I don’t always remember to take photos of my work as I’m in the thick of decorating and painting my cookies.   However, for this particular design I’m pleased that I remembered.  Now, I’m better able to show you the design process from start to finish and I hope you will enjoy seeing this particular cookie come to life.   I’ll show you the end product now, incase you’re ealisy bored and need the visual to keep interested.  I know how that goes because I’m the exact same way

The Redbird is the school mascot for Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal.   Being from Illinois, and having a son that attended Illinois State for his freshman year, I’m somewhat familiar with this attractive yet determined looking bird.  The first step I almost always do before starting a cookie is turn to my computer.  I can’t tell you how often I turn to the web to find pictures and inspiration I can work from.  I seriously don’t know where I’d be without the internet for all my photo research and I’m constantly amazed at how much information and images can be found right at my own fingertips!

Many times I’ll do a cut out cookie but for this design I decided to do it on a basic square, royally iced cookie (and yes, by that I mean that they’re tasty enough to suit a king or queen ).  Looking back, it may have been easier to do this on a cut out cookie so I could have had more frame of reference for painting the design with the proper placement of eyes, beak and tilt of the head but after I got one cookie done to my satisfaction, the rest were just a matter of remembering and copying what I had originally done.  Just so you know, I do make mistakes and I always have a few extra cookies on hand for just that purpose.  I highly recommend that practice for you too, when you do your own.

Having my guide picture in front of me, my diluted food color paints in place, and my glasses off (I’m getting older you know) I set off  to work on my basic outline painting.  You’ll notice that I always use my trusty napkin so I can easily turn the cookie without having to touch it too much and to also occasionally dab off excess paint from the brush if needed.

Changing paint colors is easily done by washing the brush with water.  I always try to have a plan in mind before I start the actual painting process.  For this cookie, I’d decided that I would do some of the outline in black first and then fill in with the base color.  Even though there is such a thing as white food coloring, I’m never all that happy with the way it looks on a painted cookie.  For this reason, where there is white in the design, I try to plan ahead and leave those areas without any paint at all.  For me, this is the only sure way to get a true white color on a painted cookie.

Here you can really see the white teeth area being left unpainted and also the eye and eyebrow as the original picture shows.

Once the outline has been completed, the fun part of filling in the cookie can begin.  Just so you’ll know, I use a very fine liner brush 10/0 for the fine detail and then grab a somewhat thicker brush for the filling in.  I like a pin point tip on my brushes so I never let them sit in water for too long and always dry them off on a paper towel after washing.  For whatever reason, gel food coloring is hard on the hairs of the brushes, so take good care to keep your brushes in good condition.  It makes all the difference in the world to have decent, well cared for brushes.

Slowly but surely, this cookie is starting to come to life with additional details and the filling in of colors.

This is a good picture because I get to show how the napkin comes in handy and I can also tell you a very important point.  Make sure you’re paying attention for this:  When painting anything with a brush (i.e. a wall, a chair, a fence, a cookie ) you always need to pull your paint brush and never push it.  Pushing the brush will only splay the bristles and cause the paint to splatter out in areas you don’t want it to go. Plus, you’ll ruin your brush!  There, you’ve been warned and my work here is done!

The best part for me is always the final bit of detail that brings the cookie to life and defines the design. I guess you could say that it’s the exclamation point at the end of the sentence

Now humor me just a bit for some beauty shots.  Since I’m taking pictures, I might as well make the most of it, right?

TA DA! Wrapped and ready to go. I always feel such a great sense of pride and accomplishment when the order is complete.  Yay!!!

I sincerely hope that I’ve been able to help you better understand the fine art of cookie painting and that maybe I’ve inspired and encouraged you to try it for yourself.  I’d love to answer any questions you may have for me on the subject of cookie painting so please don’t hesitate to ask.   After all, you’ve stuck with me for this long, now is your turn.  I’d be thrilled to hear what you have to say

Thanks for visiting and come again soon!

Fondly yours,   Reneé

Well, it’s official ~ At long last, Kudos Kookies has moved our bakery location and we’re totally unpacked and ready to crank up the ovens. Here is a behind the scenes look at our small but mighty bakery space.

 There are still things that need to be seen to with regards to this new undertaking, but in order to grow this tiny cookie company into something wildly successful, small but steady baby steps are being taken that will lead us in the right direction. 

It feels like forever since we’ve be able to bake and decorate our delicious cookies for you, but the time away has re-energized and refocused our vision and now we’re ready to wow you once again.  You’ll love our new and exciting design ideas and the special decorating techniques we’ve been dreaming up to serve you even better.   So, thanks so much for coming along on this journey.  Without your wonderful support, this wouldn’t have been at all possible.  So I guess the only thing left to say is …

Kudos to you! You deserve some cookies!!!

This season, a client had requested some dog and cat cookies with a Christmas theme.  This is what I came up with so I thought it would be fun to show you my process from “concept-to-cookie”.

I’m not sure why I do, but I like to draw all my designs on manila file folders.   I always need to make sure the cookies will be the right size to fit the cellophane bags so I measure, draw and erase until the design is something I feel will look decent as a cookie.  The eraser is the most important tool to me at this point as it usually takes me many, many tries to come up with a design I am happy with.   As you’ll see, these are the finished cookies and the templates they started from.  These cookies are approximately 4″ x 4″

Thanks for visiting and have a sweet day!

Sincerely,

Renee of Kudos Kookies

It has been a very long time since I was at my last baby shower. So long in fact, I don’t even remember when it was or who it had been for. For this reason I am very much looking forward to going to my niece Kelly’s baby shower this weekend. I wanted to contribute something to the festivities (other than the gift) so naturally, I made cookies! Surprised?

Kelly already knows she’s having a baby girl so pastel pink was in order. I can not wait to see what she receives for her new baby girl. It has been almost 23 years since I had my last baby and I can only imagine how many new gadgets and gizmo’s there are to make life easier for new parents and their babies.

Having had two boys, I never had the experience of tea party’s, playing house or dress up. We did other fun things like forts, fishing and sports of every variety (you know, snakes, snails and puppy dog tails).

I miss that time very much. Looking back is wonderful and I hold all my cherished memories deep in my heart. However, the future looks bright and our two young men are happy, healthy, wonderful adults whom I still enjoy spending time with. What more can a mother ask for?

With Affection,

Renee of Kudos Kookies

Yep, it’s that time again (and I may be jumping the gun just a little bit here) for me to start thinking about fall! Fall is by far my favorite time of year! I love everything about it. The colors, the temperatures, the nesting feeling that comes with the cooler weather and especially the pumpkins!! Pumpkins make me smile.

To me Fall also is the time I truly look forward to doing more cooking and baking (and by baking, I don’t just mean cookies!). The smells and aromas inside the house gives me that warm fuzzy feeling all over. Did I mention how much I love the fall?

To my husband, Fall is all about Da’Bears! Like so many others, he is a die hard Bears fan and always has been. Lucky for him, his dad has been a season ticket holder from the very beginning when the Bears played at Rrigley Field. Because of this, he is able to go to many games during the season. No matter what the weather, he won’t pass up the opportunity to go to a game. I find this fact fascinating. I enjoy watching the Bear’s too, but I’d much rather do it from the comfort and warmth of my sofa at home, with the smells of dinner wafting in the air. Call me crazy!

When you’re a fan, you’re a fan! Mike and Jen are getting married in early November and have asked me to design cookies for their momentous event with the theme being the Chicago Bears. I am thrilled to oblige! Congratulations to Mike and Jen on their upcoming nuptials and… Go Bears!!

Ok, here goes nothing (and I mean that most literally). I am starting this blog at the encouragement of some of my twitter friends. Apparently they think I have something more to say than my 140 characters on twitter allows. This remains to be seen.

I am however excited at the prospect of joining the TWD cooking group because of my newly acquired blog. But, I must wonder where in the world I will find the time to bake something other than cookies. I must admit, I do indeed love to bake and maybe this will force me to make the time to follow that passion in a capacity other than work.

Thank you twitter friends for making me, once again, step out of my comfort zone and try something completely different. I tend to be the ultimate creature of habit so the friendly shove was much appreciated.

Be patient with me though. I am a slow learner and =’m sure I’ll have questions galore to pummel you all with. Just remember, you asked for it

Fondly yours,
Renee aka Kudos Kookies