Okay, I bought some fondant and mixed in a good deal of gumtex for added support and made some stuff. I made a cake topper (see below) out of uncolored fondant. Then I took my icing color and mixed that with some extract/vodka and painted my numbers. That was 24 hours ago and the painted areas are still tacky! I painted the front of the numbers first. For that color, I mixed the gel with some almond extract, but not too much - the "paint" was on the thicker side. Then later that evening, I flipped them over and painted the back side. For the back color, I decided to mix the gel with vodka and I used a lot more to make it more "runny". The back dried a lot faster but is still a bit tacky but not nearly as tacky as the front of the numbers. (P.S. The numbers themselves have set, it's just the color that isn't drying).

What is going on? I need to pack these up and bring them with me to AZ on Thursday and I'm afraid if I wrap them (what do I wrap them in), they will stick to whatever I wrap them to.

HELP!!!!!

Sorry I'm not of much help, but I was just going to tell you that I've had that problem a lot too... its like the alcohol percentage isn't enough to dry out the liquid of the food coloring... hmmm... I wish I could help you. Hopefully someone else will come along to help you out!!!

They look great, I love how curvy the numbers are.

I think they'll dry by Thursday. I've painted things kind of thickly and had them take a couple of days to dry, but they all eventuallly have dried.

When you do pack them, if the paint is still a little tacky, wrap them in parchment paper to minimize sticking, and just bring your icing colors and paintbrush in case you need to do a little touchup.

Thanks Sarsi. I'm almost wondering if you need to have very little color and a lot more alcohol. I just don't get it. The funny thing is last week I was experimenting with fondant, etc (never used it before) and used liquid food coloring - too lazy to get my icing gels - mixed with some extract. That dried perfectly, but it was a very dull color and didn't look pretty. The gels are producing a very high shine color on the fondant and it almost looks like it is a ceramic glaze. I hope someone can help answer my questions.

Heat, what about HEAT? Can I put it in the oven on low and then turn it off and let the stuff dry in there while the oven cools off?

Thanks Texas Rose. You mention that you've painted some thick. Would you recommend using more alcohol and less icing colors when mixing the two?

Try using airbrush color instead. It already has the correct mix of alcohol to color in it.

Theresa

Yes, I would suggest putting them under a fan to dry. Almond extract although its clear doesnt allow it to dry correctly. Also could be the coloring your using for the actual paint. Use either vodka, pure grain alcohol or lemon extract next time. You can also go over it with lemon extract or the vodka to get them to dry quicker. But definetly stick them under a fan!

Oh and thanks! I'm trying to find the font that I used for it. I love it!

You guys are the best!!!!! Thanks!

If you do a few coats of thin paint...that might work also...

Thanks! As soon as I get home tonight, I'll put the fan on them. First, I'm gonna stop off and get a florist block to stand up the numbers so the air circulates around them now that they are hard enough to stand

The font is called Acadian. Here is the template that I used.

Your numbers look AWESOME!! I love them.

put them in your oven with your oven light on!

Thanks Terri-Jo.

Theresa - do I just pour those colors into a bowl and paint it on with a brush or do I need to use the airbrush. I don't think I'm that coordinated to use the airbrush, but if I can use the colors like I would the regular icing colors, that might be something I want to look into. Thanks!

Denae - can you believe my oven doesn't have an oven light?

NTS....when we buy our next oven, make sure it has an oven light

haha...that is funny! i sometimes losely cover my stuff in saran wrap and put them in the sun on my back deck. that makes it dry very quick...however, with paint, it might fade it.

to me airbrush color is too runny, i like sing americolor gel paste.

yes...nts...get and oven with oven light!!! hope it work out.