Artisitic Designs On Your Cookies

I have the same question! I would like to know if there are any tutorials...I do not have any luck with the search here..the forum results are always empty. I had a similar question in another thread, but only one person responded. I hope I dont smell...LOL! I would like to cross over into cookies.

Same here...I want to learn more on doing a design on cookies!

Theres a great book... Cookie Craft its by valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer. They give you a lot of really spectacular designs and great instructions on how to do them. A plus is that their designs (most of them) are surprisingly easy but trust me, they dont look that way! Its a great starting point anyway, once you start your creative side will kick in. Im uploading a photo now of cookies I did for my neices 4th bd. I didnt use a pattern, I just had fun. They're recipes for cookies/icing in the book are the best I've used also! Good luck!

BUMP~

I'm not sure what other people do, but I draw mine freehand. (probably not the answer you were looking for...)

There are some really great cookie artists here. Two I can think of (off the bat) are Yankeegal and Antonia74.
To me, they are the quintissetial cookie-gurus.

Good luck.

I bought this book a couple of weeks ago and I love it! It has so many beautiful cookies in it, and yes they do give great instructions on making them. I took a peek at the cookies you made and you did a beautiful job on them!

Thanks Susie! Thats a great book, its now on my can't do without shelf!

i once saw a tutorial in photos on flickr.com. the lady drew a quick sketch on a giant square cookie using an edible marker. then she piped on thick icing along the lines she drew, and then filled in using flood icing.

I love The Flour Pot Cookie book. I use that quite often

I, too, will draw a design on the cookie using edible markers if I think the design is somewhat complicated. I just wing it for the marjority of my cookies...namely the 3D ones. Those designs are all pretty simple and don't need to be precise for the end result I'm looking for. Mostly, practice will take you where you want to be!

I freehand my cookies... I know, not what you want to hear, but...

my advise if you are freehanding an outline is to have your image next to you as you pipe, then start with good fixed points... like lines that follow the edge of the cookie, then work off those lines into the open spaces referencing your image and looking for anchors, i.e. this part lines up with that part....
does that make any sense?

I usually pipe the outlines, then flood fill, then come back and add highlights, or use markers/paint to add the tiny details.

I couple other tricks is to pipe some parts of the design on waxpaper - trace them over you image - and add them to the base cookie.

also, I saw TracyLH (aka the Amazing Tracy!) say that she practices piping lettering over the image on wax paper until she gets the feel for it, then goes after the cookie

good luck!

Thanks for the decorating tips!

Kristi-you are too kind!

I also(like Tracy) sketch out everything before I decorate. Sometimes just seeing it on paper and playing with it helps to work what I want to do. Start with simple designs. Some of my earliest cookies were just dots and swirls, plaids, etc....I think people get overwhelmed and try really intricate designs off the bat and get discouraged. Use simple clipart as well to get inspired. Just keep practicing!!

Now that I have the flooding technique down, I really am enjoying using stencils. I saw an example on here and thought I'd give it a try. After all I did dry embossing with my scrapbooking and I've stenciled borders on my walls. So I thought what the heck. It does take some practice to get them nice and clean but it's doable.

Before that, I just used simple clipart(or coloring books) as examples of what I was trying to do with a particular cutter.

I still have lots to learn. I'm completely self taught. One day I would love to take some classes .

I always have my final artwork done and have it right there when I work. I also figure out each step ahead of time. I have used edible markers to sketch onto the cookie. Many times I will copy my design onto wax paper with edible ink, lay that over the top of my flat, dry RI'ed surface and use a fine point turkey skewer to trace it to create a faint line that I can follow. If any marks show after you are done piping, use a paintbrush with a minimal amount of water to make them disappear. It will eventually rip up the wax paper, but then I just make another sheet. But these are for the more intense designs. I am trying to work towards some simpler ones so I can freehand them, but still have all of the steps figured out ahead of time.

Like Jen, I also like to do some images in RI separately and then drop them on on the image is dry. It allows me to be more precise as I put my image underneath and then trace over exactly it with the RI. I will use foodsafe acetate, wax paper or parchment paper when I do this. As Jen mentioned, I always practice my lettering separately first by putting the words under wax paper before attempting to put it on a cookie freehand. Lettering does not come naturally to me.

Eventually I want to try stenciling as I just love what Cookiemookie does! It is so perfect, just lovely and looks like a real time saver (something I need to work on! )

Attached is an example of both the the wax paper idea when I needed to get lettering precise on some Chamber of Commerce cookies along with an example of RI-ing the image separately in order to drop it on an then the final cookie. These are two of my favorite techniques.