It only took two YEARS!

 According to a well known cheese commercial... Good things take time!

My project is certainly not on the same scale... but it definitely took some time.  So back track to two years ago.  I was completely mesmerised by some of the cookies I was seeing pop up on my Instagram account... beautiful, beautiful cookies... and it turns out that they were being airbrushed. 

As a former scrapbooker, inking was my THING!  I loved ink... and often went to work with slightly... and sometimes not so slightly... ink stained fingers on a Monday morning.  It really didn't take a leap of faith to think I would like airbrushing.

I did my research... watched lots of tutorials... worked out what I needed to get started... and then went about purchasing an air compressor, gun and five colours.  I was also obsessed with some specific cookie stencils that I could only get from America... so of course I HAD to have them.  The company didn't do express shipping so I waited... and waited... and waited some more.  

The stencils were worth the wait... in some respects at least.... they were gorgeous... good quality... exactly what I was hoping for.  The only problem was that in between ordering them and their arrival (almost two months later) I'd let my 'perfectionism' get the better of me and I'd totally convinced myself that I could never achieve the results I'd seen in the tutorials. 

So the stencils... along with the compressor, gun and colours remained completely untouched!!  To be honest, I was so annoyed with myself that I put the purchases away in the garage where I wouldn't be reminded of them constantly.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago... I was tidying up some things in the garage... which is code for I was looking for something and knew I'd put it 'somewhere'... and that's when I rediscovered the airbrushing supplies.  

So I set myself a challenge! 

On Waitangi Day I had to open the boxes... unwrap the equipment... and USE it!  Then if I didn't like it I had to sell it... and if I liked it I had to USE it regularly!

In the week leading up to Waitangi Day I re-watched the tutorials I had bookmarked.  I still loved what I was seeing so that was a good start.

Waitangi Day finally arrived... Alfie and Zara went out to their kennel so that Mumma could 'play'!

I really wasn't kidding when I said that I'd never even unboxed my goodies!

 It was surprisingly simple to set up the compressor and air gun... insanely simple actually!

 Out came the colours and stencils:

The next part should come with a disclaimer... NONE of the following cookies were eaten!!!  And here's why. While I was waiting for the stencils to arrive... I made some cookies and covered them with royal icing. Once they were dry I popped them into a container... and then I forgot about them!

Almost two years later they appeared to be in perfect condition!  No mould... no cracking... the only tell tale sign was that the royal icing which was originally white seemed to be a more vintage vanilla colour!  The cookies were home made.. no preservatives... how on earth did that happen?

Moving right along... I pulled out my old spray booth because I thought it might help with over spray. I'd never liked it for my scrapbooking... and it turns out I don't like it for cookies either.  For some reason I find it almost restrictive.

 Finally it was time for COLOUR!  I started off with some green:

 Then I added a little bit of brown:

 Next was a bit of yellow:

 A little bit of blue:

And finally some red:

 I found moving the stencils and trying to line them back up again a bit of a challenge at times so I picked another cookie and another stencil and did this one without moving the stencil at all even though I changed colours:

REALLY love how this one turned out!!  

I was actually really happy with the final look of my paper towel... it felt like 'evidence' of being creative:

Here's the finished cookies:

 It might have been two years in the making... but I've been using my air brush quite a bit since then so you'll definitely be seeing more in the future.

As a bonus... the clean up from air brush colours is unbelieveably easy!  I couldn't resist taking a wee video just to remind myself how quick it is:

 So what have I learned?

• Air brushing is definitely my thing!
• It's better to move the stencil as little as possible
• You don't have to completely clean the gun between colours
• Don't let 'perfectionism' get in the way of 'experimentation'
  

 

What do I want to try next?

•  Making my own stencils so that each colour has it's own stencil - then there wouldn't be any 'bleed' from one section to the next
• Get a few more colours so that I have some more options... FYI that part has already happened! 

Thanks for stopping by :)