Paint-Your-Own Cookies

Ready to package!

This is really just a quick share!  If you want to learn how to make these cute cookies, there is a wonderful tutorial online via Montreal Confections' Patreon page.  It is a subscription - but for as little as $1 per month you can have access to many of her tutorials.  I enjoy learning from Marlyn and I bet you would too.  She was the original creator of the PYO (Paint-Your-Own) cookie - often copied in the cookie world!  She always says she's happy for people to learn and use her designs.  I do think, however, it is important for cookie artists to attribute the source of their design ideas in social media.  That's why you often see my posts including where I learn things.  I'm a little creative...but not THAT creative.  The link to her YouTube channel above shows samples of the types of PYO cookies you can learn to do on her Patreon Channel.  The actual tutorials are on Patreon at this point.

These were my first PYO cookies.  I made them for my grandkids and some friends of my oldest son...everyone seemed happy to get them!  They were also happy to see I had used my Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie dough.  It's the family favorite.  These cookies were really large and sturdy.  They measured 6 1/2 inches tall and were rolled 3/8" thick.  I only used 1/4 tsp. of  baking powder to prevent spread (but I used a tiny bit so I would have some lift - it's a fine line)!

Simple designs or more intricate.
You can gear it more towards
the age of the child by piping
larger patterns, easier to paint
and stay in the lines...
although staying in the lines
is not at all necessary!

A little tag stapled to the top of the packaging gives
instructions on how to activate the colors.
I loved that this particular project used
food color air-brushed M&Ms for the color dot
instead of more royal icing..
Tasty addition to the PYO line-up!

 Thanks Marlyn, for sharing your creative genius with the world.  I have learned so much from Obi-wan Marlyn!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!!!  May you be blessed with spending the day with your family and/or friends!  Those who don't celebrate Easter - just have a marvelous Sunday!

UPDATE:
I just received a photo of one of the painted cookies.  Yay!  Thanks for sharing the art work :-)

Photo Courtesy of James Harris

Easter's on the Way!

A very light violet royal icing stenciled onto base-coated
cookies - these three were all using Designer Stencils
products.  The flowers were learned by taking  two
different classes on Craftsy - SweetAmbs Sweet Elegance
and Wilton Piped Flowers.

Cookie show and tell time.  I've been working on these Easter cookies for the last few days.  I needed to have them finished by today and I met the deadline.  This isn't everything but I did end up with three dozen that I'm happy with!  I've been taking a lot of "online classes"... Montreal Confections, McGooU, Craftsy, and a lot of quickie tutorials I see on Facebook and YouTube.  Most of these were planned based on something I've learned online.  So, here we are!

I love the baskets of flowers I made based on my class at McGooU.  The basket and handle were piped white with a PME 1.5 tip and then, when dry, painted with a mixture of copper AmeriMist color, some gold petal dust and even a little pink in the middle one - gave it an interesting depth of color.  I like that there is some bare cookie showing with visible flecks of vanilla bean seeds in my Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies.  I worked on flowers every time I had extra stiff icing.  Stored in air-tight containers, piped royal icing flowers last for a really long time!  I keep several containers on hand for days like this.  Love the look!  My grandkids will love eating the "candy flowers".

Montreal Confections posted a video for this project this week on her Patreon channel.  Patreon is a wonderful way to support artists you admire.  I enjoy getting tutorials before others and sometimes they are available only to Patrons.  It's a worthy cause in my book.

I had already baked these little guys and was overjoyed to see her detailed visual on decorating them pop up.  I think they turned out cute and I used most of her technique but made a few slight changes.  I didn't cut out and use her template, but I did print it out to look at it while I piped.  I also did not want to drag out my airbrush so I used some dry orange petal dust to lightly highlight the edges of their cheeks and wings.  Love the depth it gave.  I also used dry luster dust on the cheeks...it was a deep pink with a little sparkle.  This cookie cutter is from Wilton and actually has a bow tie for the little chick.  I bake really thick 3/8" cookies and should have rolled the bow-ties thinner.  After I decorated them, they looked funky because the stuck up so high, so I opted not to use them.  I'm happy with how they turned out - very cute little chicks.

Next up, also learned from Montreal Confections, were these cute 3-D bunnies using a cutter from Chicago Metallics.  I had learned my lesson from the chicks and cut these guys at 1/4".  I would cut the hind legs even thinner if doing again. Pretty much followed Marlyn's tutorial except that I piped a dot of dark gray and lay in a pink 4mm sugar pearl for the eyes and then, using a needle tool, I dragged a bit of the dark gray into eyelashes...so these are girl bunnies :-)  Marlyn showed grass down by the bunny feet but I liked the idea of painting on some flowers.  I used a very fine paint brush (I finally found one I love) and just did little dot flowers. They remind me of the beautiful wildflowers currently being seen on Texas roadways and acreage.  Also loved this little project (especially that they stand up so easily).  The paint brush I found at Michael's or Hobby Lobby I'm sure.  It is a LaComeille 18/0 Liner #7350.  I love that it has a thicker handle with a tapered grip which allowed me to hold it in such a way that I had a bit more control.  I tend to get shaky hands :-)

I make chicks every year.  Nothing new here beyond some little wings I piped on.  I found this tiny little carrot cutter in my box of Easter cutters.  I used some leftover icing to pipe the carrot and then used orange food color to paint some stripey looking color - going for a more realistic carrot!

I don't know where I got this bunny cutter with a tail.  I saw lots of people using this cuter this year but using it face-forward.  I was working on trying out some stencils and decided to do the rear-facing bunny on the left and some bunnies stenciled onto an egg on the right.  Stepping away from the "expected" with these two.

These were all stenciled and painted with food color as well.  The bunny ears and eye lashes were painted, the flowers and grass on the left also painted.  The center bunny was stenciled, then dots piped for flower centers and leaves/stems painted two shades of green.  The bunny on the right utilized half of a stencil which I masked off using Press 'n' Seal so the eyes and ears didn't end up with a design on top of them.  These are some of my favorites.

A simple stenciled bunny.  She's pretty in purple.  Very light purple!

By the time I got to these last three cookies I was getting weary.  I used a glass etching stencil for the hummingbird over the flowers.  Trying to hold the stencil still while changing colors with my palette knife was challenging, but it turned out nicely.  The butterfly was stenciled in light blue and then I highlighted with painted accents using that new extra fine paint brush.  The flower spray on the right was the same stencil I used on the bunny above except I didn't paint it.  I was really tired by this point!

Thanks for checking out my cookies - I keep thinking I should start a second blog just for cookies but, darn it, I'm just too lazy!  My blog is kind of like my life - scattered with a variety of interests - I enjoy sharing whatever I find that I like!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!