Thanks, that was the picture I was looking for, for the inspiration for my mother's day bouquet for my mom. You guys are great with the quick response!!!!

Kimberly they look terrific and only your fourth try! Awesome with the detail. How did you cut them out, a paring knife?

Yes I followed Cake Princess wonderful tutorial on how to do cookies without a cookie cutter.

WOW! NEWTODECORATING, What a gorgeous cookie bouquet!
I think you are the winner, hands down, for this month.
Absolutely beautiful job!! Congratulations!

Kos
I just saw your "spring gardening collection.Love them, gloves and spades.Those cookie cutters aren't common.Where did you get them?

Glad you liked my avatar.My GD uploaded it for me.I love it, too.

Wow Kimberly!!! Wow, wow, wow!! Fabulous, I'm so glad you didn't keep those from all of us.

newtodecorating - wow! those are wonderful! you should be proud!!!

Wow those are wonderful. In the small pic they absolutely look like a rose bouquet. All the cookies are looking great for May, cant wait to see more.

Here's my first one for May. One of the multiple-handicap teachers at my kids' school ordered three of these to give to her classroom aides as a little Thank You gift.

I hope to be doing more cookies this month also, we'll see what happens, LOL!

Laura.

Looks great slejdick!

Love the colors! Great job.

kos

slejdick - they looik great! I love the outlining/contrast technique... I'll have to try that some time.

Colorful bouquet!!!Liked the selection you made of different size cookies.

seljdick- I love your color contrast! How pretty! I bet the teachers aids loved them!

Cute, Cute slejdick!! Do you outline first?

Thanks for the feedback!

I outlined and flooded the cookies in one step (using the technique in Antonia74's tutorial), then when they had dried for a couple of hours, I did the contrasting color on top. I just made little parchment trianges with about a tablespoon of icing in each to do the different trim colors - I get tired of washing the bottles and tips sometimes, LOL!

I like the effect of using different sizes, I think it makes it more interesting, especially if the cookies themselves are on the whimsical side like these are.

Laura.

Gorgeous cookies! I have never tried antonias method ...but am planning on it!

This is my first set for this month. They are done with the no fail cookie dough and royal icing. I took everyones advice from last month and outlined them in stiff royal and then filled them in with thinned down royal icing. Let me know if there is an improvement over last month. I am learning a lot from this site and having a lot of fun while practicing.

Newtodecorating, where did you find the tutorial for doing the cookies without cookie cutters? I am new to this site and still learning to find things on here. You said it was by Cake_princess. Please let me know so I can read it please.
Zamode, are these any better than the ones from last month? I was trying to get them done with my little( or not so little) helpers running in and out. I tried the royal icing and think I may have the consistency a little better this time. I am gonna try to do some more before the end of the week. I had to stop to make a butterfly cake that is due tomorrow. Let me know what you think.

The post you're looking for is at the top of the cookie forum right now - it's a thread titled "How to make cookies without cookie cutters" or something similar . . .

I think your cookies are showing definite improvement - it just takes a while to get the hang of the icing and exactly what consistency works best for you!

Laura.

Thanks Laura for the information. I just saw the thread for making them without the cutters. I read through it and thought it would be a lot harder than it sounds. I am gonna work on some more this weekend. And thanks for the comment on my cookies. I thought they were better than last months but am always hardest on myself when it comes to how I have done. I can find the mistakes that no one else around here would look for. I am gonna try to post some more by the weekend.

Wow crafts- I really like your cookies! You are really getting the hang of this cookie stuff!

Crafts, I thought of one more thing that may help you with your outlining, it's something that took me a while to get the hang of but it might help - when you're "drawing" the outlines and the detail lines, use your whole arm to do the drawing. Hold the bag in your hand, hold your wrist still, and move your entire arm from your shoulder to get a smooth motion.

When I first started, I practiced on a practice board from time to time, because I could just pick it up when I had a few minutes and not have to bake the cookies, LOL! Put some icing in a bag, and draw some curves and straight lines on a piece of paper, then try to pipe lines over them to see if you can follow the lines. I would sometimes have a sheet of paper with all sorts of lines and curves and circles piped all over each other, but it helped me to get more accurate with my outlining and overpiping.

I know you have little ones (unless I'm confusing you with someone else, which is SOOOO easy for me to do ) and this way you could just do a bit at a time, then put it away for a while and think about how it went and what you could do differently.

Just don't give up! Your designs are good, and with practice you'll get them to look exactly the way you want them to!

Laura.

Yes crafts, you're doing better! Great colors, too! Try to keep the outline consistency a little bit thicker than the middle/flooding consistency. Good job, keep going Get the boys some milk and let them have the fruits of your labor

WHOA! I am posting cookie photos!!

THIS is why I am on strike!! I felt better with these, consistency getting better but I still think a bit too thin. QUITE boring, I hate being timid in decorating but since I STINK at it, I work gingerly! Pastels show no design, either, you have to use bolder colors like the funky red I didn't like but used anyway.

You see crafts, you are asking the wrong person for advice!

WOW! Great cookies Zamode! Is that the chocolate cookie recipe too? They look great! Fun and whimsical. Time to burn your protest signs. Sure would be nice to see some cookies from C_P now, huh?

craftst3 I think your cookies look a great deal better than your first already. You'll have this figured out in no time. I cheated when I first learned. I took a Wilton's cookie class (a one day class) at Hobby Lobby and we used the Wilton cookie icing bags. I try and mimic the same consistency as that. I like your flowers and the colors. I like the white outlines too! Great job! (and with kids too....you are a brave woman! )

kos

Thanks everyone for the comments. It is nice to know I am doing a little better than last time. I will try the practicing on the paper and see what happens. I know it will take some more practice but at least I am having fun in the process.
Zamode, your cookies look good. I still haven't tried the chocolate recipe yet but may this weekend.

Zamode-I have yet to figure out why you are on strike! Your cookies look great! I wanta try the choc ones too!


Ok guys and gals out there who were all excited about the cookie club and said they would jump on the band wagon-- You know who you are--I WANTA SEE COOKIES!!!!! Don't make me go back thru post and name names!

Thank you ladies but the strike continues until either I get tired of it or my cookies get better--hmm, I wonder which will come first?!

Kos (cute how you highlight people's names!), yes that is the chocolate version. I've never been a sugar cookie person and the people I have been making these for like chocolate better.

OK, here's picture number two for this month.

Our school district is hosting a Relay for Life tomorrow night to benefit the American Cancer Society, and our elementary school has a team who will be participating. DD's class will be going to walk for an hour, and some of the teachers donated items to raffle off to raise additional funds for ACS.

I decided on Tuesday evening at our PTA meeting that I should make cookies to be sold at our booth as my contribution, so I baked all day yesterday. Made two full batches of no fail cookies, ended up with this cookie bouquet to add to the raffle offerings, plus 140 cookies to sell (100 large, 40 small, pics are in my photos).

When I took this in to school this afternoon, several people bought additional raffle tickets right away to try to win it, and we also sold 15 of the cookies on the spot!

Laura.

Laura those are adorable! I like your technique and the different sizes really make it stand out.