A little reprieve from the craziness of my book stuff. (Aaack!! Due in a matter of weeks!! Aaack again!!!) Art gallery cookie pops.

you will need:*
dough
frosting

*Find the decorating bags, couplers, tips, sticks, cutter, and sprinkles at the craft store. I used Americolor soft gel pastes (Bright White and Egg Yellow), and the Americolor Gourmet Writers set and the FooDoodler fine-line set. For tips on finding supplies, click HERE.

step one: bake your cookies
Roll out chilled cookie dough 3/8 inch thick, cut out squares, insert sticks and bake according to the recipe.

step two: prepare your icing
Make icing and tint white and yellow (you’ll need much more white than yellow). Prepare two frosting bags with size “3″ tips. Fill one with yellow and one with half of your white icing. Close bags tightly with rubber bands. Cover and reserve remaining white icing.

step three: flood the cookies
Pipe an outline on the cookies with white, and let set about 15 minutes. Thin reserved white icing by stirring in drops of water until the consistency of thick glue. Fill an empty decorating bag with the thinned icing, snip 1/4 inch from the corner, and loosely pipe to fill the cookies, using a toothpick as needed to encourage the icing. Let set overnight. Yes, let it set overnight.

step four: make art
Use the edible writers to draw your art. Don’t draw to the edges to allow for the frame.

step five: frame it
Pipe a square at the edge with yellow and immediately sprinkles with sprinkles. Turn over to remove excess sprinkles.

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Picasso, le reve

Mondrian, composition with yellow, blue and red

Dali, the persistence of memory

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

• marshmallows
• gourmet writers
• skewers and/or lollipop sticks

*If you can’t find Americolor gourmet writers, as shown, most craft stores carry subsitutes (but I just adore Americolor products). I found a pack of 100 bamboo skewers for about 2 bucks at the drug store. Lollipop sticks are available at the craft store.

how to make marshmallow art:

Step 1. Skewer 1, 2, or 3 marshmallows.

Step 2. Open package of gourmet writers.

Step 3. Draw.

kid tip:
Kids should use caution with the bamboo skewers, as they are sharp. You can also skewer the marshmallows to create a hole, remove the skewer, and insert a lollipop stick instead.

marshmallow tip:
The stiffer the outside of your marshmallows, the easier to draw on them. If your marshmallows are very soft, you might want to let them sit at room temperature for several hours (or even overnight).

Below is my attempt to recreate Monet’s Water Lilies Painting 1:

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

Watercolor pencils offer a super easy method of creating your own paintings, even for the most artistically challenged. If you aren’t up for drawing your own, I’ve included a pdf of four “sweet candy” prints HERE. Each 8 1/2 x 11″ page has two prints. Each print is about 3 x 4″.

Some ideas for using your candy paintings:

• Cut out a 5×7″ rectangle around each candy and frame each to create a series.
• Cut out each print, write a message, stick in an envelope and use as a card.
• Cut out each print into a rectangle or a circle (with a circle cutter), punch two holes at the top, string ribbon through and create garland for a sweets themed birthday party.

how to create your own sweet candy watercolors:

you will need:
pad of watercolor paper
paper trimmer (12″ minimum)
watercolor pencils
cup with water
small, flat paint brush
printer (preferably laser, not inkjet)
ultrafine black marker

The watercolor paper, paper trimmer and paint brushes can be found at any major craft store. All of the above (except the printer) as well as watercolor pencils can be found at a fine arts store. Warning: You don’t need a color printer, but the printer does need to handle a thick piece of paper.

step one: create your print
If you are drawing your own design, lightly sketch a design with a pencil on a piece of watercolor paper. If you are using my candy designs (pdf HERE), use the paper trimmer to cut your watercolor paper to standard letter size, 8 1/2 x 11″. I purchased a 9 X 12″ watercolor pad, but I wanted to keep measurements the standard letter size to make things easier on my printer.

step two: color with your pencils
Using the colors of your choice, pencil in the areas to be painted on the prints. The best part of penciling is you don’t need to be exact or uniform. (I used these colors: light blue for rock candy, lime and black for licorice, purple and light blue for wrapped candy, light pink for cotton candy)

Some tips:

• No need for precision. A rough scribbling method is fine, as you can use the brush to push color to the edges later in step three.
• Heavier pencil marks will create darker areas, lighter pencil marks, lighter areas. This is an easy way to create shading.
• You don’t need to fill in the entire space. The brush can push more color into areas you didn’t pencil. Again, this creates shading.
• A good rule of thumb when thinking about shading (heavy vs. light pencil): keep heavier marks closer to the black outline and lighter marks in the middle.

step three: add the water
Dip your brush in water and dab excess on a paper towel. You want your brush to be wet enough to rid of the pencil marks, but not dripping all over your prints. Then, simply brush over each penciled area. Make sure to clean your brush between colors. Warning! If you use an ink jet, the outline can run if touched with the wet brush. Be very careful with the brush when getting close to the outlines. Laser printers are better, but I still kept my eye out for running.

Let prints dry fully, at least a couple hours. If needed, touch up the outline with an ultrafine black marker. Use the paper trimmer to cut paper in half to create individual prints.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!