Thursday, January 20, 2011

Cookie Decorating with a Cricut


(If you are here for the Going Buggy Blog Hop please go to  THIS POST to find your letter to help you solve the puzzle)

The answer to yesterday's question is the Martha Stewart Seasonal and Elegant Cake Art Cartridges.  I do not have a Cricut Cake machine and I really don't have a desire to own one.  I am not a cake decorator and I actually prefer to make pies with simple crusts or crumb toppings. 


However, earlier this month I found out about food color markers at our friend's party (remember her fancy holiday cookie plates?).  I just knew I would have to track the markers down and try making something with them.


I found this set in a local shop.  The brand my friend had was called "Foodoodlers" and the ones I found are by Ateco.  There were a little expensive - about $24 for the set of ten.


I set out to make some plain cookies so I could frost them and then decorate them with the food  color markers.  I looked for a basic sugar cookie recipe, called my sister and got an  old recipe from my Mom, looked in a few cookbooks for their basic recipes and then made up a recipe that was similar to these.  I need to try it one more time to be sure I am happy with the proportions and to make the dough a little less sticky.


I looked online for a glaze/frosting recipe that would work well with the markers.  I needed it to dry very flat and smooth and I found a great recipe on the King Arthur Flour site.  Here is a LINK to the recipe I used.  I think my frosting might have been a little too thick.  It spread nicely but I didn't go as far to the edge as I would have liked - maybe you can do a little better!


I cut out a lot of different heart shapes - some were "doily" cuts that look like lace.  There are some very specific guidelines for working with the images and the sizing on the Martha Stewart cartridges.  I'll go into more detail on these in the review of the Martha Stewart cartridges that I did for Scrappy-Go-Lucky (this should appear on their blog later today).


This heart was cut at three inches from plain cardstock.  I was surprised that it cut as well as it did but I probably wouldn't use the heart as it is for a paper project.  (I do have a plan for it so watch and wait to see it again soon...).


I started to cut out the heart shapes that were far less intricate.  My goal was to find some shapes that would be easy to trace with the food color markers.



I simply held down the stencil with one hand and colored through the openings.  I had to shift my hands around a little but it wasn't hard to find all of the areas to color.


Using the cardstock cuts as stencils made it much easier to get balanced shapes.  I also did some free hand drawing on the cookies for fun.


I used two colors on most of the cookies - a bright red and pink.  There was a third marker with a pale pink case but it turned out to be a peachy orange color.  You can see it at the right corner below.


 I have no real experience with cookie decorating, but I think with some more practice I could do better.  I was happy with these for my first attempt and the cardstock stencils were a big help.


I might try to get the glaze closer to the cookie edges but I do like the effect of the scalloped border.  I found it was best to always add a defining line around the edges of the frosting.  There were a few totally free hand design cookies and also some that use the cutouts from shapes that were not hearts.  The second cookie from the left in the top row above is decorated with a circle cutout.


The circle stencil is at the top of this photo.  I can save these and use them a few more times before they need replacing.  I could also do the cuts in plastic stencil material for longer lasting tools.


I'll be back to paper crafting tomorrow in the midst of another storm.  Our son arrived home safely on Wednesday morning and, depending on the weather, I'll be taking him back to his last semester of college in New Jersey in the next day or two.

I did want to let you know that if you use the Creative Memories StoryBook Creator 3.0 Plus or the sbcStudio program, there is a half price sale on all Valentine's theme digital artwork downloads from January 19 to the 26th.   There are some lovely sets and the half price offer makes them a real bargain.  You can see the items offered at THIS PAGE on my Creative Memories personal website.  Be sure to pay attention to whether the item you select is for the PC or the new Mac sbcStudio program - they are not interchangeable.  The new Reminisce Valentine's Addition is just beautiful - I'll be posting a project using it soon.   
For traditional scrapbookers, the sale on albums, pages and page protectors is also continuing - 20% off through the end of January.  If you don't have a local consultant I'd be happy to help you - here is a LINK to my CM personal website.


Subscribe to Capadia Designs         Share/Bookmark

20 comments:

  1. I agree that the scalloped border really does add something to the cookies, and I love the quilt effect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolutely gorgeous. They look too good to eat.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WOW!! ( I was talking about your son here..LOL.) Now back to you r cookies, they look fantastic, I need to make some for my grandbabies!!! I hope I can get these here in Utah somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The cookies are to pretty to eat! I don't do much baking but my friend does. I'll have to tell her about these markers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Those are fantastic & what a creative way to use the cricut! Thanks for sharing the recipe for the icing. I need to find a good cookie icing that sets up.

    Now, how do they taste? lol :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Diane, I found the markers you used and recommended on AMAZON.COM and they were $16.38, plus shipping of course. They had a wide variety. You can also find the FOODOODLERS on their website, www.foodoodlers.com and shop directly. Just an FYI. I ordered mine and will be decorating during one of these wintry weekends!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What beautiful cookies! And--what patience you have!! These ARE took pretty to eat! Thanks for the tip on the markers!
    Shellee

    ReplyDelete
  8. You are SO creative! These turned out FABULOUS!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. When I first saw these I thought you were using the cricut cake. Then when I read the blog and found out you done these by hand (for the most part) I was truly impressed. I love the way you used your cricut to cut out stencils and used food markers to color them in. I have been baking and decorating cookies and cakes on a daily basis. I thought you did an awesome job on these cookies. Thank you for sharing them with us.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I was trying to figure out how you did this....I was thinking markers but wasn't 100%. I would enjoy having the cake machine but I don't know that I would use it that often thanks for helping us figure out a way to use our regular machine for decorating food. I still might get the cake someday but only if I find it for the right price.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Those are fantastic!! I am going to search out some of the markers and hope to get them into my budget before Valentines! They would be great to make cookies for my daughters class at school!
    GREAT JOB!!!
    Karen dkolopez@msn.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. oh my these are delightful to say the least....love them....hugs

    ReplyDelete
  13. They look too good to eat!!

    Evelyn

    ReplyDelete
  14. I think your cookies turned out great! Your frosting job looks beautiful and smooth to me. Most importantly, they look really yummy! Great idea to use food safe markers and stencils cut from your Cricut!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Like I said before. These cookies look almost too good to eat but I could be tempted.....

    ReplyDelete
  16. CLever use and pretty cookies! Have a safe trip taking your son back to school.

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a great idea. Will have to try this with my daughter. A quick tip for icing the cookies; use a piping bag and outline the cookie, then fill in with the icing using a bigger tip. It should flow together and leave a smooth surface to decorate.

    ReplyDelete
  18. These look just as cute as they do delicious!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Diane, your cookies turned out really, really well!! They are so pretty. Great job.

    I love how you share the snow pics with us, they are just lovely. I live in Florida and haven't seen snow in over 30 years. I think I am seeing a winter vacation in my future! Thanks for sharing.
    DebbyS

    ReplyDelete
  20. Love the cookies, Diane. I used to do a lot of decorated cookies when my children were young. I always "painted" the frosting glaze on with a paintbrush to get it smooth and to the edge. But I never had stencils and food color markers. What a wonderful idea!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I love to hear from the people who read my blog. I moderate all comments to keep spam off the blog without making you decode the squiggly letters so your comment may not appear immediately.