Cookies for The Hunger Games!

Have you read The Hunger Games series yet?

My husband read them first, then they came to me.

 SOOOOOOO good!

They had more than enough action, which meant I only had to read a passage

or two out loud before Ethan was convinced to read them.

Then....a miracle happened.

He starting ASKING to go to bed early and read...

No, I'm not kidding.

He tore through all three books and most nights we had to 

tell him to turn off his light and go to sleep.

If you have a reluctant reader in your family you know just how shocking that is.

So in honor of The Hunger Games and the fabulous Suzanne Collins who wrote them...

I made cookies!!!

Alright so maybe that's not all that shocking.

These designs were inspired by Living Locurto's free party printables

for The Hunger Games.  

Go download some!  They're super cute!

I did something new though....

did you notice what it was?

I painted the mockingjays with food coloring!

It was so much fun.

Miss Arty McGoo has been painting her phenomenal cookies for quite awhile.

If you haven't seen them, please go check them out.  

She's truly an artist.

After months of drooling over her photos, I finally mustered up the courage to try it myself.

Also....the Kopykake finally showed up (that helped with the courage)

A Kopykake is an art projector that shines an image downward onto a blank surface.

Before I had one, I kind of thought it would be a little like cheating.

Sort of like 'paint by number' cookies.

Um....no.  Not even close.

Its a VERY faint image and even perfectly focused, you really just get an outline.

It definitely helped make the circle an actual circle. 

All the wings and body parts ended up in the right spots and the proportions are correct.

For me, that's the hardest part, so it was a big help.

Because it was my first time painting I wasn't too confident so.....

I used this.

They're in the Wilton cake decorating section in your local craft store.

(not an endorsement, not paid for or supplied by Wilton)

I bought one (only one in a package) sheet of white.  It was 3.99 and OF COURSE I had a coupon!

I cut off a strip and painted that instead of an actual cookie.

I put dollops of color in an artist's palette and added water as needed.

I used ck golden yellow with a little americolor warm brown for the shading.

It was a little challenging to mix the colors, 

so I used a napkin to dab my brush and see how close I was getting.

Ethan helped take the action photos.

This is about halfway through.

The wings are shaded, still need to do the tail, body and 

the dreaded super straight and pointy arrow!

By now, the Kopykake wasn't any help at all.

For the shading I referred back to the book cover.

Done!

It was really fun.

Really, really fun!!!

My mom is the true artist in the family, 

but I think its pretty good for my first try.

I cut out the image and dropped it onto a freshly flooded cookie,

It was so much fun, I did another one!

This one I painted directly onto royal icing.

Much easier in black, no shading!

The movie's coming out in a few weeks...

...we finally get to see Peeta and Gale...

May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor.

Thanks for stopping by,

Lizy B