eldra's "year of cookies" august '09

challenging myself to do new and different shapes for eldra this month was easy when you remember that nothing happens in august. no holidays, no particular weather accept hot. so i decided to use that lazy-days-of-summer idea and give eldra a day at the lake.

neat new techniques included using the sunflower to make the sun, and painting the woodgrain on the boat with brown food coloring. i was totally intimidated by the fish, but it became my favorite of the trio.

tune in next month; it's back-to-school season, with a storybook theme.

the peaceful cookie

natalia's 9th birthday was this summer and her mom said she digs peace signs and bright colors. turns out i can do both!

it might have been the humidity, but the frosting got uncooperative, so i switched from an outline to dots, and i think it made it even more festive. see, things turn out well when you give peace a chance. for more colors, check out the slide show.

peace!

i scream, you scream...

heather had the grown-ups over for andrew and grace's summer birthdays, so i made a shape for kids of all ages. who doesn't love an ice cream cone :)

"my little phonies"

i know i said i didn't want to make (or fake!) licensed characters but these weren't for sale, so i'm sure i won't be receiving a cease and desist letter from the my little pony people. :)

these were for my future niece and flower girl's 3rd birthday. (see the slideshow for the lavender version.) and yes i really did draw the whole thing out and color it. i think i spent about 6 hours between planning, rolling, baking and decorating, and the party-goers finished them off in a half hour. (as it should be, they were darn tastey too.)

looking forward to a farm scene one day, these would be just as nice in regular horse colors. i'll have to redraw them to make the feet and face less toy-like. perhaps i'll add a verticle piece and make carousel horses?

farmer's market!

this platter was SO much fun to make! the banana was the moon cookie cutter, the shape pinched at each end; the turnip was a heart and a palm tree spliced together; the lemon was a football shape; the radish was a mini heart and mini oak leaf; the cherries were made from a heart; the chili pepper from a leaf; the grapes from circles and a maple leaf; the orange was a plain circle; the watermelon was a half circle; the cauliflower and lettuce were a metal shape i didnt like and bent into an amorphus round shape; the peach was an apple with an altered bottom; the peas in a pod were circles and the moon again; and the rasberries were mini tombstones. i even gave the new shapes little leaves with a fondant cutter. i made them just for the fun of it, and i gave them to my mom when we visited for her birthday. now i'm all inspired to look at shapes beyond their original intended shape, or to combine shapes to make a new picture. i love looking at cookies as little pictures to color. (i was a coloring book artiste back in the day--i wore my crayons down to nubs.) when i think of the composition of the picture as a coloring book, with fields of color lying next to each other, designing cookies gets a whole lot easier. and a whole lot bigger. i would cut one shape and think of another. ...i think i like the blackberries the best.