Cookie Ornaments for a Mini Tree

Christmas Lambs and Candy Cane Cookies {easy picture tutorial for lamb with a flower cutter!}

So dang happy Christmas is just around the corner! Our house is nuts right now with my husband in the middle of his law finals, and me in the middle of my undergrad finals (with lots of cookie orders on top of that). Of course, it's always crazy at the Bowen house what with the 3 year old and 20 month old little boys tearing around. 

I hope to do at least one more tutorial for Christmas, but for now here is a very simple lamb cookie using a flower cutter. You could even do this in buttercream and add little eyes or a bow to the lamb. 

What you'll need:

- thick black icing

- thick white icing in a bag with a #2 tip

- flower cookie cutter

First fill in a little black head and ears right in the middle of your cookie. I didn't wait for mine to dry, but you can if you'd like. To start on the 'wool', just add small dots close together until eventually the entire cookie is filled in. Add more dots in any areas where the cookie is showing and voila! You've got your very simple lamb cookies (which go great with some very simple candy canes). 

I love getting emails with questions and pictures of cookies you've made inspired by things on my blog! I love seeing others work and hearing their stories, so thank you to all of you who have sent me emails and left comments. As for tutorial requests, I will really try to get around to all of them as quickly as possible :) Just be patient with me!

Happy cookie-ing!!

xoxoxo,

Caitlin

Royal Icing 'MONSTER-osities' {how NOT to decorate cookies}

Decorating cookies is time consuming. I always carefully draw and design my cookie ideas onto paper before actually making them. I have pages and pages of ideas drawn up just waiting to be made. Of course I have WAY too many ideas to ever make all of them into cookies, so you can imagine that when I do choose to make some, I pick my favorite designs. 

One of the best parts of cookie decorating is being able to see your finished product at the end.

Especially when they turn out just as you had imagined in your head. 

And then, there are always days like this....... 'Monster-osities'. The cookies only a mother could (pretend to) be proud of. 

Oh the horror. This is a good example of two mistakes that are easily made.

1. Not washing out your bowl before making royal icing. If you look at the purple and green, they have a funky grainy texture to them. (I decorated my voodoo doll cookies with the same icing, it's even more noticeable with them!) THAT is what happens when oil gets into your icing. Sometimes you may look at your bowl and think 'that looks clean enough to me'.

I'm warning you, DON'T fall into that trap like I did. These are the results of that exact thinking. And of course laziness. Because who wants to wash a clean mixing bowl?

You may not be able to tell from the pictures, but even after sitting out for 3 days these cookies never completely dried. 

2. Adding too much food coloring. Do you see the black? Horrible, I know. Color (especially dark colors like black or red) take time to develop. The best tip for making dark colors is to make a lighter color (like deep gray) and let it sit in the fridge for a couple days. THEN add more black if you need it. But usually after a day or two it becomes much darker

Don't try to make black in one afternoon. Trust me, it doesn't work if you want a true, deep black. 

After taking these pictures I waited a few more days and the black still never dried. 

It's always so sad when such tender loving care goes into making your cookies and then they come out like this! Hopefully this post will spare some of you from the same mistakes.

And thank goodness it was my 2 year old who ate them and not a neighbor or client :) Especially because the first time he saw himself in the mirror he started laughing and then said "Look mommy! Arrrrrrgh, I'm a pirate!"

Happy Halloween everyone! Hopefully your cookies won't turn out quite as scary as mine did. 

Halloween Cookies {hand painted}

First of all.. Let me apologize. HOLY COW. Yes, I am a total amateur photographer.. but these are just pathetic.  SERIOUSLY SAD. I need to take some classes or something. My pictures are usually okay when I have reeaalllly good lighting. But if it is overcast, I am doomed. Its madening because my cookies are so much brighter in real life, be it as it may.. here they are!

I LOVED doing these (have I used enough CAPS for you yet??). Halloween is my favorite holiday. Tied with Christmas of course. 

Here is my spidee cookie inspired by the incredibly talented sweet ambs. 

More cookies coming soon! Enjoy this gorgeous fall weather and wonderful week!

Paris Valentine Cookies {and a cookie swap!}

Hi friends! I did a little cookie swap this past weekend with Myra over at Sugar Oven Cookies.. Let me just say she is amazing and her cookies are DELICIOUS! Seriously, they taste incredible. 

We decided to do whatever theme we wanted, because I will be cutting back on the cookie making (I HAVE to finish my bachelors degree.. I'm so close!!), I decided to do valentines cookies! Paris themed that is. I will warn you these pictures are not the absolute best.. it was overcast for like a week strait so I had no choice but to take them with bad lighting. But here they are!!

My little birds in their bird cages. 

I brushed all the silver with silver pearl dust mixed with orange extract to get the shine!

Now here are Myra's cookies! I was SO excited when I was notified of my package at the front desk. It took a lot of self control not to eat all of them that very moment.. I had to wait to take pictures the next day. But They were scrumptious! So moist and AMAING. They looked as good as they tasted. 

I loved the feathers!

This one was my favorite (that's why I ate it first of course).

Look at all those beautiful, bright colors! I want to make cookies like these!!

So everyone go check out Sugar Oven, you won't be disappointed you did. Hope you enjoyed the cookies, HAPPY BAKING!

Joy {Cookie Ornaments}

We don't have a christmas tree this year.. yes, it is a tragedy I tell you. I have a two year old and an almost eight month old who is crawling all over our apartment AND we are going to be out of town for the holidays, so we had to forgo the tree this year. 

However, I decided to make cookie ornaments anyway. They are hanging on this little bird cage on our kitchen table now. They look a little lonely, but a touch of christmas is better than nothin!

Until I get one of these, I found a new BFF. 

This color mist is SO easy to use and makes for a really quick and easy way to decorate a cookie! Just line and flood your cookie, let it dry over night and spray with the color mist of your choosing (I got mine at Michael's). 

Happy Cookie-ing!

Henna for Hanukkah!

These babies were sent out to California this morning as a Hanukkah gift from daughter to mother. 

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy holidays to all!

Stay tuned, I've got LOTS more Christmas orders coming soon!!

Winter Forest Animals and Trees

Here are my little forest animals and embroidered pine trees with snow on them. Enjoy!