Ode to Heartsong Cookies

Heartsong Cookies. So growing up, I always enjoyed hand drawing. I was never great at creating something from scratch, but I could look at something and make it look the same. It was a talent I got from my mother. This was one of those easy things to identify as my dad could barely draw stick figures. If you asked my mom if she was artistic, she'd probably be modest and say she wasn't very good but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Just to show how ridiculous my family was for their love of all things Florida Gators, one of my first drawings was when I was around five years old. I had drawn a truck with a gator head, which just happened to be running over all of the mascots of the other teams they faced. Sad I know... but it still hangs in my room to this day. As I got older I moved on from drawing mascots being run over. I remember I actually even won a $50 savings bond in 6th grade for a drawing contest that had to highlight the state of Florida. I don't really know what happened to that money...

So what is all this reminiscing about? Well as I got into woodworking, I discovered that you could actually draw on wood as well! Its fancy name is pyrography but I just refer to it as woodburning. Basically you have a special pen that gets very hot and you burn, aka draw, into the wood just like you do on paper. You can buy a pyrography pen at any local Michael's or arts and crafts store.

So back to my mother. As I started getting into all of these different hobbies a year ago, I was sending her pictures of what I was working on. She wanted everything that I had made. Eventually a lot of the small projects I made did get down to her, but those will be shared for another day. However before Mother's Day last year, I already knew what I was going to do as I could combine her and my artistic nature and highlight her amazing cookie business, Heartsong Cookies.

For anyone that knows me, also knows about my mom's cookies. They are the best cookies on the planet - that is a fact in case you were wondering. Every weekend, you can find her at the Winter Park Farmer's Market on Saturdays and Maitland Farmer's Market on Sundays. She's the one handing out hugs to anyone that buys a cookie. I'll get more into her story in another post, but as I mentioned I wanted to do something specific about her business. So what goes with cookies? Milk! Easy enough right? Anyway, after some rough sketches and a few hours worth of woodburning, you get a cool piece of art on some wood! PS even if you aren't great at drawing, you can simply print something off and just trace over it before using your pyrography pen.

Shopping List

• Small piece of wood that you can find at Michael's

Tools

• Pyrography pen
• Carbon paper
• Pencil

Step 1:
Draw the image you want.

Step 2:
Place a piece of carbon paper on top of the wood. Tape it down to make sure it doesn't move.

Step 3:
Place your original drawing on top of the carbon paper and trace over it. The carbon paper will then transfer what your drawing into the wood.

Step 4:
Remove the drawing and the carbon paper.

Step 5:
Use your pyrography pen to go over what you drew on the wood. Be careful not to press too hard or have the pen in one spot too long, otherwise it will leave a deep burn. I'd practice on a spare piece of wood ahead of time to get down how hard to press down and how you can shade areas.

Once I do another woodburning project, I'll do a step-by-step process on how to do different shades. Hope you give it a try!