I know, I know, Christmas is in three weeks. I am excited about it too!  But before we dive in to the red and green stuff too much, I have some collaboration projects to share with you that have been in the works since Cookie Con, back in September!

At Cookie Con, Team Cookie (That’s me with the incomparable Kari of Yankee Girl Yummies and Melissa of Melissa Joy Fanciful Cookies) taught a couple of design classes.  In those classes, we started out sharing some basics of design and inspiration, and then each of us shared our design and cookie process, to show how you can start from an inspiration and make it your own, and go your own way with it.  THEN, we asked the class participants to come up with a theme from an inspiration board, and from there brainstorm how to design a set from that.  Each class had been part of a their own group Pinterest board before Cookie Con, and had all pitched in to pin ideas that appealed to them, so that we had a board to look at in the class.  Both boards were a cool reflection of their participants, so each had a different vibe.  Here is a sampling of the board from our first class:

The board had lots of ladies in cute skirts, lots of nature, tons of flowers, shoes and fashion shots.  We wanted to come up with a theme that might actually happen, one where bringing decorated cookies would be just the perfect thing.  With all the images we were looking at, we came up with a very fancy tea party, like if the women from Sex and the City decided to throw a tea party at the Four Seasons.  Our Cosmopolitan Tea Party Set, as we designed it in our class, included fashionable ladies for every seasons, tea cups with natural elements, shoes with flowers and plants (or even made of plants).  We explored how we might pick cutters for those cookies, and different ways to organize a set, from a big platter to personalized name card cookies.  I hope the participants in class had as much fun as Team Cookie did, because we had a blast!

After the class, we offered them the challenge of taking our starting place, the theme and the inspiration of the Cosmopolitan Tea Party and going through the process on their own to come up with some actual cookies!  In the end, it was too much for many busy cookiers to take on at this time of year, but we did have one game participant, Beth of Love Bug Cakes and Cookies!  We loved the overall set, it’s so great!!! Some of our favorite details are how she used a uniform cookie for the ladies, but mixed it up with the composition so that they are all very dynamic.  Also, great use of design to solve the age old “face” problem.  Don’t want to worry about the face? Just choose a different angle!  The colors hold together well, but you can still pick out the four seasons.  And, she also managed to use the plaque cutter that we gave out in class- which was generously donated by Truly Mad Plastics.  Thank you Beth for contributing!

Some of Beth’s classmate’s have said they will participate in the New Year when they have more time, so if that is the case, you can look forward to me sharing those with you too when they are ready!

In the meantime, each of us on Team Cookie also did our take on the theme.  Similar to the examples we used in the class, you will see how three different designers can take their needs, style, and skill and do three very different sets of cookies!

 

Let me first show you Kari of Yankee Girl Yummies‘ set.  I have been dying to share this with you guys since I first say it.  It took my breath away.  It’s a smaller vignette than Beth’s but how evocative of nature, of elegance and sophistication.  I, for one, am smitten! That lady in the wind is so gorgeous!!! And on a lighter note, that tea bag, I have it on good authority, is wafer paper filled with chocolate jimmies.  Perfect for your cookies and ice cream treat. 😉

 

Melissa of Melissa Joy Fanciful Cookies did a set that is perfect for getting glamour and simplicity together at the same party! Which is her specialty, right?  A platter inspired by some of the nature/fashion images from the Pinterest board, and perfect for that Fall tea party, or book club, or fashion show!  What a sweet girl, and the colors and shapes for the leaf skirt are perfection.  One of the fun things about the class was showing that it doesn’t always have to be fancy or handpainted to be a gorgeous and clever design!

 

Last but hopefully not least, here is the set of cookies I was inspired to make!  I saw a cute little drawing of a girl with a teacup skirt and thought that would be a fun way to do a tea party set for fashionable ladies, and it would be fun to think about what makes tea so great year round.  I was also inspired by fashion sketches, wanting to keep the backgrounds very clean and bright.  And in keeping with my body positive politics, I decided that I would change up the body shapes of the woman so they weren’t all stick thin.  Beauty comes in many shapes and sizes!  If you want to see more pictures of these cookies including individual shots, be sure to check out the gallery in my portfolio!

Thank you to everyone who took our class at Cookie Con- we had an absolute blast!  And thank you for all who participated in our mini collaborations, Beth, and hopefully in time a few others!  And stay tuned too for the other class’s project.  It is completely different.  Just goes to show you how much fun you can have with creative cookies!