Rising Star...

This will be a fun activity, even if it is winter.

Did you know this is ‘Rising Star Month’?

Do you know of any youth who would love to enter a creative competition? Maybe have a classroom full, or go to a store in your area to hold a competition.

Making posters that celebrate something is always a huge hit with kids—you can always go to nationaltoday.com to get an exhaustive list of minor holidays to choose a subject and learn about that day.

The point of this is to bring awareness and teach the kiddos the reason for the subject you’ve chosen and to bring attention to your business. Involve local news stations and papers that will put it on their community pages and give it a spot on the air.

Giving the winner a dozen or two of your simple star cookies (don’t worry, youngins are happy with basic cookies) puts you in the spotlight. They won’t forget you and neither will their parents, who will have to tell their friends how delicious they are.

Below is an inspo picture of some pretty effortless sugar cookies for this project.

Today's Highlights

Newest Pages at WeCookiers.com

Last time, my page on the royal icing transfers themselves went live on WeCookiers.com. It told all there was to know about transfers.

This page shows a wonderful hack I came up with to save those fragile transfers from breaking so easily. I also did a video for you. There's other great information too! Click this link:

royal-icing-transfer-sheets.html

This was the page before, if you missed it...

royal-icing-transfers.html

Your Questions, My Answer

A: To achieve a deep or Christmassy red, first make pink. The darker the red, the pinker you will need it.

For a deep black, most of the time I simply use Americolor Black. I add a pretty good squirt for about 2 cups of royal icing.

This will, of course, blacken the teeth. To prevent blackened teeth, you can use 2 things. 1.) Food-grade charcoal powder then add just a few drops of Americolor black 2.) Cocoa powder is added first to the royal icing then add a few drops of black. The cocoa will give a light chocolate flavor though.

Cookie Cutter Flips

Valentine arrow to thermometer

Valentine x (or the letter x) to skis

Teddy bear to penguin

Click the image to be taken to the Cookie Cutter Flips page.

(Sorry, if you have an email with just HTML, you will not be able to see the photos).

Rising Star Sugar Cookie Inspo

Business Sense: marketing yourself

2. Do you do deliveries? When a holiday comes around, dress up to its respective theme. For instance, cupid for Valentine’s Day or the Easter Bunny for Easter.

3. Here is a great 8-point strategy to get customers to give you a review. (Shared from referralrock.com)

-establish your story and brand -improve customer service
-offer exceptional products
-give value
-manage your reputation
-expand your network
-ask for referrals
-start reward-based programs

Quick Business Tips

2. Going off of the first tip, if I have extra, I really enjoy posting them on my FB page as a drawing. This engages your customers like nothing other. It also makes them feel appreciated for their loyalty. Sometimes I will sell them as a flash sale as well.

3. Butter and eggs are like gold right now! Right after Thanksgiving, I had to raise my praises AGAIN this year. Like all cookiers, it’s a dreaded time, wondering how your customers will react. Thankfully, they did understand.

Where I live, we just have a Walmart and Dillon’s store. Dillon’s, like usual had their butter on sale for considerably less than Walmart. Since I go through $100 worth of butter at the snap of a finger, I asked my mother and sister who lives 30 minutes away to get as much as they could on their plus card. Indeed, it saved me a whopping $200!

There you have it! Before I go, I wanted to share this new poem by Pepper Blair. Funny, I awoke yesterday with ‘where stardreams play’ going through my mind. Thinking it was neat, I told Pepper (hubby). He wrote this, not knowing at all what the subject of this issue was about. It fits right in, huh?!

Where Stardreams Play

Where stardreams play, The air is thin;
Both night and day
End and begin…

Like a tandem miracle.
The world revolves amidst it all,
And everything seems possible.

©Pepper Blair

May you have a prosperous New Year!!! --Nita