Painted Dogwood Blossom

My family tries to go camping in early spring, before the 'ordinary' trees, like maples and oaks, begin to bud their leaves. There's just something about the glowing white or pink of a blossoming dogwood tree amidst the hibernating hardwood trees. Along with early daffodil flowers, dogwood blossoms are a sure sign that spring is nearly here! 

This tutorial is great for those cookie people are are new to painting on cookies (or who are shy and not-so-confident like me)! It's hopefully a *hard to mess up* kind of thing! 

Dogwood blossoms have four petals, and there are lots of cutters that can fit this bill. I stretched out a metal dogwood blossom cutter to make this cookie, but That's A Nice Cookie Cutter has a beautiful dogwood cutter with leaf here!

What you'll need:
* baked dogwood flower shaped cookie
* food safe marker
* white royal icing, 20-second consistency
* soft pink Amerimist airbrush color ( regular thinned Americolor gel in this color will work too!)
* green Amerimist color (or thinned Americolor gel)
* food safe paint brushes
* green icing in piping consistency

1. Draw the flower petal lines with a food-safe marker on your baked cookie.

2. Flood opposite petals in white icing. Allow to crust.

3. Flood the remaining flower petals. Allow to fully dry.

It's painting time!

I thinned the Amerimist airbrush color with a little bit of vodka before painting. Using a wide brush, add some lighter color to the petals. Use a narrow brush to add vein lines and to outline the petals. Think "watercolor-style", and *not-so-perfect* kind of brush strokes. Remember to go light on the color at first- it's a lot easier to add more color later than to remove heavy color now. Use the edges of the petals as a guide for vein lines.
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​Using a grass tip, add the blossom's center with green icing. If you don't have a grass tip, a round tip will do!

Just like the pink color, thin out a little bit of green airbrush color with vodka. With a paintbrush, add a little bit of green color in each of the petal notches. Outline the petals with white icing to make them pop!

Celebrate the arrival of spring with these pretty dogwood blossoms!

And mix them with some other spring/summer blossoms for a pretty floral platter!