Cookies At Last!

 Hello Readers!

Just a quick follow up post! This time with cookies I've made.

This first photo is the first batch of cookies I've made in a while. So they're not as tidy as I would like, but still, they were a fun batch to put together... There were definitely some flaws with this set. The little hedgehog cookies for example were originally supposed to be cute teddy bears. Unfortunately, I believe I made my Royal Icing a bit too wet as well I messed up on my layers... They definitely had some major issues going on. Luckily, one of my teenagers mentioned they sort of looked like hedgehogs... so I ran with their thoughts and modified the bears to look like hedgehogs.. It was a definite save! Plus, we all got a good laugh out of it. 

My Inspiration for these came from: 

https://sweetopia.net/2019/09/decorating-mini-cookies-top-tips/

These Sunflower Cookies were my latest project. I was testing out some recipes from Pamela Dean Kennedy. I copied down her recipes off her Youtube Channel. Honestly, Even though her recipes work and there isn't anything majorly wrong with them, The flavors and textures weren't my favorite... The Buttercream frosting felt heavy and didn't spread so nice, but they did pipe ok and the icing was pretty stiff as it dried. However, I did find it tended to break easily when I was carefully stacking the cookies in their boxes.  

I probably will try modifying her sugar cookie recipe to see if the removal of baking powder makes them better... I *might do that when I make another fun batch of cookies.

Cookie Season is Beginning again...

 Good day, readers! 

Recently, I have been very busy with life and projects, so I figured, posting something about those topics here on my blog might be a good idea! 

This year has brought many changes to our household, with another child beginning college, as well as my husband starting his journey towards his master's degree. Also, my youngest has begun homeschooling and is just starting to read words. It's been wonderful watching her take small steps and learn new things every day as part of her learning journey. 

As for me, I have recently begun taking steps in refreshing my cookie decorating skills. It has been a minute since I worked on any projects, and have recently begun working on a few projects to aide in that endeavor. 

I have been organizing my supplies and created a few 3d printed projects.  Such as a piping tip organizer, as well as a baking tray rack for my counter. I also made a few batches of cookies for my dh to take to work, as well as for the kids to enjoy. Though I do believe I have been making a few too many for the house. 

Here are some photos and links to my most recent 3d printed projects. 

The first one is my piping tip organizer. I made it because I usually keep my piping tips up in my cupboard and was constantly having to unstack containers to sort through them. So, I decided that a drawer system would work best. It is available on Printables for anyone else looking for a system that might work better for them. 

The model can be found here: https://www.printables.com/model/1434268-piping-tip-organizer

 The Next Project I recently finished working on is a Baking tray holder for my Quarter Sheet pans. 

My kitchen isn't super small but space is limited especially due to the size of my family and the overall design of the kitchen itself. One, could always use more counter/cabinet space no matter the kitchen.  Due to space, especially on my counters, I have found it helpful to use smaller baking sheets for cookie decorating. 

I looked around online and have seen many options for stacking my trays but all of them could not accomplish what I had in mind, which was using my vertical space more efficiently with the pans I had. So I measured my quarter sized sheet pans and took to my computer to design this tray holder.. and yes I know I could've made something easier using wood or whatever, but, I wanted to challenge myself with creating something within the bounds of my 3d printer's ability. 

I designed this with the cookie decorating process in mind and made sure to leave adequate space between the pans to allow room for various decorations as well as for airflow to allow my cookies to dry. I also made it so pans could be slid in and out of the rack for ease of stacking.. 

There are some spacers for pans which I though about purchasing, but then I'd have to unstack pans to get to whatever pan I needed to work on, and that didn't sound very efficient...very much chaotic and messy and maybe even putting my hard work at more risk of potential spillage... One must be careful with moving around projects of this nature.  

So here at last are some photos as well as the link to the Printables website. 

https://www.printables.com/model/1443960-quarter-sheet-pan-holder-rack

Well, I guess that's it for now! I will write again soon and make a new post with some other recent projects. 

Chickens, Chickens, and Chickens oh my!

 Today is a short post... I painted chickens.. just for the fun of it and to also test out a new brand of paint... I used Meeden watercolors and so far no complaints... anyways.. enjoy the chickens... and happy painting!

Circle Owl

This week I have not been painting as much... However,  today I painted an owl. I drew it mainly from using a circle template I 3d printed. 

I was originally working on a template/stencil to make drawing out rectangles on my watercolor paper easier. I enjoy painting on blocked watercolor paper, but it can be a bit pricey... after a price comparison, I realized that the paper was significantly cheaper if I just purchased the larger blocks and painted sections of the paper.  

For example, the block of 20 sheets of 5x7 hot press costs ~$15... whereas the block of 20 sheets of 15x10 Hot Press costs ~27... that's like paying around $7 for the 5x7 of which I tend to use.  This can be a bit of savings for me in the long run.. instead of spending around $60... I'll only be spending a bit less than $30... which means more money for paint! =)

Anyway... enjoy the owl! 

Luna Moth and a RandoFly

Well, yesterday I was quite busy working on two butterflies. One is a rando butterfly, and the other is was based on a luna moth. Once again I "cheated" and printed my subjects and cut and traced them on my watercolor paper. I simply used the cutout shapes to trace around and then carefully added in the details, starting with the bodies, and then the upper and lower wing details. The Luna Moth is on a sheet from Meeden, their Hot Pressed Block and the RandoFly is on a sheet of Cold Press from Meeden blocked paper. They are fairly budget-friendly choices as watercolor paper can be rather pricey. 

RandoFly printout cut and traced on Meeden Cold Pressed Block

Luna Moth printout cut and traced on Meeden Hot Pressed Block

After I finished tracing my subjects, I began by painting my RandoFly. I used my Kuretake set of paints and prepped my various colors. I used Cobalt Violet, Rose Madder, Lemon Yellow, Turquoise Green Deep, Turquoise Blue, and a small amount of Ultramarine.  First I painted in the body with Violet and Turq. Blue. I allowed it to dry a bit before then flooding in the upper wings with clean water. After they were both wet sufficiently I began dropping in colors as to my liking. I used my heat gun then after that, to dry the upper wings and repeated the same process for the lower sections of the wings. I once again used my heat gun to speed up the drying process and then used some Black and my rigger brush to draw in the antennas. Once I was done with that, I added some more detail to the body using the same two colors I had before to add more dimension. Once I was satisfied, I pulled out some pens to draw in the wing outlines and to outline the body as well. After everything had dried I went over the butterfly with a light cover of Kuretake's white opal, to add a simmer to the wings. Thus below is the finished piece. It was a fun project and a great warm-up before I worked on the Luna Moth.

Onwards to the Luna Moth! In this project, I actually didn't need to use very many colors. I continued with my Kuretake watercolor set and used the following colors... Malachite, Viridian, Black, and Cadmium Yellow.

I flooded the upper wings with clean water and used a very light shade of malachite to drop in some color. I let it dry and did the same on the bottom wings to finish laying in my base colors. After that, I used a more concentrated malachite to fill in the body for its base layer as well. Using some Diluted Black I began laying in a base layer for the detail on the wings and the body. I decided to use a small detail brush to paint in the veining on the wings and tried to smooth them as best I could. I added more detail around the edges of the wings, with Viridian,  to add in some shading so the painting did not appear to be as flat. After I had finished those details I began working on the "eye" looking bits on the wings... I went around them with black and then used a very concentrated Cadmium yellow to go around the inside of the black... I added in more black to give more detail and after that was dry, I used a white pen to fill in to white part of those spots.  When I was done with that I used some black and Viridian to make some "furry" details to the body and Antennas. I went over the black stripes on the wings and body once more with more black to add more depth and shading.

Finally, after fiddling with it for a bit, I pulled out my Opal set and used the green to add some shiny detail to the wings... It just seemed like it needed it and to be honest... I really love to shimmer it adds.

The End! Phew!

 

The Blushing Phantom Butterfly

I painted this yesterday and I think it looks fantastic! I did cheat a bit though...😁 I found a lovely image on Pinterest for inspiration and printed it out... since I am not very good at getting shapes precisely straight, I cut out the image of the butterfly, paying careful attention to the wings, to keep them as tidy as possible. After I had cut out the specimen, I carefully traced its outline on my watercolor pad. After that, I filled in the rest of the details in pencil and used my kneaded eraser to lighten up the lines to help prevent them from showing through the paint. 

For the paint, I used my Daniel Smith Palette... I used Cadmium Red, and Burnt Umber with a bit of Ivory Black. I also used my Kuretake Opal Set to go over the painting to give it a Blue/Pink Shimmer.