Thank You Cookies

My husband is involved in pretty cool ministry called Young Life. I'm not actually involved myself, but I'm friends with a lot of the other leaders and hang out with them frequently. I tell you this, because it was these people (specifically those on my husband's team) that were the instigators for my next cookies. By instigators, I mean they asked me to make some thank you cookies for some people who had been really great to them. Really, any instigating that took place was self-inspired. Now, I've used the word instigating enough that I'm questioning its meaning and if I'm using it correctly (I just looked it up, I think I'm good on the first two, not so sure about that last one). What can I say, English was never my preferred subject. I mean, if we're playing cranium or catchphrase and I need to describe or act out words, I'm golden. Actual writing-not my strong suit.

Now that I've gotten way off topic, maybe its time to talk about cookies again. Writing on cookies never goes how I envision, so I thought it would be much safer to  use alphabet cutters and decorate each letter. Other than the fact that these needed to convey thanks, I had free reign. After a quick glance through my inspiration boards (aka, my pinterest cookie board), I chose paisleys, some brushed embroidery and a color scheme. Normally I really like bright colors, but I took these basic colors and softened them all a bit by adding ivory. I really liked how they turned out, though I wished I had softened the green a bit more.

Mother's Day Cookies

These cookies were fun to do for a number of reasons, 1) Yhey were for my mom and Mother-in-law 2) They were the first cookies that I've mailed to my mom (and by extension my dad, brother, and Sister-in-law) in Florida, so they finally got to try some of my cookies and see them in person! [Ang-I have no idea when, but you're family is definitely getting cookies one of these days too!] 3) I got to try 3 different cookie ideas that I've been wanting to try 4) I got my first experience at making a cookie basket!

Whew! Basically, these were awesome cookies to do! And thank goodness all my ideas lived up to expectations and turned out relatively as anticipated. Trust me, that's rare. There are many ideas in my head for cookies, that once I actually start decorating, just don't happen! I try to make them happen, but my cookies yell back at me and say they aren't gonna do it. Then I yell them, walk away and we have a stand-off for about 20 minutes, until I concede and do what they want. (parts of that may or may not be true).

To start with, I've done some brush embroidery before, but not on a lot of cookies at once and the flowers looked a little different. You may notice that there is only 1 or 2 cookies with the 2 flowers on them instead of one. I had intentions to do more, but just got in such a groove with the single flower ones that completely forgot to stop and do more of the other kind!
I also was able to really try to paint them with pearl dust (aka, the stuff the makes them glittery). I've dry brushed pearl dust on, but had yet to (successfully) paint it on. You can see it best in the 3rd pic here-it photographs a but funky, buts it like tiny silver glittery specks all over the flower! (I like sparkly things...).

I saw this cookie idea on Cookie Crazie's blog here. I thought it was adorable and knew I wanted to recreate it for my own Mom and MIL.

Here's what the cookies for my mom looked like before they got  put in little boxes and then in a bigger box with lots of padding so they'd make it across the country safely. They are packaged 2 to a bag (back to back). I love these toppers-so pretty and elegant, perfect for my mom.

I made the cookies for my MIL into a cookie bouquet. I had some trouble getting them to stand up properly, but it was a good learning experience for cookie bouquets.