Gnome ice cream treats

It all began with a small container of spiced apple cider ice cream that  was flesh like in color.  

At least it was the color of my flesh this time of year - a little anemic looking.

My crazy brain told me to make it into a gnome face.

It was super warm out the day I made this, so he is starting to melt like the the Nazi in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

All it took was a scoop of the "fleshy" ice cream (coffee flavored ice cream would also work), candy dots for eyes and nose, half of a red hand candy for the mouth, a sugar cone  glazed in blue icing, and a can of Rediwhip to make the mustache and beard.

It seems I have had a case of gnome on the brain lately.

Is this normal?

Gnome garden

This year I decided to branch out from my usual fairy garden.

It was time to let some men of the gnome variety into the mix.

I used one of the hypertufa houses that Mr. Enchanted had made for me, and added in some cute pieces that I found at Hobby Lobby.  I always get such a kick out of looking in the hypertufa houses because chipmonks winter in them and they are always FULL of acorns!  Last year one of the little guys was actually looking out the window at me :)

I used a bag of river rock from The Dollar Tree to make pathways.

And then I added an earth home, or hobbit house, or whatever it is called.  I built a mound of dirt, pressed a door into the front, and then topped it off with some succulents.  

I may replace the succulents with moss - what do you think?

Adding a gnome home makes my gardens EXTRA enchanted!

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How to make rosy cheeks on a gnome cookie

Or any other cookie for that matter.  

There are actually a couple of ways to rosy up a cookie cheek.  

This is my favorite technique to use because it is subtle and melts right into the flesh (wow, that sounded kind of scary didn't it?).  

I could have used a darker shade of pink to make the cheeks stand out more, but I didn't.  I could claim that I was going soft and subtle, but gnome cookies in strong primary colors don't exactly say "shabby chic".  Oh well.  

On to how it is done!

After the flesh colored flood icing has been put into place on the face, you immediately add drops of pink flood icing where you want the cheeks to be.

One drop will do you - it will spread out and melt right into the face.  Of course, you want the face and cheeks to dry before you add any other details.

These little fellas are being boxed up and heading to Iowa in a care package for my nephew's wife Danielle.  The poor girl just had the most awful pregnancy (bed rest and placenta previa), a 38 hour labor, and emergency c-section, and now is battling a serious staff infection from the surgery.  Yikes.  

If any of you could send some prayers and sweet thoughts her way, I would really appreciate it!

I'm hoping some magic in a box will cheer her up!

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