Thursday, November 29, 2012

Super Simple Winter Sugar Cookies

In the theme of trying to keep things simple, I made some snowy, winter cookies.

Cutout and round snowflakes.

See that single, lonely dragee?  Mistake.  My thought was to cover the messy intersection of all of the lines.  It just looks small and out of place.


No frills snowmen.  I was tempted to add ear muffs, but refrained.


The whole wintery collection . . .


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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Christmas Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing 2012

It's my cookieversary! Yep, it was about one year ago that I started this cookie obsession.  Christmas cookies were my first shot at decorating in any real sense.  I think I've improved a little since then.  I know I've had a blast!

So here are my Christmas cookies for 2012 . . .

Christmas trees with a simple strand of red lights.  A big ol' candy cane and holly leaf.  (Craters attacked my holly berries!)


Very simple Rudolph faces, mini Christmas lights and mini hollies.


A stocking, Santa faces, and mini stockings.  Not sure which way I prefer the old man's eyes.


The whole collection . . .


Would you like to see last year's collection?  My first ever?  Here it is!


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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Engagement Stick Figure Sugar Cookies

Once again, I made stick figure engagement cookies, along with Save the Date calendar cookies and hearts.

After the party, Jessica sent me this photo . . .

How beautiful and elegant!

(The calendar cookies are Haniela's design.)

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Monday, November 12, 2012

Painting on Sugar Cookies

One of the most inspiring presentations for me at Cookie Con was the one by Arty McGoo.  She is adorable and oh so talented.  She's an artist that uses cookies as her canvas.

I'm no artist, but I think that adding painted accents to my cookies is certainly doable and could add a lot of character and detail.

One of the activities at Cookie Con was the "Mystery Shape Challenge".  We were given this cookie . . .


Yikes.  I turned it this way and that.  I stared at it.  I traced it onto paper.  I doodled on it.  At first, all I could see was a boy with spiky hair or a ninja.  Finally, I saw a basket or pot of flowers with a long ribbon . That's definitely more my style . . .


It was the perfect chance to give painting on cookies a shot.  Liz (Arty McGoo) had showed us how to paint what she called "scribble roses".  Mine weren't looking very rosy, so I asked her for a private mini lesson at our table and she so sweetly agreed.

I painted the rose details, a bit on the bow, and shadows on the basket.  Not bad and very fun!


Later that evening, I asked Liz if she would pose for a photo with my cookie in that fabulous 50s cute way of hers . . .



That photo just totally cracks me up!  Isn't it fabulous?

I'll end this post with a video that Liz ended her presentation with.  This will give you an idea of the talent this woman possesses. She calls it her "love note" to the cookie community.  The video ended to a standing ovation and a group of 200 misty-eyed cookiers.  Enjoy!




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Saturday, November 10, 2012

Thanksgiving Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing Glaze

This is the first set of cookies that I've made after returning from Cookie Con, where I was able to use a few things that I learned.

Surprisingly, the presentation from Glory of  Glorious Treats about photography influenced these cookies the most.

The tidbit that hit me the hardest wasn't even about photography really.

At one point, she showed photos of some very simple tulip cookies.  The photos ranged from being not great (shot on a cookie sheet) to being amazing (shot in pots of wheat grass).  She pointed out that the tulips were very simple cookies, yet still totally adorable.  That reminded me that I'm often attracted to the simplest of cookie designs.

I see so many fabulous tutorials out there, have tons of cutters that I'd love to play with and have all of these big plans for highly detailed cookies.  There are so many techniques and designs that I'm itching to try.  Sometimes when I'm decorating, I just can't stop.  I keep adding stuff!  Glory's presentation reminded me to keep things simple.  Simple can still be cute, beautiful, fun, etc.

Simple can also make decorating lots of cookies much more doable and enjoyable!

With that in mind, I came up with Thanksgiving cookies that I'll be offering this year.  I didn't go crazy with the number of colors or cutters.  I kept the designs simple.  That was almost hard.  I was tempted to add more details here and there but I held myself back.  I'm glad I did.

I actually adore this whole set.  I love the colors.

Here's Mr. Turkey.  I used a large flower cutter for his body, cut across the bottom and inserted a mini flower for his feet . . .

No extra details on Tom.


Three different pumpkins and a mini.  I thought about making the stems green, then adding leaves and tendrils.  Nope.  That would require another color, consistency, and tip.  Simple . . .


Fall flowers.  I was REALLY tempted to add details to the petals.  I wanted to pipe or paint lines from the centers.  Self control . . .

Fall Leaves.  My plan originally was to make them with three colors on each leaf and do some marbling.  I refrained.  The veins were done wet-on-wet.

The mini acorns.  Originally I was going to make two different colors of brown.  To simplify, I just went with one.  The tops needed a little something so I painted those lines on a la Arty McGoo.  She was another presenter at Cookie Con and showed us how to paint on cookies.  I really, really wanted to add painted touches on all of these cookies.  Once again, I refrained.  Dang, I didn't know I possessed such self control (or that self control was something needed in cookie decorating!).


Did you happen to notice my photos?  Not bad, huh?  Glory gave us some tips on lighting that really helped.  I also put more thought into the background.  Usually for me, it's always a white plate on a white background.  I was trying to keep *that* simple, but realize now that it was booooring.  I love the pop of orange behind the white dish!

I came away from Cookie Con totally inspired by the amazing instructors and ladies that attended.  The talent and the generosity to share their knowledge is pretty unbelievable.

I'm glad to be part of the cookie world!  :)

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