Never-On-Time Series: 2012 Valentines.
You remember how I’m never on time, right? I’ve got a bunch of cookies I want to share from this past Valentine’s Day, so I’ll have to put them into my “Never-On-Time Series” as well. Hey, at least I’m getting to them before St. Patrick’s Day, right? 
Now, I didn’t have a reason to make Valentine cookies other than I just really, really, really wanted to. I bought little mailboxes, and I wanted to fill them with cookies for some of my favorite “adopted” nieces & nephews (the kiddos of my best friends). I also had a sketchpad & list going of decorating I wanted to try, so I set aside one night just for “playing cookie,” and I was pretty excited! ♥
First up, I had found some cute stamps at our local party supply store, and I wanted to try my hand at inking cookies. Once the cookies were base-iced & completely dry, I painted a bit of Dusty Rose Americolor gel paste full-strength onto the rubber stamp, and then gently applied the stamp to the cookie.
It worked better on some cookies than others, but I think that has more to do with my needing practice for this particular technique than the different stamps. 
For the stamped cookies, I gave them a quick border of simple dots for a finished look. Sweet!
Some other cookies I’d been wanting to make centered around new cutters I had acquired, rather than a new decorating technique. For example, I had purchased a winged heart cutter & a double heart cutter, and I was itching to use them!
I kept the winged hearts very simple: a smooth, solid red or pink heart, with sugary white wings. Classic! I also turned some plain squares into simple Valentine envelopes with a bit of red piping icing and a large heart sprinkle, too.
I made several of the double heart cookies, and I decorated each one just a bit differently. I also turned some scalloped squares into VERY easy hearts-with-arrows. Seriously, these could not have been easier to decorate!
Another decorating technique I had been wanting to try was lacing (or “lace icing,” if you prefer). I’ve made lots of beautiful real lace with thread, but trying with icing was quite different! Luckily, my sweet friend Callye put up a lacing tutorial earlier this year that made it look just easy enough to try! I gave it a whirl, and these were my finished cookies:
This style is my favorite. I love the little hearts in the lace. ♥
I also made some sweet “love” cookies with a bit of cursive. I loved making these cookies last year, so I wanted to repeat them this year as part of the assortment as well.
I tried my hand at brush embroidery again, with only *slightly* better results than my awful, failed attempt this past fall. There are some really great cookiers out there that do a magnificent job with brush embroidery, if you want to see better more, too. I tried to make kiss-face lips with my little cookies:
These would work well for St. Paddy’s Day cookies, too! Pair them up with some shamrocks & call it “Kiss Me, I’m Lucky!” or something. *mwah* ♥
Lastly, I wanted to draw some sweet cartoons on larger cookies, too. I iced these cookies with a white base first, and then I let them dry completely before drawing Valentine-y stick figure cartoons. I love these!
I “played cookie” for hours that night, and when it was all said & done, I had NINETY cookies to show for it! I was just having too much fun to stop!
And, believe it or not, that’s still not ALL of the Valentine cookies I made this year! Be sure to check back for the next set that I didn’t blog in time. I promise they’re worth the wait!
- March 13, 2012 7:11 pm
- Author: Nicole
- Categories: never-on-time series, valentine's day
Welcome to Life’s a Batch! 
Um – could I be an adopted niece too?
I’m never on time either… In fact, I had some Valentine Cookies I meant to get posted and haven’t yet. (nothing compared to yours though!)
Aww, Cathy – you can be a niece any time!
I take on extra sweet relatives always!
wow, those are amazing. i especially love the stamped cookies. fabulous!
Thank you, Karen! I appreciate your looking, even though it’s LONG after the holiday!
What a wonderful collection of Valentine cookies. I have yet to try the stamping technique (I do like it) and I love your lace decorated cookies. The stick figured ones are too cute.
Thank you, Paula! You’ll probably have better luck with the stamping than I did, but I do think I could get better with more practice. I’ll have to look into different kinds of stamps.
Oh Nicole, those are all so awesome! Don’t you just love a good rubber stamped cookie
Thank you, Anita! I definitely want more time to “play cookie” with some other stamped images, as I sure don’t feel I got it right the first time! Have you done a lot of stamping?
This still makes the other gal who’s never on time, chuckle! These were worth the wait…wow!
Oh, please! You may have too MANY projects to all post in one holiday/season, but you still always get up A LOT of stuff that is perfectly on time! I bow down to your skillz.
What an amazing set of cookies. I especially like the cartoon people, but they are all beautiful. Who cares that they are late, they’re still a joy to see and very inspirational!
Thank you, Sarah! I’m glad people don’t mind seeing ‘em waaaaay after the fact!
Your cookies look amazing! I was just wondering what recipe you use for your royal icing?
Thanks, Carol! You can find my icing recipe in the second half of this post: http://lifesabatch.com/?p=676
I am new to icing cookies. When I flood and do a “wet on wet” technique, the dot seems to run. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.
It sounds to me like your wet “flood” icing may still be too runny. You only want to thin it to a honey-like consistency. I like to make mine so that when you drag a knife through it, the impression takes about 9-10 seconds to fully disappear.
Thank you so much, I will try that next time.