Back in December I did a crazy blog series called "Holidays Handmade."
For a week I posted at least three tutorial posts every single day. There were some amazing guest bloggers and lots of fantastic projects. But it was a lot to digest. So I thought that this week we might do "Christmas in July" and highlight some of those awesome crafty projects in case you're already planning what to make for the holidays this year. I'll post one tutorial and highlight several others all this week (except on Friday).
Let's get started….
This guest post is from Valerie Mangan. She is going to blow your mind with a mixture of cookies and crafting. Yum!
Hi – I’m Valerie and I am thrilled to be part of Julie’s Holidays Handmade series!
I’ve been a cookie baker for a long time. It started as a small holiday activity and has blossomed into a year-round business. My favorite cookies to make are iced shortbread. I’ve made all kinds of shapes and try to come up with something new each holiday season. Not only do we eat them in our house, we decorate with them, too! I’m happy to be here sharing a few cookie projects with you!
Here’s what you will need:
- A good, sturdy shortbread recipe (the one I use can be found here).
- A batch of royal icing (recipe can be found here).
- Misc. cutters (squares, circles)
- Gel food colorant
- Manila tags
- Paint brushes
- Pizza Cutter
- acrylic stamps
- Flour
- assorted ribbon, string, stamps, cardstock
- Rolling pin
STAMPED COOKIE TAGS
Yes, you can stamp on cookies!
Through trial and error I’ve learned the following:
- Acrylic stamps work best.
- Stamps that have less detail give the best impression.
- In order to get a good print, you will dent the base coat of icing – but it’s ok – it adds a nice texture.
- You can stamp with other things besides stamps. (I used chipboard letters to make the initials on my cookie tags.)
To make these tags, I used a manila tag to cut the shape since I don’t have a cutter in this shape. A simple way to do this is to roll out your dough, lay the tag on top and use a pizza cutter to cut around the shape. Use a straw to cut out the hole for the ribbon.
Once the cookie tags are baked and cooled – lay down a base coat of white royal icing and let the tags dry overnight.
A word about royal icing –
Be not afraid. It’s all about the water with this kind of icing. Royal icing is made from confectioner’s sugar, meringue powder and water and dries to a smooth, hard surface. It will take some trial and error but once you get the water content down, it will be smooth sailing. The easiest way to put down the base coat of icing is with a small icing spatula. Dont worry if it runs off the sides, you can trim it off as it dries. (If it’s too thick, it will leave a lumpy, uneven surface – we don’t want that for this project.)
Once your surface is dry, you are ready to stamp.
Choose your stamps and your colors.
Gel colorant is highly concentrated food color so you will not need very much. I used it to paint the color right onto the stamp with a paint brush. (You might want to thin it out with a small amount of water.)
Once you’ve painted the image – press the stamp onto the cookie surface. Don’t be afraid to dent the icing – or to miss spots with your impression. Precision is not necessary and your image can be touched up later with a paintbrush if you like.
Once your stamped images are dry (in an hour or two) you can embellish to your liking.
PAINTED FRAME TAGS
For this project I followed the same baking directions as above, except this time I used a set of cutters to cut these shapes.
(Important: Save the cut out centers, make a hole in each one, bake and reserve for the next project.)
Once the cookies are cooled and the base coat of royal icing has dried you can start to paint on the detail. Using the same gel colorant, watered down slightly, I painted just as I would with watercolor. The possibilities are limitless here!
I added the cookies to some stamped kraft cardstock cut into the shape of a tag & embellished with some string & ribbon. These could also be cute picture frame ornaments or a nice presentation for a gift card.
Now, with the centers left over from the above project, we can make some cute cookie garlands.
COOKIE GARLANDS
Just the thought of icing 50 of these tiny cookies with royal icing makes me tired. Instead I used a much easier and faster method – instead of a knife, I used a paintbrush to apply this small amount of icing to each little part.
Once these little cookies are "painted" & dry you can string them together in any combo you like.
Finally, in order to keep all of your crafty cookie creations edible – always work with clean, or preferably new, acrylic stamps and new paint brushes.
Happy Holidays!
My name is Valerie Mangan. I'm a working mom and wife living in coastal New Jersey. I work by day as an interior designer and I have a small baking business on the side. I'm a scrapbooker and a cardmaker and a self-proclaimed photo geek. I love everything about art and design. You can read about my crafty, baking escapades on my blog Paper & Cookies.
You can see a listing of all of the Holidays Handmade posts here. I was so inspired by Valerie's post that I made the cookies you see here. I am not a baker at all, but it was AWESOME fun!
Some other food-related posts to check out from Holidays Handmade are:
Tape + Toothpicks = Cupcake Flags
Thanks for stopping by!
—
P.S. Don't forget! The first "Technique Geek" Live with Prima show is tonight! 8pm EST. The classroom is here.
those gorgeous cookie garlands are to die for. i love the light blue and red combo. very talented. i am headed over to that blog now. thanks for sharing, Julie.
those gorgeous cookie garlands are to die for. i love the light blue and red combo. very talented. i am headed over to that blog now. thanks for sharing, Julie.
those gorgeous cookie garlands are to die for. i love the light blue and red combo. very talented. i am headed over to that blog now. thanks for sharing, Julie.
those gorgeous cookie garlands are to die for. i love the light blue and red combo. very talented. i am headed over to that blog now. thanks for sharing, Julie.
Thanks for sharing this again, Julie! Need to figure out what this holiday season’s cookie craft will be 🙂
Thanks for sharing this again, Julie! Need to figure out what this holiday season’s cookie craft will be 🙂
Thanks for sharing this again, Julie! Need to figure out what this holiday season’s cookie craft will be 🙂
Thanks for sharing this again, Julie! Need to figure out what this holiday season’s cookie craft will be 🙂
Gorgeous cookies! But panic mode has set in-:)
Gorgeous cookies! But panic mode has set in-:)
Gorgeous cookies! But panic mode has set in-:)
Gorgeous cookies! But panic mode has set in-:)
Love this! Every year I plan to get a head start on Christmas and this will put me in the mood to actually do it!
Love this! Every year I plan to get a head start on Christmas and this will put me in the mood to actually do it!
Love this! Every year I plan to get a head start on Christmas and this will put me in the mood to actually do it!
Love this! Every year I plan to get a head start on Christmas and this will put me in the mood to actually do it!
What a fun way to share your creativity with friends. Evne the dieting one will eat these.
Julie! It is very hard when the temperature is once again going to reach over 100 degrees. So can we have some HOT weather tips.
What a fun way to share your creativity with friends. Evne the dieting one will eat these.
Julie! It is very hard when the temperature is once again going to reach over 100 degrees. So can we have some HOT weather tips.
What a fun way to share your creativity with friends. Evne the dieting one will eat these.
Julie! It is very hard when the temperature is once again going to reach over 100 degrees. So can we have some HOT weather tips.
What a fun way to share your creativity with friends. Evne the dieting one will eat these.
Julie! It is very hard when the temperature is once again going to reach over 100 degrees. So can we have some HOT weather tips.
I love this post! When I was very small we lived in the Pacific NW and were a large family. My mom decorated and celebrated with cookies galore! The year I turned 10 we moved to Southern CA. We woke up Christmas morning to a Christmas tree swarming with ants eating the cookie decos…needless to say it was a loss of innocence for all of us, including Mom. Thanks for this post. I’ll be making Sorbet today myself. LOL
I love this post! When I was very small we lived in the Pacific NW and were a large family. My mom decorated and celebrated with cookies galore! The year I turned 10 we moved to Southern CA. We woke up Christmas morning to a Christmas tree swarming with ants eating the cookie decos…needless to say it was a loss of innocence for all of us, including Mom. Thanks for this post. I’ll be making Sorbet today myself. LOL
I love this post! When I was very small we lived in the Pacific NW and were a large family. My mom decorated and celebrated with cookies galore! The year I turned 10 we moved to Southern CA. We woke up Christmas morning to a Christmas tree swarming with ants eating the cookie decos…needless to say it was a loss of innocence for all of us, including Mom. Thanks for this post. I’ll be making Sorbet today myself. LOL
I love this post! When I was very small we lived in the Pacific NW and were a large family. My mom decorated and celebrated with cookies galore! The year I turned 10 we moved to Southern CA. We woke up Christmas morning to a Christmas tree swarming with ants eating the cookie decos…needless to say it was a loss of innocence for all of us, including Mom. Thanks for this post. I’ll be making Sorbet today myself. LOL
Wow, the stamped cookies are fantastic, great, wonderful, awsome…
Greetings samsch
Wow, the stamped cookies are fantastic, great, wonderful, awsome…
Greetings samsch
Wow, the stamped cookies are fantastic, great, wonderful, awsome…
Greetings samsch
Wow, the stamped cookies are fantastic, great, wonderful, awsome…
Greetings samsch
Those cookies look so lovely and appealing. But then I clicked over to the cookies you made for the new year, and was TOTALLY taken aback by the way you painted on them Amazing!! I never would have thought to paint like that on a cookie. And I’m wondering: who dared to EAT those gorgeous things?!
Those cookies look so lovely and appealing. But then I clicked over to the cookies you made for the new year, and was TOTALLY taken aback by the way you painted on them Amazing!! I never would have thought to paint like that on a cookie. And I’m wondering: who dared to EAT those gorgeous things?!
Those cookies look so lovely and appealing. But then I clicked over to the cookies you made for the new year, and was TOTALLY taken aback by the way you painted on them Amazing!! I never would have thought to paint like that on a cookie. And I’m wondering: who dared to EAT those gorgeous things?!
Those cookies look so lovely and appealing. But then I clicked over to the cookies you made for the new year, and was TOTALLY taken aback by the way you painted on them Amazing!! I never would have thought to paint like that on a cookie. And I’m wondering: who dared to EAT those gorgeous things?!
These projects are so sweet… love them all!
Thank you for sharing :]
These projects are so sweet… love them all!
Thank you for sharing :]
These projects are so sweet… love them all!
Thank you for sharing :]
These projects are so sweet… love them all!
Thank you for sharing :]
These are the most delicious little things I’ve ever seen! My mouth is watering! I’m going to bookmark this post for cooler days. It’s way to hot right now in Phoenix to think about turning on the oven, but I’m coming back to this one later! Guaranteed!
These are the most delicious little things I’ve ever seen! My mouth is watering! I’m going to bookmark this post for cooler days. It’s way to hot right now in Phoenix to think about turning on the oven, but I’m coming back to this one later! Guaranteed!
These are the most delicious little things I’ve ever seen! My mouth is watering! I’m going to bookmark this post for cooler days. It’s way to hot right now in Phoenix to think about turning on the oven, but I’m coming back to this one later! Guaranteed!
These are the most delicious little things I’ve ever seen! My mouth is watering! I’m going to bookmark this post for cooler days. It’s way to hot right now in Phoenix to think about turning on the oven, but I’m coming back to this one later! Guaranteed!