Creative Living: 'Green decor' featured on show

Information on "green decor," using art glitter frameable fabric panels, and rubber-stamping on cookies will be the featured topics on "Creative Living" 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday and noon on Thursday. (All times are Mountain.)

Designer and crafter, Shannon Bielke will show how to take items around the house and incorporate them into new creations or what she calls "green decor." Bielke's company is Sha & Co., and she lives in Payson, Ariz.

Barbara Trombley is going to show how to make art glitter frameable fabric panels as she displays various ways that glitter is now available. She is the President of Art Institute Glitter, Inc. and is from Cottonwood, Ariz.

Julia Usher, chef and cookbook author, will show how to actually rubber-stamp an already topcoated cookie. She'll explain the type of ink pad to use and other tools for the project. She's from St. Louis, Mo.

Information on making no-sew pillows, using new technology for reunions and parties, and writing press releases will be the featured topics on "Creative Living" noon on Tuesday and 2 p.m. on Saturday. (All times are Mountain.)

Kim Deneault is a designer with Raggedy Reverse Applique in Lincolnton, N.C. She will show how to make easy no-sew pillows using two pieces of fleece fabric. The edges are tied rather than sewn together, which makes this a good project for any age.

Deborah Durham is a spokesperson for Hewlett-Packard in Los Angeles. She will show how to use computers, scanners, digital cameras and printers to make party decorations for various events.

Patty Waid is an event planner who knows the importance of good publicity when you're sponsoring an event. She will talk about how to write press releases that will get your event noticed. Her company is Waid & Associates in Albuquerque.

Rubber-stamped springtime cookies

Rubber stamping allows anyone to create show-stopping cookies with very little work. Simply choose a lovely stamp and grab some soft-gel food coloring, and you're good to go!

What you'll need for several cookies

• Several medium to large (2- to 4-inch) cookies, topcoated with Royal Icing [1]
• Assorted rubber stamps, sized to fit the cookie topcoats with at least 1/4 inch to spare
• Un-inked felt or foam ink pad [2] (Note: I prefer foam pads; or substitute paper towels as described in Step 2, below.)
• Soft-gel (aka liqua-gel) food coloring, black and assorted springy colors
• About 3/4 cup — Royal Icing — for detailing (allow at least 1/4 cup per color)
• Parchment paper pastry cones (or substitute disposable plastic piping bags)
• Scissors
• Extra powdered sugar, as needed to thicken icing
• Small (about 1/2-inch) readymade royal icing roses [3] for additional decoration (optional)
• Pastry bag fitted with a small (#352) leaf tip (optional)

Air-dry the top-coated cookies

After you've smoothly topcoated the cookies with "Royal Icing" in colors of your choice, let them air-dry, uncovered at room temperature, until the icing has dried all the way through. Usually this means drying overnight, sometimes longer if it's particularly humid.

Note: For best results, I usually topcoat with a pale color, so that the stamped pattern shows very clearly against it.

Also, don't stamp uniced-cookies. The food coloring won't stick to the cookie; it will only lift cookie crumbs off the top.

Assemble your stamping tools

First, gather your stamps, making sure they fit the topcoats with some room to spareI use thoroughly cleaned craft stamps made of natural rubber that have never touched any inedible ink. For me, this is food-safe enough, since the stamp makes contact with the cookie for a split-second. Next, choose an un-inked ink or a foam pad. Foam pads hold ink longer than felt pads. Again, I don't worry myself with the fact that the ink pads may not be guaranteed, FDA-approved "food-safe," but if you do, simply use folded paper towels to blot the stamp with food coloring.

Stamp yourself silly

If using an ink pad, apply a generous squeeze or two of coloring to the pad. (I often use black coloring for best contrast. Because soft-gel coloring is viscous, it will sit on top of either foam or felt pad. To avoid getting an excess of ink on your stamp, blot the pad with paper towels to remove any pooled coloring; then press your stamp onto the pad, taking care to evenly coat it. A foam pad can stay moist up to a week or more if contained this way, thereby minimizing your use of food coloring.) Stamping a cookie isn't much different than stamping a piece of paper except that you must apply extra pressure in the middle of the cookie where the icing tends to dry with a divot. And as you firmly press, avoid moving the stamp from side to side, or you'll end up with a blurry imprint. Re-ink the stamp between cookies, and repeat this step until all of your cookies are stamped. If you want to stamp in different colors, be sure to have a separate pad for each color. When you're through, store the ink pad(s), if used, as indicated above, and wash and dry your stamps before storing them in baggies or other sealed containers.

Add borders and details

Divide the "Royal Icing" into as many portions as you want border or detailing colors, using no less than 1/4 cup icing per color. Tint the icing accordingly and then thin to the proper consistency for your task, i.e., to beadwork consistency [4] for dots or outlining consistency [5] for thin lines. Fill parchment pastry cones with the icings, and proceed to pipe borders of your choice. I often use icing at beadwork consistency to embellish the cookie tops with dots as well. Thicker icing can also be used to glue readymade roses to cookies and to pipe small leaves with a pastry bag fitted with a #352 leaf tip.

There's no reason to go crazy with the detailing. Depending on the intricacy of the stamp, less is often more.

"Creative Living" is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations in the United States, Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico and is distributed by Westlink, Albuquerque.