Cookies for Ukraine 2017

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Here are the simple and small cookies that I took on our Ukraine 2017 trip.
To read about the actual trip, check out this blog post.

Every year when I'm prepping for the Ukraine trip, the foremost thought I have is what shape and design of cookie I should take. (I know.....what a shocker?!)

I need to take at least 150 cookies, so they can't be too big.
And since I'm making so many, I want them to be as easy as possible.
But I also want to make something unique and beautiful to delight the recipients. :)

After CookieCon 2017, I branched out and tried The Painted Box's gorgeous watercolor techniques. Angela was especially helpful to me and answered all my questions. (Thanks Angela!) So it seemed fitting to decorate some watercolored cookies since the total decorating time is fairly minimal....especially when you're just dabbing on a rainbow of colors. 

For these cookies I flooded all of them with white glaze and let them dry overnight.
The next day, I just painted various colors across each rectangle and then splattered some wet gold luster dust over them. (The videos below depict my methods fairly well.)

The cookies were well received and brought many smiles. 

Aquash Water Brush Spring Decorated Cookies

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After CookieCon 2017, I was anxious to get home and try The Painted Box (Angela Nino)'s awesome watercolor techniques. But while I was waiting for the supplies to come in to make my watercolors, I remembered that I had an Aquash water brush that I could try out to at least get a feel for the watercolor effect.

This brush is not expensive and it's easy to use. Basically it allows you to fill up the "pen" with water and then load color to the brush and paint on the cookie. (I used it on glaze icing with success.....but I'm not sure you can use it on royal icing the same way.)

Once you're done with a color that is loaded on the brush, you squish the body of the pen to push water up into the brush and "clean out" the brush. (You don't want to actually squish the brush while you're painting on a cookie or you'll have a messy puddle.) Once there is only water coming off the brush, you can move to another color. Pretty cool!

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For these cookies I used airbrush colors since they are already very liquid and not too concentrated. I chose AmeriMist Electric Airbrush colors this time around. It definitely made for a SPRING effect. :)

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