I’ve been so nervous to get these guys back out of their boxes after coming home from CookieCon, Reno! I was worried they would have cracked apart on the way home! There was, as always, so much beautiful work, that I feel deeply honored to take home First Place, “Expert Level,” Wildlife category. (I can’t think of a more fun category!) Thank you so much, Mike and Karen, for organizing! And I would love to give a shout-out to a team who has made my edible art dreams come true for years now… @thesugarart and their innovative, high-quality, edible mediums make it possible to paint on royal icing (and more) and achieve every gradient, shadow, and hairline of color that I can dream of putting on cookies. I can’t imagine working without their products. Nearly all of this piece was hand-painted using The Sugar Art edible elite paint powder paired with The Color Solution (edible medium), and in a few areas, I used their highly pigmented Gel Colors to achieve max luminosity. Thank you, thank you!!