How to Paint Sugar Cookies, an alternative to icing and piping

I have seen on Pinterest painted sugar cookies and cakes. Since, I love painting and baking, I thought this would be a fun alternative to piping, flooding, icing and all the tips and bags and mess. We are throwing a baby shower to celebrate my baby nephew on the way, so these are for the shower.  I drew some mod designs first to try to meet my SIL's contemporary, mod, retro style.

You will need:
iced sugar cookies (or fondant covered)
food coloring
paint brushes
water
plate
paper towels

1. I baked the sugar cookies... if you are new to my blog... I am addicted to this recipe... and for something a little different, I substituted almond extract for vanilla - they are sooo good.  This dough recipe is awesome.  Easy to make, doesn't need to be chilled, keeps its' shape and tastes so good.

2. I thinly rolled out fondant and covered the cookies.  Lightly paint water onto the fondant and it will stick to the cookies. You can ice them too, whichever you prefer. You get a batch of blank edible canvases!  I have let the kids decorate cookies with edible marker pens, read about that here.  But today, we paint with food coloring!

3. I have seen in the craft store, edible paints and dyes, but all you really need is food coloring. Any kind. I happen to have Wilton gel food dyes and love them. I used water to dilute the gel, but read you could use vodka or some alcohol base that will dry quickly. The water worked fine.

4. I have a plastic paint pallette, (but a plate would be fine too), place small amounts of the food coloring into the wells. Use water to wet the brush and it is like painting with water colors! 

5. I drew some designs on paper first, so I had a plan. 

Important tips: Have a plan. Don't be nervous, and have fun, take your time and be creative.

I hope this is helpful to you, inspires you to try something new. Next time, I am letting my kids paint on them!

Decorating Gingerbread Houses!

It's a tradition in our home to decorate Gingerbread Houses for Christmas... this year we found some clearance Halloween kits for different shaped homes and my boys loved them.  The kits are a great start... to make things easy, I hot glue the houses together and let the children enjoy being creative.  I like to follow Bakerella's advice on having tons of different sprinkles on hand.  To spark creativity, some of the best things to spruce up your  gingerbread kits are... food writers, fondant and fondant molds! The kids had fun, made a mess, but it was worth it.

I am baking junky... I love having tons of sprinkles, a rainbow of gel colors, fondant, fondant molds & cutters and tubs full of cookie cutters and cake pans!  It gives me options and I love to share with friends.  Fondant is so much fun... it is like playdoh. Anyone can do it and Wilton's fondant molds are fantastic!  My children had a blast making different shapes.

Joe Joe's house (6 years old), Brooke's Creative Cottage (2 1/2 years old) and Matthew's Magical House (4 years old)...  They make my heart sing!

Yo Gabba Gabba Foofa Cake

Each member of our family is a huge Yo Gabba Gabba fan... We have even seen DJ Lance and the Gabba gang live on stage 2 times! They are AWESOME! Our youngest, Brooke, is all about Yo Gabba Gabba, so it was a no brainer when it came to her birthday cake! This is pretty easy to create.

Covered the cake in yellow fondant... Created green garden mounds for Foofa Land.

Used a fondant cutter for the daisies and shaped them in plastic spoons.  Used pink icing for the centers piped from a plastic bag.

Printed a paper Foofa and glued to a lollipop stick.  Used Wilton food writers for details... and Brooke was pretty excited for her Foofa Land cake!

It's always fun to have a little extra surprise in the cake, so the batter was pink and yellow, the bottom layer (supposed to be center) was pastel confetti... but it still tasted good and made our Gabba Fan happy!

Personalize your Party with Special Hand-made Touches

This post is long overdue, but an important one because nothing makes the holidays and birthdays more special than the excitement of your children! My sweets get so excited when my husband or I have a birthday.  They have this idea that there will be cake, games and a pinata!  For my 37th birthday in April, I thought it would be fun to make MY birthday about THEM. Why? Because they are my gifts.  What did we do? How did I try to make it fun? Take a look... 

First, they decorated my birthday cake with fondant and food coloring makers.

Fondant flowers made by my little artists!

We decorated with excess party plates and centerpieces they made themselves.  These beauties were made with $2 Michaels grab bag florals and modge podge tissue papered pickle jars! They felt special helping prepare all the decorations.  We always have fun preparing for parties.  I do try to keep them involved and not worry too much about perfection, more about the process!  Must be the art teacher in me!

We used Pirate Treasure beads and colored tissue poms to color up the dining room.  So funny that my kiddos like "Pirate Treasure"!

Brooke couldn't wait to get a taste. Everything looked so colorful and pretty.  Our blue table cloth is bundled fabric from the thrift shop... $2! My son drew a picture of us dressed as Pirates for the birthday sign!

The children made a treasure pinata too! 

Here is a Treasure map of our home.  I cut it into pieces and put them in the pinata!

They had a great time putting the puzzle pieces together... The puzzle pieces were in the pinata!  Wouldn't you know that my dear dad put in $100 in the pinata without me knowing.  What a SURPRISE when they kids popped it open. I was thinking they would find puzzle pieces and tootsie rolls. 

The treasure map directed my kiddos to these wrapped presents throughout the home.  I love the fancy chair for our  Princess that I found at HomeGoods!

Whoopie pies with pretty sprinkles on the dessert table.

Honestly, one of the best birthdays ever was inspired by these special kiddos and the look on their faces made it all Perfect.

A Special Springtime Button-Themed Birthday for 2!

I have been a do-it-yourselfer for years! Flashback fun will have to be a weekly blog with all the fun handiwork I have dipped into.  Where to start? My Aunt Marie's 70th Birthday back in March shared with my dd Brooke.  I love throwing a party, and having a dessert table is every party's centerpiece! The inspiration for this party was a button fondant mold that I purchased at Michael's, and the rest fell together.

Here is the dessert table. I love the color scheme.  I purchased the yellow tulips at ALDI for $4.88 each and they lasted until Easter.  The white tulips were from the $2.00 grab bags that I have blogged about before.  

I made the bunting for the cakes with scrapbook paper.  The  white cake plates are from HomeGoods and Marshall's. I do interchange the ribbons to match the party colors.  I also love using candlesticks and glass plates, which is what I did for my wedding centerpieces.  Another flashback to blog about in the future!

My children love marshmallows and dipping them in colored chocolate on lollipop sticks makes a really quick impact for a dessert table.  Not a lot of prep time for a pretty impact.

I like having the inside of the cake to be a fun surprise.  Colored cake is so easy... take white cake batter... separate into different bowls and add coloring.  Mix in pan and wallah!  

I sent out tags to family members far and wide to celebrate my Aunt's birthday.  I used my Cricut machine to cut tags out of pretty scrapbook paper.  I have my dear sister to thank for getting me hooked on my paper cutting machine. Check out her awesome blog and shop here. 

I found these cute frames at GW for .25 a piece and I have about 30 of them.  I spray painted them and placed fun photos celebrating 70 years!

A special celebration indeed!