CookieCon Sponsors and Giveaway! *Giveaway Closed*

Mike and I recently got back from hosting CookieCon 2012. It was so much fun! We had such a great group of cookie-loving people together for a weekend of cookie decorating and cookie-art appreciating! I will do a post about the actual event soon, but I wanted to give a huge thank you and shout-out to our awesome sponsors. One of the things that made it so much fun was the their amazing and generous support.  Here’s a peek inside the goody bags:

We had a few left-overs from our goody bag assembly, so we’re going to give away some bundles of goodies to those who weren’t able to attend this year. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First let’s talk about what was in the bags!

Mandy Wallington from Kool Cookie Cutters came all the way from Perth, Australia to attend CookieCon , and she brought with her gum leaf cookie cutters, handmade in Australia!  So awesome!

Julia M. Usher came and demonstrated how to use stencils, (among other awesome things! Thank you Julia!!). Designer Stencils is THE place for culinary stencils, and they donated a stencil to every attendee. This one can be used for brush embroidery. So cool!

Along with the donation of one of their awesome projectors as a grand prize, Kopykake donated a gift pack of frosting sheet decals to everyone. We had fun playing with them during open decorating.

American Tradition Cookie Cutters sent cookie cutters for everyone! They are such a great company and have a fun selection of high-quality cutters. Check them out!

Patrick from Plastics in Print sent a cutter for everyone. Their custom cutters are very reasonably priced and they also have some really fun stock shapes.

Fondarific sent a sample of their delicious fondant for everyone to try. Did you know they have fondant in lots of fun flavors? Buttercream, mocha, grape, peppermint…. just to name a few. It is great fondant!

Fancy Flours sent some really fun wafer paper sheets for everyone. The attendees got to play around with them during the open decorating session, and it was so much fun to watch what they did with the wafer paper. Very fun! Have you tried wafer paper yet?

Kip and Connie from BRP Box Shop came and participated in CookieCon. They were such a fun addition, and we were so happy to have them there! In addition to donating an awesome grand prize (A BRP- Branded BIKE!), and a Half-as-Grand second prize (a BRP-Branded UNICYCLE!), they also gave generous gift packs of their boxes and bags.  Look what was in there!

Amazing, right? If you haven’t checked out BRP Box Shop yet, do yourself a favor and head right over there. They are a great company with the prettiest boxes available. They also debuted a limited-edition Ornament Box and gave one to everybody. Go check those out before they’re gone!

Americolor Corp (THE place for the best food coloring out there) donated a bottle of their awesome Soft Gel Paste coloring to everyone.

This one blew everybody’s mind. Nielsen-Massey Vanilla sent a 2-oz bottle of their Madagascar  Bourbon Vanilla to everyone! Such a fun surprise and generous addition to the goody bags.

In addition to a grand prize of a $150 gift certificate, Country Kitchen Sweet Art donated a fondant impression mat to everyone. The attendees had lots of fun playing with fondant and impression mats during Open Decorating.

Sylvia from Foose Cookie Cutters donated so many fun goodies! In addition to an awesome gift basket loaded with cutters, she also donated more than 20 gift sets of cutters to be given away, and a set of adorable mini cutters, note pad, and coupon for the goody bags.

Karen’s Cookies (that’s me!) donated a little gift pack of fun stuff to each attendee. Here’s what was in it:

We included both of Pam (Cookie Crazie)’s new exclusive cutters— the Homespun Christmas Tree and the Cupcake that we are selling through our site. We also included a PME tip, a disco dust, a pixie dust shaker, and a boo-boo stick.

I don’t have a picture of the next one because we used all of them in the goody bags. Kee-Seal donated two of their disposable decorating bags to each attendee, along with some gift packs of their bags to be given as prizes. They are great bags! Definitely check them out.

So that was what was in the bags! Although this post is dedicated to the gift bag items, I want to also mention the other awesome sponsors we had. They were just as generous, and donated prizes that were not in the gift bags:

The Cookie Cutter Company

The Cookie Thing

Spices, Etc.

Copper Gifts

Julia M Usher

Sweet Cherry Gift Shop

A huge thank you to all of the generous sponsors of CookieCon! You helped make it an awesome and memorable event for all those who were in attendance.

Now for those of you who weren’t able to attend, we have a chance for you to win some of this fun stuff! We don’t have complete goody bags left. We just had a few extras of some of the items. So what we are doing is giving away “bundles”– kind of like a grab-bag. Comment on this post and we will randomly choose 8 of you (through Random.org) and send you a fun bundle of  goodies. Please comment by Wednesday, November 21 at midnight (wherever you are!). International entries are welcome. I will try to get the winners announced on Thanksgiving, but I might be too sleepy from all the carbs…. so I reserve the right to announce the winners on Friday. 🙂

We’d love to offer these prizes to people who didn’t already get this stuff from CookieCon.  So to be eligible, please indicate that you didn’t make it to CookieCon this year.  And you can also feel free to wish Mike’s mom, Lorene, a happy birthday! Have a great week!

Frame Cookies Winner

Ok, I just LOVED LOVED LOVED looking through the links to the beautiful frame cookies everyone posted!  We are still very excited to have these new designs!  We ran all entries through a random number generator and it picked…. (drum roll)
Tatyana!
She made these beautiful cookies here:

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/88915337@N04/8103998939/in/photostream/
Congrats on the $100 Gift Certificate Tatyana!  I’ve already decided that we’ll be having another contest in the future.  We should be getting in a new (and much larger) batch of these cutters in within the next few days!

Thanks so much to all who entered!

Let’s see your Frame Cookies! (Win a $100 Gift Certificate!)

We’ve been super excited about the very positive response to our new Rectangle and Square Frame cookie cutters.  Since we posted about them, we’ve been shipping them out like crazy – to all corners of the globe!

So we are VERY interested to see what you all are doing with them.  What fun designs are you coming up with?

What better way to find out, than with another give-away?

So if you are a blogger, face-booker, or flickr-(um) “flickr-er”? or whatever, you have a chance to win yourself a $100 gift certificate to Karen’s Cookies!  So between now and October 20th (2012) decorate some cookies using our new Frame Cookie Cutters (use any or all of the 2 designs and 2 sizes) and post your decorated cookies!  We don’t care if it’s a blog, facebook, flickr, or anything else, as long as you can provide a link where people can click over to see your work.  Also, provide a link on your post to these cutters.  (This URL will allow them to see them all:   http://www.karenscookies.net/Karens-Cookies-Exclusives_c_112.html  )

After you’ve posted, simply leave a comment on THIS blog post with a link to your pictures.  Please make sure your link goes directly to the picture(s) you are entering, rather than the home page to your blog, facebook, flickr, etc).  After the deadline (Oct. 20th) we will randomly select one of the links to win the $100 Gift Certificate.  (Everyone who posts a link to their cookies has an equal chance!)

If you’re trying to promote your blog or web site, this is also a great chance to get people clicking over to you as well.

So there you go.  We can’t wait to see what people come up with!

UPDATE:

These cutters sold out faster than we could have possibly imagined.  They have beat any other product we’ve ever introduced into our store.  We re-ordered them immediately after realizing how fast they were going.  If anyone would like to enter this contest, please email us through the karenscookies.net web site and request a template.  If you don’t mind printing that out and cutting out your cookies you’re more than welcome to enter that way!

Karen

Fancy Frames Winners!

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winners…. but here they are!

Joyce Scott
These are soooooooooooo cool!!! I would love to have these wonderful cutters!
Thanks ever so much!!!~~~~~

Anna
Wow, they are amazing! I would love to win! And thanks for the 15% I´ve just placed a huge order…

Katie B
I, too, would love to win this set!

Lynn
Love them. They’d be a perfect B-day gift for me. If I don’t win, I’ll have to buy them!

Donna B
Definite “must-haves!!!! Love ‘em! Blessings, Donna B.

Emma Gonsalves
These are crazy gorgeous! I see endless possibilities! Pick me! Pick Me!!!

Rachel
You always make things look awesome, Karen! Even with cool cutters like these, you made them awesomer than stuff I thought up before I saw what you did with them.

Esther
Gorgeous piping work, Karen….don’t sell yourself short! And I absolutely adore these new cutters!

Madri
So excited about these cutters!!! 🙂

Michele Posey
Oh I would love to have these!

Congratulations everybody! I will send emails to all of you shortly. If you don’t see my email, send me a quick email to contact at karenscookies dot net with your mailing address and we’ll get them sent right out.

Thanks to all for reading and commenting! I loved reading everybody’s comments and appreciate your kindness! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Fancy Frames *Giveaway Closed*

So remember when we unveiled our first custom cutters?  We had such a great response, and we were blown away by your enthusiasm. In that post, we asked what other cutters you would like to see, and MANY of you said you would like to see some fancy rectangle and square cutters for messages and filler cookies. That was back in April, and later that month we were in Louisville with many of you, and the request was (strongly!) reiterated.

Please fast-forward 5 months.

Guess what we have? (finally)

Fancy Frame cutters!!

Yay! We have two sizes of squares, and two sizes of rectangles.

Large rectangle.

Small rectangle.

Big square.

Little square.

There are seriously ENDLESS ways you could decorate these. I did just a few examples to get your creative juices flowing.

Are you seeing some potential?

I left most of them blank so you could imagine different things written on them.

Oh, and because I ruin them when I write on them.

But imagine what YOU could write. Maybe a wedding monogram?

Or a regular old everyday monogram?

Or a big THANK YOU for being awesome.

You need these. Comment below for a chance to win one of 10 (TEN!) sets of our four new cutters. Please include your name and email address (use the email address box in the comment form so it’s hidden. Otherwise all kinds of crazies might email you) so we can contact you if you win.  Please comment by Friday, September 28 by 7pm Pacific time. I will use random.org to pick 10 winners. International entries are accepted.

For those of you who want to place an order, we have a coupon for 15% off your entire order– including sale prices! Use the coupon code happyfall15.

Thanks for reading! Sorry I’ve had a long absence (again). I appreciate you still checking in!

The Best Laid Plans…

You know that quote about the best laid plans…. Hmm. Me either. Something about how they don’t work out so well? Or something. Well anyway, today I am rethinking my blog. I think where I get hung up is that I think every post needs to be AWESOME. Like a huge awesome tutorial that will blow your mind. Or a super-awesome-never-been-done-before series of  50 cookies. Or a big fun giveaway. But you know what? Every post doesn’t need to be like that. So I’m starting today and I’m turning over a new leaf. I will still have the tutorials, and I will still have crazy-fun giveaways, but in between– you’re going to get posts like this.

So I had the best idea. The BEST, I tell you. I wanted to do a post where I showed you 100 things you can do with a rectangle cookie cutter. Yes, you heard me right. ONE HUNDRED. So I sat down with my kids and we made a list. We got to about 85 or 86, and figured it was good. I could think of the rest while I was decorating. I got out my trusty rectangle cookie cutter set and got to work.

I made a name tag:

A lunch bag:

A puppet that you can make when you recycle your lunch bag:

A chalkboard, Green Version:

And black version:

A book:

(Are you sensing a theme here? I told you my kids helped! They’re elementary school students. They do what they know.)

A piece of notebook paper:

French Fries:

A traffic light; Plain version:

Fancy version:

A suitcase:

And a license plate from the great state of Idaho:

And then my life went crazy.

We got about a 10th of the way there!! I would really like to finish it someday, but these pictures have been waiting to be posted for more than six months. So here they are. No fancy fanfare.  Just some rectangle cookies, and a wish for a happy, fun weekend for all of you!  Happy Friday!

New Cutters Winners!

Wow! I am completely blown away by your kindness and enthusiasm about my new cutters. I was extremely nervous about showing my “babies” to the world. I wasn’t sure if everyone would be as excited as I was about them, but you were all so encouraging and sweet. Thank you so much!! I wish I could send them to all of you.  Here are the 10 winners, chosen at random using Random.org:

DJ
Sooooooo cute and versatile! I really love these. For other cutters I’d love to see a cutter for flowers besides the daisy/sunflower shaped one. Perhaps just a round flower making it more versatile.

Cindy K
Congrats on your new products! How fun to see your designs as cutters.

I have been looking for a cute fairy and dragon cutters lately — please do some with them!

Jane Koon
These are so darn cute and so easily adapted for any occasion. However I am in LOVE with that cryin’ baby Mike drew, it is adorable. I’d love a set, so pick me please…

Felicia Ferrigno
These are beautiful. I love the boy and girl, BUT i uber-love the baby and what you did with your designs. we were going to be grandparents this summer but the pregnancy went awry. But we know that God will bless our daughter and her hubby with a child. I am ready to practice some cookies for that shower that is the future! My show of faith in God’s steadfast grace!!

Brandee
Awesome! I love the baby cutter! And if I was to choose which you did next, I’ve always loved shoe and dress cookies, and the possibilities are endless with those!

Marie Wickware
Oh my gosh I can’t wait to use the boy! My son loves helping me and now he can make one of himself! Thanks for the chance to win!

Dorene
Oh those are so cute. I really like the babies. I hope I win.

Pathsofwrighteousness
These are just ADORABLE!! I especially LOVE the babies, since I’ll be adding one to our family next month.

Sadia K
These are all great ideas and much needed! For the next batch, maybe some cute animal ones?

Sue@Cakeballs,cookies and more
oh my gosh I love the baby, that is just the best, but mine would look nothing like that if I tried, but love it!

Thanks again for your kind words!  I will be emailing all of the winners shortly. If your name is on this list and you don’t see my email, send me your mailing address at contact at karenscookies dot net.

I hope you all have a wonderful, peace-filled Easter weekend!

New Exclusive Cookie Cutters! *Giveaway Closed*

I have wanted to design my own cutters for… well… pretty much forever. I have a hard time finding cutters that match the ideas in my head, so I’ve always wanted to make my own. I’ve kind of dragged my feet about doing it for one reason or another. Mike has encouraged me to do it for a long time, and a good cookie friend encouraged me recently, so guess what? I finally did it! It’s so exciting to see it go from an idea in my head to a cookie cutter and then on to the actual cookies that I had visualized for it.

Narrowing down the ideas was the hardest part. I have endless ideas, but I could only start out with a few, so I painstakingly narrowed it down to three. I’ve always thought there needed to be a cute baby cutter out there. Not just a baby head, not a crawling baby, not just a baby onesie, but an actual baby wearing the onesie (or whatever…). So my first design is….. (drum roll please!)

A baby! I wanted him/her to be easy to decorate, simple, but customizable. Here’s how I decorated it.

I wanted to be able to do some easy cute toes and NO HANDS. I’m not a fan of drawing hands. This is a super simple design.

You can add some clothes.

Awww, poor baby! What’s the matter? (Mike drew this one for me, and I translated it to cookie)

There, that’s better. Jammies and a binky and all is well in the world.

The second design is one that I’ve wanted for a long time. Wilton used to have a pretty decent one, but it was discontinued a while back, and it just seemed like there was a need for a plain old girl. Not a gingerbread girl, but a GIRL that you could decorate all different ways. So my second cutter is….

A girl! And along the same lines, my third cutter is….

A boy! I had basically the same requirements for the boy and the girl. I wanted them to be very customizable, and like the baby, I didn’t want to have to do hands. Also, I wanted to be able to have them hold things like soccer balls and bouquets. So here’s what you can do with these guys:

These guys are obviously soccer kids, but you could do any sport. Basketball would be very similar. Mike helped me figure out how to do hands without having to do hands. You make them hold something and just put some round circles for fingers. Easy! So it’s not a Rembrandt, but it’ll do for a cookie.

Football, ballet, Karate. Notice how you can just tuck their hands behind them if you don’t want them to hold anything?

Luau! I would just like to point out that that hula girl is a self portrait. ha ha!

And finally (for now!) a bride and groom. I’m going to work on more designs and do some decorating tutorials for these guys, but this will have to do for now. Oh, and sorry about the lack of cultural diversity in these kids. I was decorating late and was lazy so I used all the same color. Next time I’ll be more culturally diverse.

So do you want some of my new cutters?

I’m going to give away a set of all three to 10 lucky blog commenters. Just post a comment (maybe you could tell me what you would like me to do for my next batch of cutters!), and I’ll choose 10 at random using random.org and send you the cutters. Contest ends at midnight Friday, April 6, and I will announce the winners on April 7 (because that’s my Mom’s birthday). 🙂  OH– and if you are going to Spring Fling, you will be receiving a set there. You can still comment on the blog post, but please make a note that you will be at Spring Fling so that I can choose another winner. Good luck! And thanks for putting up with my long absence!

Twelve Shades of Pink- A Guest Post

Hey guess what? I’m still alive! I’m embarrassed by the huge lapse of time that has passed since I last wrote, and the longer it goes, the more embarrassing it is to get back to it. I was dreading this “Hey, remember me?” first post back, and then I got an email from Anne. First of all, can I just say that I love Anne? I think the first time I talked to her was maybe 3 years ago (ish?) and from the first time I talked to her, I loved her. She is such a sweet lady, and her cookies are ADORABLE!! If you haven’t seen her site yet, do yourself a favor and get on over there. We can wait for you to come back.

So anyway, back to Anne saving my blog— She sent me an email and was gracious enough to offer to share her fun new findings with my readers.  I was so happy and relieved that she could take the burden of my first post back.  Thank you Anne!  You truly saved my sanity and my blog.  I am honored to have you be my very first guest post ever. And so without further ado…. I give you Anne:

Hi, my name is Anne Yorks and I love decorating cookies. So much so, that I have a little cookie shop online called Flour Box Bakery. I do cookie stuff every day…and even if I’m not decorating, I’m still thinking about COOKIES!

But as much as I love to decorate, I hate to clean up icing bags. AND, I really don’t like mixing all those colors. It’s super time consuming. Thankfully, Karen has a solution to the messy piping bag problem. And, I think I have finally found a solution to making color mixing a little easier.

For a long time, I have used Wilton food colors. They are easily accessible and they have a nice selection of color choices. However, I have recently discovered the wonders of AmeriColor gel pastes. I think I will continue to use a few of my favorite Wilton colors, but I am starting to phase my stock to AmeriColor. Here’s why…no toothpicks! Just squeeze and voila! I don’t know that using a toothpick is so unbearable, but squeezing is just so much easier (for me). Plus, I like the quality of the AmeriColor gel pastes.

In order to take them for a test drive I made these…

A dozen flowers in TWELVE different shades of pink. For someone who does not enjoy mixing colors…this was actually a fun experiment. (By the way, I should mention these are chocolate roll-out cookies. I used the amazing and delicious recipe from Georganne of LilaLoa. It is the best. Ever!)

Here is my messy counter from mixing colors. I started with white royal icing (and it was 20-second consistency – an icing consistency I learned from Sugarbelle). I squeezed one little drop of pink food coloring into the white. I then made my first icing bag.

Then, I added a second drop of food coloring. I mixed it up and made my second shade of pink icing.

After that, I added a third drop of pink. I mixed it. I made my third bag of pink icing.

And so on until I had 12 shades of pink. Using the AmeriColor bottle made this process pain free.

The first pink was so pale it almost looked white.

But by the end…the pink was dramatic. I loved this little experiment and I was so thankful to have my AmeriColor gel paste to help me.

I should mention that I wrote this blog post on my own…without any prodding or bribing from Karen or AmeriColor. The opinions expressed here are mine and I think each cookie decorator does things a little differently. This is just my little experiment and my experience.

Happy decorating to you and I hope you’ll visit me next time on my blog at Flour Box Bakery online.

Thank you again Anne!! Your cookies are gorgeous! It makes me want to get in the kitchen and get baking. Hmmm…. I just may do that.

Giveaway at Bea’s Blog!

Good friend and talented decorator Bea from www.cancuncookies.com just hit 100 posts on her blog and is hosting a fun giveaway!

She’ll be giving a gift certificate to Karen’s Cookies to the lucky winner of her drawing.  Browse through her previous posts and be sure to follow her.

Congratulations Bea!