because krylon would taste funny!

my hubby, best boyfriend ever, Jeff, got me an airbrush for Christmas. i didn't ask for one, hadn't even considered it since i was pleased enough with sanding sugar and pearl dust. but Jeff is probably my #1 fan and has had some pretty enthusiastic ideas about what i should try next (even physics-and-chemistry-defying ideas) so when he proposed an airbrush i probably brushed (pun!) it off as superfluous, an expense, some tool to fumble and never really learn, like if i tried playing the oboe. i had forgotten that he mentioned it. then one came in the mail.
i eyed it suspiciously for a day or two. (it looked like an electric crack pipe.) then i figured either i'd hate it or i wouldn't, and if i didn't, then i might get good at it, and i had to get moving on cookies for Vanessa and Theresa for covering Jeff's hours Christmas weekend.... so i made some white squares.
then i went to Michael's and rounded up a few stencils. then i watered down some food coloring. then i took a deep breath and made an awesome gorgeous mess of some cookies.
i was incorrectly intimidated. food coloring through stencils on cookies, once the spraying hand can gauge what it's doing, and the stencil-holding hand isn't bouncing everywhere, is pretty simple. i rolled out some fondant shapes, like the square and circle combo, or made a little coil like the ones that say "dream". some of my stencils came from the paint department, others were die-cut scrapbook pages. the pink and purple tiny square pattern in the lower right was a plastic needlepoint grid. pretty soon i had a list of ideas, and my next 2 projects turned out surprisingly well. (posts coming soon!) thankfully Vanessa and Theresa don't mind when tasty cookies are funny looking, so they each got a dozen of my prototypes to say: coming soon, Libby's "boudoir" birthday dozen, golden lemon brocade, (as yet unconfirmed) animals, tractors for a little girl (?) and i'll probably whine a bit about making icing in January... also looking into a cookie party situation. (woo!)