Gramma's Beachy Birthday

Welcome

---

Hello!!!
I have a bit of summer to share today!
I had a lot of fun with with set and it's pretty lengthy so let's get started!

Sketch

As always here's my sketch/inspiration for this set.

Royal Icing Sprinkles/Transfers

I wanted to go all out with this set so I printed out a bunch of transfer pages and made some royal icing transfers/sprinkles.
I didn't end up using the butterflies this time but I printed them out anyway. 

They all came out really cute. 

Trials and Errors

So.
I did something new.
I spent a few days ahead of time practicing piping flowers.
I've tried all my tips, to see what they do, but I haven't practiced much so I took this opportunity to do that. My gramma is a flower lady, she used to have an enormous garden, so I know she will find a joy in my beginner flowers that other people might not LOL. 
Piping with 2 colors isn't hard but it can be challenging if you're going for a specific effect. I will definitely need more practice.

​Welp.
This is why I just bake for family LOL.
I got my minis down pretty good. They come out great consistently, but the bigger cookies I think I need to adjust the temperature a bit. Those are pretty large cookies and I prefer a little cripsy to a little raw so I kept them.
They're not burnt they're just more done than I usually prefer. Some people actually enjoy them "golden brown" because they hold up better when dipping in milk. 

Practice & Persistence

I was having a hard time with the seashells. I just did not like how they were coming out.
I kept trying though and eventually I did get a result I was happy with. Just gotta keep going.

I did dust a few of them with luster dust.
Funny enough I only used 1 of these seashells on this set BUT I have containers to keep my transfers and sprinkles so I have seashells ready now for use in the future.

More Cookie Creations

The palm tree came out awesome. I love it. 
I'm using a lot of different tips in this set and I'm using more thick consistencies than I normally do. It's pretty fun.

Next up is the hummingbird. I'm unsure how I feel about this one.
I think I see a redo on this one in the future.
​It's kinda cute though.

Onto the birthday plaque.
I made a woodgrain texture with some thick icing and then I made sand from some crushed up sugar cookies and gold sprinkles. I absolutely love it.
I used one of my anchor transfers and all the flowers were transfers too. 

Picking Favorites

This cookie is one of my favorites from the set.
I flooded it with icing and then added crushed sugar cookies and gold sprinkles just like with the plaque cookie.
I love it.
I used a lot of my transfers on this cookie.
​I think it has the only seashell of the set and I absolutely love it.
I painted the seashell with bronze luster dust and vanilla. 
I used the champagne luster dust and vanilla on the sand dollar transfer.
The purple shell made it on this one too. All the flowers are transfers.
The leaves were piped directly on.
I didn't realize I liked starfish so much. The starfish were the favorite parts of this set for me.
It's like they have character, can you see it to or is it just me? LOL. 
I feel like I could I bring them to life pretty easily.
Maybe I've seen too many disney movies with sea creatures.

I almost didn't do a birthday cake cookie because I am trying to branch into new things this year but it's nice to have a few things that you're familiar with instead of doing a million new things all at once. Plus it was a good edition to the set so I'm happy I decided to do it.

Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. & Starfish

I love how these cookies came out even though my coffee cup and saucer is pretty rough.
My heart really isn't in cups and mugs much anymore---I am burnt out on that because all the humans I love seem to love coffee and I am coffee cup and mugged out. 
So I wasn't mad that my cup and saucer kinda suck... you know it's cup of coffee... 

The cool thing about this set is that I painted the background with espresso. 
It was perfect and it smells amazing. I also like the shine it left on the cookies. 
Very cool medium. Knowing that, I might be able to tolerate coffee cookies in the future.
I LOVE the coffee pot too. It came out perfect and I'm pretty sure I already know who's going to get the next one.

The starfish, sand and little flowers were a last minute impulse but it ties the entire set together and they're adorable. I love them.
So whatever 4 out 5 stars on the coffee cookies I'm fine with it LOL. 
Maybe I'll revisit the cup and saucer too, who knows?

I love these starfish..
​It's almost like they're introducing the coffee..
​"Tada"

Something New: Piping Flower Cookies

These were a first for me and I struggled more than I thought I would but I learned enough that I'm okay with it LOL. 
I have done some roses and things like that but I haven't done flowers this detailed where you pipe each petal and with 2 different colors. I don't know why but I had a hard time figuring the coloring out. I went through quite a bit of icing with the colors split one on top and one on bottom instead of the border I wanted. It was weird but I think I figured it out.
I considered painting them with watercolor but decided against it because I want the piping to show for itself. It will be great for me to look back on later once I figure out how to get more consistent results.
I can't wait to do more. I just ordered another flower petal tip but it's smaller. 
I'm excited to try it.

Finishing Up

You probably don't remember the sketch by now but there were not little suns in it.
I decided to add them to the set at the end.

Photoshoot

All Bagged Up

Heyyy you made it!
That was fun though right? I think it's a really pretty and bright set. Feels very summery.
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Much Love
Amanda

Back to Tutorials