Thanksgiving Cornucopia

I've been wanting to do a cornucopia grouping for Thanksgiving for quite some time. I had a wonderful time designing all the different elements and then arranging them together for  my 2011 Thanksgiving collection.

I made three cornucopia sets. One was sold at our Ukraine fundraiser auction last weekend. The second is to take to work on Thanksgiving Day (I have to work at the hospital for the holiday) to cheer everyone up when they have to work on such a special holiday. And the last group I've got on my own dining room table to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. Every time I see it, I smile. :)

's the grouping at the auction.

And 's the "official" photo of my cornucopia collection. :)

Believe it or not.....I still have bunch of Thanksgiving cookies to share. I've been busy busy busy.

Airbushed Autumn Cookies

they are.....my very first airbrushed cookies. Expect to see many more using this technique. :)

I've got a bunch of Thanksgiving cookies to show you now. Only ONE WEEK until the holiday. Woah....how does this happen? A month seems like a few days, anymore. sigh.....

Airbrush!

Just got a new tool that I saw demonstrated at Cookie Camp.....an airbrush! So exciting. 

I've only used it once.....so I'm no expert, but I already can see quite a potential for its uses.

I received my airbrush from Karen's Cookies. She already sold out of her first order of airbrushes, so she is waiting for a new order to come in. Hopefully by the time they arrive, we'll have these tools figured out enough to write some tutorials and then maybe others will take the plunge and get one too. :)

I decided that fall leaves would be a good first project with the airbrush. The application tends to be a bit splotchy (if you direct to do so).....so that worked well with leaves since they are never actually one solid color in nature.

I outlined and flooded all my cookies with a "off white" or ivory type color to start off with. White works just fine.....but I wanted them to have a more earthy tone to start off.

The instruction that come with the airbrush are minimal.....so it was kind of funny to try to put it together. Mike (Karen's Cookies) helped me out. Unfortunately I took these photos when I didn't have it set up correctly.....so don't look too closely. lol

I decided to paint on a little more detail with some Americolor gels after the airbushing session dried some. 

Next post.....I'll show you the end results.

Mmmmmm.....Flavoring Cookies

Fall is a great time to add special flavors to your cookie assortment. A few weeks ago, I did an experiment. (My friends and family love it when I say I need them to try my experiment. ;o))

I have bought several natural flavorings from Spices, etc in the last year.....and wanted to try them out fully within my cookies AND icing. In my experiment (being the CRAZIE person that I am!), I made THREE types of dough and icing........great....THREE TIMES the work! lol

Caramel flavoring in my caramel apples that I've already shown you in this previous post:

Then pumpkin pie spice flavoring in my pumpkins......

And chocolate and coffee flavorings in my leaves and acorns (along with cocoa as described in my FAQ)......

 

Everyone enjoyed sampling my "experiment"! Yum....

I've got great news for you!

 Spices Etc is offering free shipping on ANY size order until Sunday, November 20. Go to their site and sign up for their newsletter (top left of home page....enter your email address) for the code.  Be sure to become one of their FB fans and let them know I sent you.

(I'm trying to get them to do a blog giveaway on CookieCrazie.....so maybe this will entice them. ;))

I hope you'll try a few flavors. I had a blast experimenting with them.....and everyone enjoyed the flavors. I have plans for different flavors for each holiday. Mmmmmmmm

Happy Harvest

Since I've had very few orders recently......I've been busy making all kinds of special harvest/fall cookies that have been swimming in my head. The only bad. thing about "playing" with cookies so much is when I have to go back to making what people ask me to make. ;)

's another of my harvest collections........

Happy Harvest to you all!

The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. Psalm 67:6

Hurry.....Fall is Passing By

I love fall.....but it just doesn't seem like it lasts long enough. And now with my half century of life.....it seems like things fly by even faster. DISLIKE! ;)

So October is almost over and I've got tons of fall cookies I need to share. I guess I need to push it up a notch, huh?

Trying out painting food coloring gel on top of dried icing. I love the effect!

 I especially love how it gave this pumpkin such dimension. This is probably my favorite pumpkin of the season.......but I'm planning to do a ton of pumpkins this week, so hopefully I can top it. =)

Not super happy with how this SCAREYcrow turned out, but I tried again this week and felt it came out better. That's how we learn and grow.....always challenging ourselves to do better.

I had lots of fun with this one. :))))

My second fall collection of 2011....

More coming.....so stayed tuned. :)))))))