Cookie Swap ~ The Giving Tree

Last month I had the privilege in participating in a cookie swap with many of my cookier friends.  We were supposed to make cookies based on our favorite children's book.  I chose The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  He was one of my favorite authors as a kid.  These cookies were sent to my friend Jennifer at One Kookie Cookie.

I tried a new technique for these cookies and I really liked the way they turned out.

And a close up of this one because it was my favorite.

Pretty Pattern Easter Cookies

I just love this pattern so much that I had to put it on some Easter cookies.

Hats and Teapots, Gingham, and Popcorn

Hi everyone.  I know that I haven't been posting here very much, which has been due to a combination of being way too busy, illness, and a little bit of laziness.  I have been posting on facebook though, so if you're sad that you haven't seen my cookies very much here, you can probably find some new cookie posts there.

I made these cookies a couple of months ago for an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party.  I just love the colors!

 



 I made these for a baby shower.  Super simple pink gingham, but that's what they wanted...

 

And I made these cookies for my son for his 4th birthday.  He loves his popcorn! I also entered these in Lilaloa's photography challenge.  I used a different color background and a prop.  I tried...

Cowboy Baby Shower Cookies

Last week I made some cookies for a cowboy-themed baby shower. 

I love that font!  It's a pain in the butt to pipe, but it looks so cool!

I usually make a sketch anyway when I'm making a variety of cookies, especially if they're going to match an invitation, but I took a picture of the sketch for you so I can participate in LilaLoa's February challenge.

President's Day Cookie Collaboration

Today I get to share with you that I got to participate in my first cookie collaboration project!  I feel like one of the cool kids now.  Anne of Flour Box Bakery was kind enough to put together a fun project for President's Day.

And I got Abraham Lincoln!  I decided to try my hand at painting again.  What do you think? I also made a few accessory cookies. 

 

 

 And here's the collage with all of the presidents:

 I feel so honored to have my cookies in that collage with all those talented ladies!

1) George Washington by Sarah of Sweet Surrender Cookie Co.,    

2)  John Adams  by Nicole of Life’s a Batch

3)  Thomas Jefferson by Sarah of Songbird Sweets

4)  James Madison by Georganne of LilaLoa

5)  James Monroe by Anne of Flour Box Bakery

6)  John Quincy Adams by Liz of Arty McGoo

7)  Andrew Jackson by Tiffany of TheRedCooky

8) Martin Van Buren by Jill of Jill FCS – Funky Cookie Studio

9)  William Henry Harrison by Christina of Sweet C’s Bake Shop

10)  John Tyler by Kim of The Cookie Puzzle

11) James K. Polk  by Debbie of D&T Designs

12) Zachery Taylor by Stephanie of Ellies Bites

13) Millard Fillmore by Melissa of Simply Sweets by Honeybee

14) Franklin Pierce by Kris of So Cute Cookies

15)  James Buchanan by Lene of Not Your Everyday Cookie

16) Abraham Lincoln by Debbie of Sweet Creations by Debbie

17) Andrew Johnson by Liz of CookiesToGo

18) Ulysses S. Grant  by Rebekah of Love at First Bite

19) Rutherford B. Hayes  by Heather of Twins Plus One Goodies

20) James A. Garfield by Teresa of Sugar T's Cookies

21)  Chester Arthur by Alyse of B.E. Sweet Treats

22) Grover Cleveland  by Kimberly of Barefoot N Baking

23)  Benjamin Harrison by Laurie of Cookie Bliss

24) Grover Cleveland  by Kimberly of Barefoot N Baking

25)  William McKinley by Susan of Sweet Williams Cookies

26)  Theodore Roosevelt by Heather of SugarNosh Treats

27) William Howard Taft by Sarah of Sarah’s Sweet Shoppe

28)  Woodrow Wilson by Cheryl of The Sugared Apron

29)  Warren G. Harding  by Shannon of Artfully Delicious Cookies

30) Calvin Coolidge by Stephanie of Ice My Biscuit

31)   Herbert Hover by Fumie of A+Kake sweets 

32) Franklin D. Roosevelt by Christine of Chris’ Creative Confections

33)  Harry S Truman by Kim of Sugar Rush Custom Cookies

34)  Dwight Eisenhower  by Monica of Cookie Cowgirl

35)   John F. Kennedy by CeCe of The Tactical Bakery

36) Lyndon B. Johnson by Jennifer of One Kookie Cookie

37)  Richard Nixon by Jackie of iBakery

38)   Gerald Ford by Georgeanne of LilaLoa,

39)  Jimmy Carter by Jennifer of One Kookie Cookie

40)  Ronald Reagan by Melissa of The Baked Equation

41) George Bush Sr. by Penny of Lucky Penny Cookies

42)  Bill Clinton by Laurie of Cookie Bliss 

43)  George W. Bush by Sarah of Sarah’s Sweet Shoppe

44)  Barack Obama by Teresa of Sugar T's Cookies

 

Little House on the Prairie Cookies

Last week I made cookies for a Little House on the Prairie party. 

I made the gingham using my airbrush and a stencil I made.  I got the idea from Glorious Treats.

This is seriously one of my first pictures where the purple actually looks like purple.  I mentioned last week that I got a light tent.  This was my second time using it and I love it!  I have a hard time getting good natural light in our apartment, so I'm really glad I finally gave in and bought it.  Hopefully my photos will be much better from now on.

Oh, and one last thing.  Last month I entered my black and white pattern cookies in LilaLoa's contest and she listed my cookies as one of her favorites!  You can see that post here. 

Tractor Cookies

Here are some cookies I made for my nephew's birthday to match his invitation.

I ended up making the tractor cookie cutter because I ordered the wrong tractor cookie cutter before I saw the invitation.  Oops.  It worked though.

Oh, and I bought a light tent.  What do you think?  Definitely better, although I still need to play around with it.  I think my lights were a little too close to the tent for this picture (the double shadows).  Today I backed them up while taking pictures of some cookies and I think that was a lot better.   Next week I'll share my wildflower cookies for a Little House on the Prairie party.

Black and White Cookies

The fabulous Georganne of Lilaloa has created a challenge to make cookies using only black and white (and any shade inbetween).  I've always wanted to participate in a cookie challenge but I've never really been able to (either I was too busy or I couldn't think of a good enough idea).  Plus it's so hard to set aside time to make cookies just for fun.  However, I recently came to the decision to no longer pursue orders, but to instead get back to having fun designing and creating cookies.  So when I saw this challenge I knew I had to set aside time to come up with an idea.  I ended up finding my inspiration in scrapbook paper.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

Funny Little Snowmen

Last week I had an order for cookies to match an invitation.  Thank goodness I got to see the invitation because when I was told to make snowmen with holly hats I wasn't quite visuallizing it. 

And luckily Sugarbelle did a tutorial that week on how to make holly leaves, so I used her technique to make the hats.  And I painted the faces on thanks to Arty McGoo's great instruction at Cookie Con. I'm now realizing that I never actually did a post on Cookie Con...oops!  I'll try to at least put up some pictures eventually.

Christmas Minis

Last week, my husband's work had its annual Christmas boutique.  If you remember, I participated in it last year as well.  I made tons of stuff, including decorated sugar cubes, about 70 decorated cookies, and a bunch of minis.  In the end, only the minis sold, and the only way to sell off the 70 decorated cookies was to discount them to $1.50, which was kind of insulting that people thought that's all they were worth.  And I still have a few boxes of the sugar cubes, but at least those never go bad.  Anyway, after last year's disappointment, I thought I would try just making mini cookies, since those were all that really sold last year. 

 

 

In the end, I only sold about 2/3 of the cookies, so it wasn't too bad.  I intentionally didn't mark down the price on the last day (apparently there are a lot of people who wait until the last day, waiting until things go on clearance) because I'd rather give the cookies away to people that will appreciate them than sell them for nothing to people who devalue my work.  Do I sound bitter?  Don't worry, I'll get over it eventually. 

Oh, and in case you're curious, I used my airbrush on the peppermint candy cookies (I made the stencil!) and the snowflake cookies.  My airbrush and I may be friends now after all.  We'll see...

Pumpkins and Flowers

I have been such a bad blogger!  But to tell you the truth, I haven't been making a whole lot of cookies.  I haven't had any orders lately, although I have played around a little bit with recipes. 

A few weeks ago I made some pumpkins using my new toy, the dehydrator.  Can you see a difference?  It definitely adds a shine, but it's not always easy to see in the pictures.

We also recently started attending a new church that has a program for special needs kids.  Teenagers in the church volunteer to be their buddies in the Sunday school class.  I thought that was pretty cool and that they deserved some cookies for to working with my son. 

I also got to attend Cookie Con last week, but I think I'll have to make a separate post on that.  Needless to say, it was amazing!  More to come soon!

Swim Party Cookies

A couple of weeks ago I made some cookies for a little girl's swim-themed birthday party.  I didn't have a swim fin cookie cutter (not sure if there is one), so I trimmed a candy corn cutter and used a flower petal to trim the bottom part.

 

 

Doctor Who Cookies

I have a confession to make.  I LOVE Doctor Who!  I only recently started watching it when I found it on Amazon Prime instant videos, and before long I was hooked.  It took awhile to convince him, but I've now converted my husband as well. 

Anyway, when I found the phone booth cookie cutter at Plastics in Print, I had to get it and make some Doctor Who cookies.  Then I brainstormed some designs and made a few cookie cutters:

 

And here's what I did with them!  I got to try out a couple of new techniques including painting and airbrushing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New episodes of Doctor Who start this Saturday and we just got BBC America!  Are any of you guys fans?

Cookies for a Funeral

A couple of weeks ago I made some cookies for a funeral.  I was specifically asked for the crosses I made back in March and doves.  So sorry for the repeat design, but you know...

I used the extras as an opportunity to try painting on cookies.  I definitely need some practice with that technique.  I'll get to learn from the master, Arty McGoo, at Cookie Con in November.  Can't wait!

Luau Cookies

I know I'm being a completely lazy blogger, but I've been staring at this post for too long trying to think of something interesting to say and I've got nothing.  So, here's the cookie info.  These cookies were for favors for a luau themed birthday party.  Both the hibiscus and the hawaiian shirt ideas were inspired by Sugarbelle.  The pink in the pictures didn't turn out quite right no matter how I tried to adjust things, but it was really a bright pink that was much prettier than it looks in the pictures.

Thanks for putting up with my boringness today and I promise I'll try to be more interesting next time. 

Pink Eiffel Tower Cookies

I had an order for Eiffel tower cookies, and since it took me about 5 minutes just to trace a realistic Eiffel tower image with a pen, I figured it was going to take a long time to pipe a couple of dozen of them.  So I opted for a more pretty, whimsical version:

I've been trying to improve my cookie photography, so I've included props!  I used the ribbons that I had cut for tying the cookie bags, and that there is an authentic Eiffel tower replica, meaning that we bought it in Paris on our honeymoon.  Here's my favorite shot:

What do you think?

I'm back!!!

I know I haven't posted anything for awhile, but I have a really good excuse!  Over the last month, the baby has been sick 3 times, I've been sick twice (relapsed on the same cold technically), and my husband did the same.  Between the three of us we've been through 4 rounds of antibiotics.  Needless to say, there hasn't been much cookie decorating going on.  I did have some soccer ball cookies I made inbetween colds, but I didn't get any pictures of them.  Well, technically I remembered after I delivered the cookies and so I took pictures of the extra rejects, but I decided those were too ugly to share. 

But now we're finally healthy and I got to work on some cookies again.  These were a pretty random assortment of cookies. 

And since my family now considers it a burden to eat my extra cookies, I made some extra ones to give away to a few people we know.  Hopefully it brightens their day a little bit.