decorating class

Cookie Cruise 2015 Recap






CookieCruise 2015 took place last month, Jan 22-26, 2015.
It was the very first event of it's kind......and boy, was it unique and wonderful! :)

Ginny & Doug Levack of CreativeCookie.com created this one-and-only event
involving cookiers boarding a cruise ship and cookie-ing together on the open seas.

The event was a smashing success....with lots of great cookie techniques shared
and rich sweet relationships cultivated for a lifetime.

Since there's no cookie supply store found on a cruise ship,
the idea of bringing everything-but-the-kitchen-sink for cookie decorating was quite a task!
But Doug, Ginny, and their awesome partners Todd & Tammy Colitti (2TsStencils)
along with a huge support team took on the task and conquered the "beast" called CookieCruise.


Take a look at those five carts of boxes loaded with cookies, icing, supplies, and prizes
unloaded at the dock preparing to be wheeled onto the cruise ship.
Doug was the mastermind behind all the organization......and he was a well-oiled machine.





The support team wheeled those carts through the processes, waited long periods of time standing in line, unpacked and re-packed everything through customs,
and managed to make it through everything without too much blood, sweat, and tears. haha


Once we had boarded the ship, the carts were pushed into a corner until our rooms were ready.


And once all the supplies were safely tucked away,
we could begin to explore the cruise ship and enjoy all the sights. :)


I had the distinct pleasure of rooming with Cristin, of Cristin's Cookies during the cruise.
We were a perfect match......and enjoyed our home-away-from-home with delight.


It was dreary, rainy, cold day in Galveston when we set sail.
But there was too much excitement to let the weather get us down....



It was fun to see all those towel animals I've always heard about.



Here is the London Dining Room......but for CookieCruise, it was our classroom.
The setting was unique, but we found you can cookie anywhere and have a great time!

On Friday morning, the cookiecruise staff got up bright and early and started setting up
the cookie classroom at 6 AM for Julia Usher's day-long class starting at 8 AM.


Julia taught us multiple techniques leading to an incredible cookie heart box.







After several hours of amazing instruction, we set out to explore the ship.
Here's the 12th floor on the front of the ship, looking down onto the pool and open food court area.


Getting together with everyone during meals and "play time" was super fun.
We had plenty of time for getting to know each other on a much deeper level than online time allows.


Friday evening was the cookie exchange.
All participants were invited to bring some cookies to exchange with others.
Oh, the cookie designs that we had the pleasure of seeing.....and for some......keeping.


Each evening, Monica Holbert (CookieCowgirl) taught a night owl cookie painting class.
Since I'm not a night owl, I missed all the fun......but here's some of Monica's photos of her class.




On Saturday, participants could opt to disembark to Cozumel, Mexico for a few hours
or stay on ship and enjoy open-cookie-decorating with Ginny & Tammy.

I had the pleasure of seeing beautiful Cozumel with friends.



We shopped for yummy Mexican vanilla and other souvenirs and then stopped 
to enjoy some delicious food and drink.






The water was gorgeous.....such a pretty blue-green color. :)



Back on the ship,
Cristin and I managed to cover nearly ever part it.....
including going up front and seeing the spectacular view.



Participants had the opportunity to decorate their doors for prizes.
Becky and Robin won 2nd place.


Here's the first place winner for CookieCruise door decorations.
This is all made of cookie (except for the hooks and ribbon, of course).....amazing!
Made by Lynne and Sally of Rocking Horse Sugar Decor.

On Sunday morning, it was time to prepare for my glaze class.
I had lots of help from Cristin to get the glaze just the right consistency.


And Doug was my muscles to help empty the very, very thick pre-made glaze we brought from home
into the mixer bowl to thin it out.


While many of us were preparing for the glaze class,
Shannon Heupel (Artfully Designed Creations) provided an airbrush demonstration.






From that demo, we moved back to the London Dining Room for the glaze class.





Everyone had the opportunity to use wet-on-wet technique with glaze to decorate cookie quilt blocks.





And then we fit them all together to make a gigantic cookie quilt!




Our "closing ceremonies" included LOTS and LOTS of wonderful prizes given.

Nicole won the brand new 8 qt mixer!!


Lots of memories were made........



L to R: Cristin, Julia, Tammy, Pam, Monica, and Ginny

And here's the entire 2015 Cookie Cruise group.


What a wonderful event it was!


Thank you Ginny for pursuing your dreams and providing us with this awesome opportunity! ♥



Cookiers stay tuned HERE.

CookieCruise 2016 could be in our future. :)

Here's the awesome sponsors of CookieCruise 2015.
Thank you for all your generous contributions to make the event as spectacular as it was!
  Creative Cookier

Cookie'sCool in Genoa, Italy November 14-16, 2014 (Part 2)




 November 14 - 16, 2014 in Genoa, Italy

http://www.cookiescool.com/en/


Later this year, I have the privilege of being an instructor at a
cookie school in Italy called Cookie'sCool.
The event will offer hands-on classes by several amazing cookie instructors.

Each class will be two hours of technique instructions and then
hands-on decorating for each participant.

I shared some of my projects in a previous post back in May.
Now I'm back to share the changes we've made to my classes and show some more photos.


The peacock cookie platter is still planned as part of the line up.


The other two projects (wet-on-wet technique with markers & flower cookie pops with BRP Boxes)
have been laid aside to incorporate some of my newer techniques
that the CookiesCool organizers were interested in.

I'll be sharing how to make all these items for an "American Breakfast"..... cookie style.


Next up...... Christmas Quilt Cookies.
Since CookiesCool is held right before Christmas, 
we were encouraged to offer some classes involving the holiday theme.
I love this style of cookie-ing, and am anxious to share it with participants. :)


Many folks have asked me about the wood grain on my apple tree cookie platter.
That technique, along with how to assemble this apple tree, will be another one of my classes.



And my final class will involve these Quilted Christmas Tree Cookies from last year.


It's going to be a fabulous event!
Check out the CookiesCool website to see all the other wonderful classes offered.


Cookie'sCool in Genoa, Italy

Cookie'sCool in Genoa, Italy November 14-16, 2014 (Part 1)




 November 14 - 16, 2014 in Genoa, Italy

http://www.cookiescool.com/en/

I have the privilege of being an instructor at a cookie school in Italy called Cookie'sCool.
The event will offer hands-on classes by several amazing cookie instructors.

Each class will be two hours of technique instructions and then actual decorating for each participant.


I thought I'd reveal some of the projects I will be presenting in my classes.


For the peacock cookie platter class......
every participant will create a feather cookie to add to the platter.
I'll demonstrate how to make the peacock head and body cookies.



The second class will be on embellishing wet-on-wet technique
using food color markers and/or a paint brush with color gels.
Each participant will design their own wet-on-wet cookie......
and then use markers and/or gel on pre-dried glazed cookies.
It's amazing how a few lines and dots with a marker or paint brush can make the cookies "pop"!


Because I love the BRP cake pop box so much,
I wanted to share how to make cookie pops without baking the sticks into the cookies....
and then show what a awesome display the box creates.
In this class, each participant will create a flower cookie.
I'll demonstrate how to attach the cookies to the sticks and how to use the cake pop box.


Stay tuned for another blog post about the rest of the projects we'll do at Cookie'sCool!

Cookie'sCool in Genoa, Italy

First Decorating Class

A friend suggested I teach a decorating class at church to help raise money for Ukraine (as my cookies sales do). So last night, I did my first class. It was such fun.....and the women seemed to really enjoy themselves. They asked if I'd do it again.....we shall see.

It was a LOT of work. I had to prepare LOTS of decorating bags so that there wouldn't be such a long wait to decorate. I told the class that I did all the hard work so that they could do the best part of cookie decorating. :) The clean up after wards was dreadful. I had been on my feet for several hours, had done lots and lots of prep work for the event in my kitchen half the day, and then came home to clean way too many tips and couplers. I was crawling to bed last night.

I thought you might like to see a few pics from the class.

Here's a pic of me as I talked with the class and demonstrated a few things.


Decorating ladybugs.....


My daughter, Allison, helping the decorators. She was a HUGE help. :)


More pics of my demonstration.








I've got some new cookie pics to share, but it is late and I've got to get up at 4 AM for work in the morning. I'll try to post the pics tomorrow afternoon when I get home. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
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