I guess I'm feeling brave, or desperate. I don't have enough time to ship any here without paying a ton in charges so I am forced to attempt to make these. My first question is, how can I color sugar? I was thinking of using it for the stamen, or can I use sanding sugar? Also, I read you can use a heart cutter but I don't have an elongated one. Can I use a regular heart shape? I have some ready made gumpaste (bakels I think) or should I use fondant/gumtex mix since I am inexperienced? How do I dry them? Any tips are appreciated, I am very nervous and need these a week from Sunday. Any ideas of how many I need for 2 layers underneath a 12 inch square cake? Thanks for any help!

If you have yellow powdered color, you can use it on your stamens. just brush it on with a soft brush. To soften the color (if needed) blend the powdered color with a bit of cornstarch, the dust. Sugar is a bit too shiny. You can elongate the heart shape by rolling it out gently on the tip.

I would not use all fondant for these to be sure thy dry quickly and strong enough to hold their shape. Make one or two to judge how many might be enough.

this is a fairly simple flower. You should be able to get it in time.

You can roll your stamens in corn meal. It makes them look very real. If you are placing them on florist wire, just stick the end of the wire in some styrofoam to dry. If you are using petal dust (yellow for the center and a little green next to the base and on the very tip), once you have the flower formed you can quickly run it through some steam (hold it upside down for just a minute before drying) and it will set the dust and deepen the color. I used gumpaste when I made mine. I didn't use Bakel's, I used a homemade recipie. It dries very quickly. I have only used Bakel's once and had trouble getting it to dry.

If you've got yellow liquid food color, you can put some sugar in a plastic bag and add just a few drops of the yellow food color and shake the bag until the sugar is colored. It works despite adding liquid to the sugar!

Thank you all. I'll begin tomorrow and probably be back with more questions.