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How To Make Graduation Diploma Cookies - The Easy Way

It seems like graduation just sneaks up on me every year. I mean...one day it's snowing 12 inches and then just a couple of weeks later...everyone is being all grown up and graduating and moving on to all the amazing things they are going to do with their lives. And then it's summer.  And I'm terrified I'm going to wake up and it will be Halloween and my kids won't have any costumes so I'll have to run out to find something at the very last minute, only every thing good is already gone and when I look around everyone is staring at me with their judging eyes because I clearly don't love my children enough to plan ahead. So my children will end up wearing black fabric across their shoulders while pretending to fly around like bats. Again. Luckily, I always have enough chocolate on hand to sustain a small brigade of mothers and children for roughly a month...so at least I won't have to worry about the trick-or-treaters.... as long as I can find s

How To Make Paw Print Cookies (That Won't Crater!)

Remember these cookies? What?! That was only last week...how could you have forgotten them so quickly? You must have "children" or "stress" or "that one thing where you forget things." You know what? It's okay. It wasn't really important anyway. Because I'm just talking about the paw prints today anyway. Sometimes it seems like the most simple designs are the most elusive. And these paw prints are no exception. I had a lot of questions about these cookies last week...and almost all of them were one of these two questions: Why don't you have craters? Why is there no color bleed? My first answer would be "it's a miracle" to both of those questions...but truthfully, I've never had either of those problems with paw print cookies. Color bleed can be avoided by letting the background dry for as long as possible before adding the paw print on top AND by using the thickest possible icing for that print...which inciden

How To Make Reverse Silhouette Cookies

You know I love making cookies. ( PLEASE tell me that is not a surprise at this point. ) Some days I love sketching the designs very best. Some days mixing colors is my favorite thing in the world. Some days I'm most in love with the details that take my very mediocre and slightly disturbed design and turn into a cookie that people won't run from screaming. Oh! And you *know* I love smudging up a cookie. And when I see those cookies all laid out together on a platter like so many blossoms of a perfect spring hydrangea...I just can't wait to do it all again! Sometimes though... I kind of hate making cookies. I hate the dish washing. And the late night baking because I COMPLETELY forgot about those cookies until the second before I slipped into the oblivion of sleep. Sometimes I don't want to go digging through my endless and utterly disorganized cutter bins to find a cutter that I might not even have. And WHY do red and blue food color not always make purple??!!! A

How To Make Decorated Golf Cookies For Father's Day

Once upon a time, I didn't know how to make cookies that looked like anything but a sadly mishapen chocolate chip cookie. And then I watched a hundred million hours of a magical thing called YouTube videos and became an expert in practically everything, but most importantly SUGAR creating things. And it kind of created a little cookie making monster out of me. And I liked that. The end.

How To Make Princess Carriage Cookies (Tutorial)

I kind of have a lot of cookie cutters. I could probably melt them down and make a model version of the Taj Mahal that would actually fit people inside it. I mean... it might be a little cramped. And it probably wouldn't hold up in bad weather. In fact, it would be a downright liability if there was a tornado. Also...if I did that, I couldn't use them to make cookie cutters anymore. So I didn't. Because I like cookies. But also because I'm not actually capable of recreating the Taj Mahal out of tin and plastic. So I decided to give some of my cutters away. (Gasp!) What? Don't you gasp at me. You all know you've got cutters piled away that you probably won't ever use. Or cutters in triplicate because you just keep forgetting you already own it and buy another one. Here's the funny part though. I looked at my box of princess cutters and thought to myself-- " Self *these* are some cutters you will never use ." And I promptly gave away 85% o

Quick Graphic Style Decorated Tulip Cookies

  Remember that one time that every single location in the United States simultaneously had rain and blue skies at the same time? Some experts have been brought in for consultation. And after negotiating their fee in cookies and microwave popcorn, they have determined that this phenomena is something called "spring."  They were unable to tell me how this "spring" contrivance came to be...but they did mention that no one has ever seen Spring and Batman in the same room together. Also there was something about unicorns and possibly flowers. It really didn't make sense to me because I stopped listening when the popcorn slowed to about 3 seconds between kernels popping. I mean... that's serious business right there. If you don't have your head in the game you can ruin everything and unless you like the taste of charred grains and a house that smells like you lit it on fire with a spark plug and dryer lint...there's no excuse to be daydreaming abo

Stencil of the Month Club -- 3 Month GIVEAWAY

I don't do New Year's Resolutions. I mean...I don't even come out of my holiday coma until mid February. There is no way I am emotionally responsible enough to make resolutions that will define my entire year. Also, I don't do well with low-light conditions. My resolutions would all end up being things like "Move to Aruba." or "Move to Hawaii." And those aren't as viable as I would like to believe them to be. I do, however, make New Summer Resolutions. That gives me all spring to come up with some great ideas. And when the kids get out of school, it's the perfect break in my routine to actually push me into making a change. One of my New Summer Resolutions this year is going to be figuring out this whole "airbrushing" thing. I'm pretty well determined. I might even get a head start on that one. Nicole from Sugar Stencils has made it easy for me by creating the Stencil of the Month Club. You sign up and she sends you an ex

Decorated Daffodil Cookies

I might have a smidgeon of an obsession with daffodils. I absolutely love that they are the harbingers of spring. And they are yellow...which is the emotional opposite of the sludgy gray color of winter.  And best of all... they just keep coming back every year. You plant them once and then every spring after that they're like, "No, don't worry. I'm cool. You just sit there pretending that you're on a tropical island because you saw the sun for more than 12 minutes today. I don't need your stinking attention and your water and your fertilizer that you give to all your other plants. I don't even need your weeding. And you know why? Because I. AM. DAFFODIL. That's why."   Daffodils are my kind of flowers.