Add a few lights and a hat ... and VIOLA!

Less than a week until the big day. I can't believe how fast December has flown by. I'm happy to say that I've made significant progress on my Christmas list since my last blog post. I have been shopping and baking. Baking and shopping. Barely leaves time for anything else. Ok. I had a little time to lose my phone and find it again. I thought for sure it was smashed to pieces in the Barnes and Noble parking lot. I have a nasty habit of setting stuff on the roof of my car while I help my little one into her seat. We once spent 30 minutes looking for my missing car keys only to discover them ... on the roof. Toph found the phone between my carseat and the center console. 

What can I say? My bwain is fwied.

I have been rocking the Christmas orders all month long. I'm so excited to say that this past Friday, I maxed out. I'm officially booked for the rest of the year...aka SOLD OUT. I never thought that would happen. So, to all my wonderful customers, I say thank you very much! I have really enjoyed making your cookie orders. I just hope you all enjoy eating them! 

I have had a little bit of time to work in a few special projects for my own needs. I made some new cookies designs for my family for Christmas. I'll share those pictures after I give the gifts. I also had this great idea for our church Christmas party, which I didn't even end up attending. I'm pretty sure my church friends were just as happy to have cookies at the party than me.

This is our church logo, created by artist Andy Mylin. 

Cool, right? Well, I wanted to give it the Christmas touch. So I added a few strands of lights and a some Santa hats and VIOLA! Centre Church was Christmased. (if you're curious about Centre Church... you can check it out at www.centrechurch.org)

I used Andy's logo, and added a few strands of Christmas lights...

These cookies might look simple, but there is actually a lot of detail and color. Color definitely adds time to creating the cookie. Not only do I need to mix that many colors, but then there is the time of decorating each cookie. Picking up and using 8 bags of icing takes a little while. Think about it in crayon language. If you were to color one of these images, you would need to pick up your crayons to make all those colors happen. 

I like to do cookies in an assembly-line process. First, I did the black outline on the circle (#2 tip). Then I went back and made the white outline of the circle using tip #1. 

Next, I did the white lettering of Centre Church (using tip #2).

Did you notice the drop shadow on the logo? I wasn't going to add it to the cookie version, but after doing a tester cookie, I decided it was a must. It really made the lettering pop so much more. I added the drop shadow in black with tip #1 and a very steady hand. : )

Then I went back with the black #2 tip and created the black wire on the strand of lights, with bulb nubs (not sure of the exact name of the little black connector part). Using a ROYGBV pattern, I counted out and added the lights. I started with red and then the rest just fell into place.

But I also had another idea ... Santa hats!

I used two cookie cutters to make these cookies. A hat and a circle. I cut out both cookies. Then using the hat cutter, I punched out a little notch in the circle. I pushed the hat into the circle, like a puzzle piece. Are you with me? Then I baked the cookies and they fused together.

If you flip the cookie over, you can see the seam. But most people don't notice. They think it is just one big cookie.

That is all I have time for. Our church actually meets in the evening, so I need to get ready to go soon. I have lots more Christmas cookie photos and updates...but that will have to wait until Tuesday's post.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Anne