Off to Cookie Camp! But before I go….

I’m heading off to Cookie Camp! I’m going to Tennessee tomorrow to meet with some awesome cookie decorators and see if I can be a better one.  I’m very nervous and feel quite inadequate.  I’m trying to conquer my nervousness.  I’m not sure if there is internet available at Cookie Camp, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to give you updates, but I’ll be sure to catch you up when I get back.  I promise I’ll take lots of pictures! 🙂  In the meantime…

I told you when I came back after my summer hiatus that I wanted to fill the blog up with fall cookies… and so far I haven’t delivered. Until now!

One of my favorite new Wilton sets is this cute Witch-Themed Cookie Cutter Set. I love the boot, especially. I think it could pass for a Victorian boot, which I’ve tried to do before by hand cutting around a stencil. I was going to try one and show it to you, but my 3-year-old ate it. I’ll still try it sometime.

I wish I could say it was my 3-year-old that stuck her finger in that swirly purple boot.  It was me. I do that a lot. Meringue Powder Buttercream is really pretty sturdy, but if you nick it in the first couple of hours, it’ll leave a mark. As demonstrated.

The brooms made me chuckle.

I try not to look at examples of decorated cookies when I’m thinking up my own designs– I don’t want to be influenced by other cookies.  So I didn’t look at the example pics that came with these cutters before I started decorating. When I got to the brooms, I was  like “What in the heck kind of design is this?” I could NOT figure out why it had such a large ring-thingy between the handle and the main part of the broom. I did the best I could, and after I was done, I went and looked at the packaging.

Ohhhhhhhh…….   Right.

Hmm. I guess I’ll know for next time.

There’s also a cute witch’s hat.

(Insert apology for bad photography here).  I’m hoping the cookie ladies at cookie camp can help me with photography. I need it!

And lastly, the cauldron.

I was really lacking in the creativity department when I did these, and it shows. Sometimes cauldrons are uninspiring for me. The one on the right was a bad idea that seemed good at the time. I wondered if I made purple swirls in the black, and then sprinkled the whole thing with black disco dust, if the purple would be very subtle and look cool.

Not really. Just made it look blotchy. But that’s ok. I like to show you the failures as well as the successes because if I only showed you the successes, it would be a pretty short blog.  Ha ha… oh, and also because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes. Let’s just go with that one.

All together now…

It’s a fun set.

I’m going to give a set to three of you. Just comment on this blog and you’ll be entered. I’ll go ahead and run it till I’m back from Cookie Camp– comment by midnight Sunday October 2nd. I’ll use our friend Random.org to choose 3 of you at random to win. Please enter only once. Good luck!

Hello Kitty Winners!

We have some winners! Thanks to all who entered. It sounds like there are a lot of Hello Kitty fans out there.  As always, I wish I could send a set to everyone who entered.  But since I can’t, I used our friend Random.org to choose the five winners. And they are…

Judy R

I would love to win these cutters. My best friend Lisa and my granddaughter Skylar both LOVE Hello Kitty.

Michelle Ly at Cookie Counter

My little baby cousin LOVES Hello Kitty!!! She is already collecting things and she is only 3! I am sure she would love some of these cookies!! So adorable!

Linda

Yes Please I’d like to be entered !!!!

Nan

The cookies are so cute! Love Hello Kitty!!

Donna

These are adorable……love the many styles you gave to Hello Kitty.

Congratulations!! I’ve sent all of you emails, so just respond to the email with your mailing address or email me at contact at karenscookies dot net, and we’ll get your cutters sent right out.

Another giveaway coming right up…

Oh, and a few of you asked about doing a tutorial on these. I really hope to do that soon. I learned a few tricks while doing these that I’d love to pass on to you. Hopefully I can get that done soon. Keep bugging me about it if you don’t see it up in the next couple of weeks. 🙂

Hello Kitty!

I had the best idea. I had two sets of cookie cutters that I wanted to showcase– One was the Summer Set, and one was the new Hello Kitty set from Wilton. So I thought “Hey! Goodbye Summer…. Hello Kitty! I’m a genius!” So I planned on doing one post right after the other so you could catch the cute play-on words…

Fast forward two weeks. I’m finally getting this post up, and I have to point it out to you. Goodbye Summer… Hello Kitty. Get it? Cute, right?  Sigh. My life is full of good intentions. 😀

But hey– Wilton has a new set of Hello Kitty cookie cutters! I was SO excited to get these, because we used to get asked ALL THE TIME about Hello Kitty cookie cutters, and there just weren’t any available. Till now.

We had 48 of them in our first order and they were gone in no time. But we have more now.

These were fun. It was like playing with paper dolls, choosing different outfits for Kitty to wear.  And they were simple and easy, too, which is always a plus! If you do a quick google image search for “Hello Kitty”, you’ll find all kinds of cute outfit ideas. I liked substituting flowers for the bow, too. Fun.

Does someone you know love Hello Kitty?

You should make them some cookies!

Comment on this post and I’ll choose 5 at random (using random.org) to win a set of Hello Kitty cutters.

Contest closes Sunday, Sept. 25 at midnight (wherever you are!). Please only enter one time. Good luck!

Summer Cookie Cutter Set Winners!

Oops! So sorry for the delay in announcing the winners! I guess I’ve fallen right off the blog wagon… but I’m hopping back on! I have some fun cookies to share with you!

But first, here are the winners of the Wilton Summer Cookie Cutters:

Brenda

This year was a lazy, hazy days of summer. Here in Texas we spent the summer trying to stay COOL. Glad you are back, we missed you

Jenn J

Did a little baking…using some supplies I order from y’all Enjoyed the time outdoors, grilling, hanging out with friends. Glad you’re back and glad to year you enjoyed your summer like I did!

Beth

I spent most of my summer baking and decorating cookies lol!

Thanks for the great contest!

Julieanna

Sounds like you had a great summer!!! I worked and gardened all summer. Loved the gardening!!!!!Great to see your posts.

Carmen

So excited to see your post again, Karen! This summer was the most exciting one for us (as parents) – my boys have gotten over the fear of water finally, and spent a lot of time in our friend’s pool. I was jumping up and down with joy seeing them so eager to get into the water instead screaming and crying their hearts out! lol…

Congratulations ladies! I’ve sent all of you emails, so look for that, or email me your address to contact at karenscookies dot net.

Sounds like everybody had a good summer. I was so happy to hear from all of you, and enjoyed reading your comments!  Thank you for welcoming me back (and sorry I disappeared again! I’ll get the hang of this blog thing sooner or later!)  Look for another post and giveaway SOON! 😀

 

Goodbye Summer

It’s no secret to those who know me, or those who have been getting my newsletters for a while, that I love fall! I can’t wait to fill this blog up with fun fall cookies because they’re definitely my favorite.  But since I’ve kinda sorta been missing in action all summer, I figured I’d better at least nod towards summer. Briefly. And then we’re moving on to pumpkins and leaves, ok?

Apparently I forgot how to take pictures over the summer. Sorry these are so dark and shadowy.  I think I need a refresher course. Miiiiike!?

Wilton came out with this fun new set of cutters over the summer.

I didn’t get them until summer was almost over, but they were still fun to decorate.

I love the sunglasses.

I’ve really been wanting some larger sunglasses. The ones we have are teeny tiny, and the company who makes them disappeared off the face of the earth this summer, so we really needed a replacement.

The margarita glass is a cute size and shape.

Can you see the “Heat Green” disco dust on that margarita glass? It’s so hard to photograph. And along with that pesky fact that I forgot how to take pictures over the summer… I didn’t get a very good picture.  Maybe this angle is better?

Hmm. Not really. It’s so pretty in real life.  Guess you’ll just have to trust me on that one.

The flip flop is cute. I like it’s round-y-ness. (Yeah, that’s a word alright).

Here’s a pink set. Because pink is fun.

I liked how the sunglasses turned out in this one. I used some white non pareils from the Jumbo Rainbow Non Pareils as accents on the glasses. I pulled a bunch out of the jar with my accent tweezers, and then looked for two big ones and four smaller ones. They all vary in size slightly, but it works out well for stuff like this. The jumbo non pareils come in handy for so many things.

These were fun cookies to decorate. I’ll be excited to decorate more next summer– or maybe during the winter if I need a little summer back in my life!

So anyway, I feel bad that I totally neglected the blog this summer. I hope I still have some readers out there! I have 3 school-age kids and one preschooler, so I decided to take some time off and enjoy them this summer. We enjoyed swimming lessons, camping trips, family reunions, and lazy days reading books. It was a good summer and flew by.

How did you spend your summer months? Let me know in the comments section and I’ll randomly pick 5 of you to win a set of the Wilton Summer cookie cutters. Contest ends Monday night (Sept. 12) at midnight– wherever you are.  Thanks for sticking with me!! Hope you had a great summer! (Or winter if you’re in Australia…)