up with vodka
Screw the lids onto each bottle nice and tightly and give each bottle a really good shake
You can now leave the bottles overnight (if you’re in a hurry), or for a day or so. Shake the bottles a few times a day, to help the Skittles to dissolve into the vodka
After a couple of days the Skittles will have completely dissolved. You will have created a fruity rainbow of Skittles vodka
Filter the vodka through a coffee filter or cheese cloth at this point, to remove the sugary sediment
Pour the Skittles vodka into smaller gift-sized bottles
Screw the lids tightly on the smaller gift-sized bottles and decorate away

Mini bottles of Skittles Vodka as gifts

As an alternative to separating the colours, you can add all the colours into one batch minus the green ones (which can make it taste sour) and make a separate green batch or just eat the leftover green skittles!

If you are running short of time and need to have it ready in an hour rather than soaking over night… simply shake the mixture vigorously every ten minutes and you will still create a very tasty skittles vodka.

What to do with your Skittles vodka

This Skittles vodka is best served chilled straight from the fridge, or over ice. It is delicious when you add lemonade or tonic water as it’s pretty strong if you drink it neat!
This Skittles vodka should be stored in a cool dark place and will keep for months.. but you know it won’t have a chance to last that long!
Get creative if you are making little bottles of Skittles vodka as gifts, maybe tie a ribbon around the neck. You could decorate the label with glitter or a Sharpie pen, use 3D embelishing paste on the glass, or perhaps tie a parcel label around the neck and write ‘Drink Me’ on it

Enjoy, drink responsibly and get used to being incredibly popular – as you start to give bottles of home-made alcohol as gifts!

You might enjoy these related homemade alcohol recipes…

Make it: Homemade Toffee Vodka

Home Brew: Elderflower Champagne

Make it: Sloe Gin

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Solar oven sun cooker bbq grill bake heat

Portable Solar oven sun cooker bbq grill bake heat

Kelly Kettle camping camp kettle bushcraft stove

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toffee vodka homemade recipe gift idea alcohol

How to make Homemade Toffee Vodka

Making & DIY, Thrifty

This is a really easy recipe that will produce delicious homemade toffee vodka.

Decorated bottles of delicious toffee vodka

Why not put even more thought into the gift by personalising and decorating the labels for each bottle. You could even decorate the bottles with 3D Embellishing paste – as in this previous article: 3D embellished glass jars

You will need

Making this Toffee vodka is easy and it is ready within days!

Toffee vodka recipe

Ingredients

300g bag of toffee or butterscotch such as Werthers Original
1.5 litres of vodka (two 75cl bottles)

Method

Remove all wrappers and packaging from the toffee and smash it all up into tiny bits with a rolling-pin. If you have a coffee grinder or sturdy food processor, you can use these appliances to get the desired ‘smithereens’ result
If you have two 75cl bottles of vodka, pour about a third of each bottle into a sterilised empty third bottle
Divide the smashed up toffee into three piles and add a pile to each bottle using a funnel
Screw the lids onto each bottle nice and tightly and give each bottle a really good shake
You can now leave the bottles for about two days. Shake the bottles a few times a day, to help the toffee to dissolve into the vodka
After a couple of days the toffee will have completely dissolved. You will have created a creamy and delicious toffee vodka
You can keep the three big bottles as they are, or pour the toffee vodka into smaller gift-sized bottles. You can choose to filter the vodka through a coffee filter at this point if you wish, it can make the vodka taste a little smoother.
Screw the lids tightly on the smaller gift-sized bottles and decorate away

What to do with your toffee vodka

This toffee vodka is best served chilled straight from the fridge, or over ice. If it’s too strong, you can add it to milk or coffee to drink it. It’s also delicious poured over ice cream!
This toffee vodka should be stored in a cool dark place and will keep for years.. but you know it won’t have a chance to last that long!
You can experiment with the amount and types of toffee that you use. Try mixing different types of toffee or butterscotch to make your own special flavour
Get creative if you are making little bottles of toffee vodka as gifts, maybe tie a ribbon around the neck. You could decorate the label with glitter, use 3D embelishing paste on the glass, or perhaps tie a parcel label around the neck and write ‘Drink Me’ on it

Enjoy, drink responsibly and get used to being incredibly popular – as you start to give bottles of home-made alcohol as gifts!

You might enjoy these related homemade alcohol recipes…

Home Brew: Elderflower Champagne

Make it: Sloe Gin

A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!

If you would like to receive Thrifty Sustainability updates by email when a new article is added, please subscribe here:

Dandelion jam jelly honey make home-made thrifty sustainability gift present DIY

How to make Dandelion Jam

Making & DIY, Thrifty

Dandelion Jam is a really unusual, but delicious treat. It is unlikely to be in your local supermarket or even your local farm shop. The fact that it is hard to get hold of makes this jam a brilliant home-made gift for friends.

Try Dandelion Jam on toast or scones, pair it with cream cheese, use it as a glaze or salad dressing… think of how you might use honey and try using Dandelion Jam instead. It’s tasty!

Getting into a thrifty mindset, it is a good idea to make and prepare DIY Gifts all year round so that you have a little stockpile of beautifully-made, special presents – ready to give to your loved ones, family and friends. With this gift idea you can put even more thought into the design by personalising and decorating the labels that you stick on each jar.

Foraging Dandelions

Dandelions flower in the Spring and in Autumn too, so you have two chances to forage for this recipe.

When picking your Dandelion flowers, make sure that you are picking them from an area that has not been sprayed with weed killers or insecticides, you don’t want that stuff in your yummy jam.

If you pick too many dandelions, you can freeze the leftover flowers for a later date.

You will need:

First off you will need clean, sterilised, glass jars with lids. You can shop around kitchen stores or supermarkets during the sales to find cheap, empty jam and preserve jars, or you can save even more money by recycling your empty jam and chutney jars.

To recycle your own jars, ensure you wash each jar and lid thoroughly then when you have a good stash, sterilise in bulk, all the jars and lids using sterilising solution. You can buy a pot of sterilising powder for under £2 which will make a few batches of sterilising solution – available from anywhere that sells home-brewing equipment, or here is one from Amazon – VWP Cleanser and sterilser – 100g

Dandelion Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

300 yellow dandelion flower heads
1kg sugar
1000 ml water (about a pint and 3/4)
juice of half a lemon
1x sachet of fruit pectin – or if you have a box of pectin powder follow
instructions on the box (you can add more pectin for a thicker jam)

Method:

Wash the flower heads throughly in cold water
Pluck or cut the yellow flower from the small green leaves that hold it, it’s ok if a few small green bits are still in the mix, but ideally you just want the yellow flower for this jam. The small green leaves have a bitter taste and can turn the jam a light green, so it is worth the extra effort. Prepare yourself for sticky yellow fingers during this bit
Mix water with sugar and bring to boil in a pan
Add the flower heads to the mix, Bring to the boil and simmer for 20mins
2-3 mins before the 20mins is up add the lemon juice
Remove pan from heat and allow to stand for 24hrs
Pour mixture through a sieve into a new pan to remove the flower heads (you can leave some of the petals in the mix if you like, they are edible and look really great in the finished jam – a bit like yellow marmalade)
Simmer mixture on a low heat for 20 mins
Add pectin 3-4 mins before the end, bring to boil and then boil for a further 5 mins
When finished, you should have a clear yellowish jam that smells like honey and tastes absolutely delicious! Pour the warm jam into warm, sterilised, dry jam jars. Pop on the lids, then label and date

If you would prefer to make dandelion syrup, just leave out the pectin.

Did you know?

Dandelion flowers have antioxidant properties
Don’t waste the Dandelion greens either, they can be eaten raw as salad or cooked like spinach. Dandelion greens contain vitamins A, B and C, along with potassium and iron

A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!

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Make it: DIY Gift Ideas – 3D embellished glass jars

Making & DIY

Getting into a thrifty mindset, it is a great idea to make and prepare DIY Gifts all year round so that you have a little stockpile of beautifully home-made, special presents – ready to give to your loved ones, family and friends. Making your own gifts can also save you a small fortune at Christmas. Have you ever received a DIY gift? How did it make you feel?

If you get swept up in the commercialism of Christmas and of gift-giving, it’s easy to believe that the more you spend on a present, the more the recipient will feel loved. The truth is that the more thought and time you put into a present, the more the recipient will KNOW that they are loved and that you consider them worth the effort, of making something especially for them. With this DIY gift idea you can put even more thought into the design by personalising the jar with the name of the person that you are giving it to.

You will need:

First off you will need clean, dry, glass jars. You can shop around kitchen stores or supermarkets during the sales to find cheaper mason and storage jars, or you can save even more money by recycling your empty coffee jars or by using any glass object that you care to decorate, such as wine glasses or recycled jam jars.

You will also need a tube of 3D paste – For this example ‘Pebeo glass & metal paint relief paste outliner‘ has been used as they have a very effective metallic gold paste, which is fitting if you are considering making Christmas presents. If you shop around online using sites like Amazon and Ebay, you can find a tube for about £3 – a small tube will last you for a lot of projects, as a little goes a long way.

How to make 3D embellished glass jars:

This is the easy and fun bit! Hold your jar steadily in one hand and use the tube of relief paste to carefully doodle and swirl your design onto the glass. You don’t have to be a great artist here, less is more so here are some suggestions:

the recipient’s name
a simple heart shape
easy to draw geometric shapes like squares and rectangles – dotted around the jar
a spiral
a sunshine or stars
an outline of a spoon and the word sugar / coffee / tea
the word sweets / biscuits / treats
an outline of a cat or dog or the word miaow or woof
an outline of a leaf or tree

Just use your imagination when drawing out your design and remember, that it is the thought that counts with this DIY gift, and whatever you create it will be wonderful for the recipient, because you made it for them.
Once you’ve added your design to the jar, you must now leave the jar to dry in a safe, out of the way, dry place for at least half a day, to ensure that your design sets solid.

Once dry you will notice that you can run your fingers over the design and it has created a 3D effect on the jar. It looks really interesting and as is pretty durable too, so your design will endure a few knocks and bumps and last for years.

If you want to get really creative, why not take things further by experimenting with glass paints too!

The finished jars are beautiful as they are and you can always fill them for an extra surprise.

Here are a few ideas of what you could pop inside:

Sweets
Biscuits
Small party-favour toys and games
tubes of glitter / googly eyes / beads / sequins and other crafting items
a rolled up message on a piece of coloured paper, that you have written especially for them
a rolled up tie or pair of colourful socks
Small make-up items and bottles of nail varnish
tea bags / coffee / sugar
Dried fruit / nuts
herbs and spices
a candle

You could fill your jar with anything you like, or leave it looking empty and elegant, it’s totally up to you as it’s your creative project. You can’t go wrong and your DIY gift will make someone’s day because you have made it for them yourself!

Enjoy… and if you have any design tips or ideas for filling the jars – let us know in the comments below – thank you!

A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!

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