I *so* hope I'm not the only one, but for the life of me, I just can't seem to do the shell border the way it's suppose to be done. I have tried and tried but it doesn't seem to look like it's suppose to.
I also have trouble w/ the daisy made out of the royal icing...just curious has anyone ever tried to do a "mock daisy" by using a drop flower tip?
Hi.
Just like everything else, it takes a lot of practice to get decorating techniques right. Keep practicing, you will get the shells to look the way you want.
As for the daisy......try turning the tip with the WIDE end out, narrow end to the centre of the nail. Squeeze, then pull. Your daisies will be much easier to make. I have some daisies in my pics, using this method. My instructor showed us this method, and it was soooooo much easier!
HTH 
Thanks for that idea w/ the tip for the daisies...I will have to try it - not that I love royal frosting...that stuff just irritates me 
Don't feel bad about the shell borders. It took me a year to finally figure out how to do the reverse shell. One day I was messing around and finally figured it out. Don't give up, you can do it, just keep practicing and remember, it is all about pressure.
Cindy
I can't get corners. At all. Anything that's supposed to have a sharp corner looks like crap when I try it. :-/
Rachel
Rose buds! I am great at roses, but my rosebuds...yuck.
Daisies are difficult. I practiced and practiced and practiced because I wanted to do that babyshower cake in the wilton 2 book. I finally was satisfied that I could do it. They turned out pretty good. Then I did decided that I liked doing them the "wrong" way better. I think they are prettier and easier. in my photos the babyshower cake is done the "right" way and the blue baptism cake is done the "wrong" way.
I'm still pretty new at this so there is a lot I haven't even tried yet. But for now, I just cannot get rosebuds. After reading some tips on CC, they are slightly better but I end up just making sweet peas instead. At least they are recongnizable as flowers.
That's so funny. I can do daisies and rosebuds great...but sweet peas...urrggg. Why can't I seem to do those stupid flowers? It's funny how people can be good at one thing and other things just evade them. LIKE SWEETPEAS!!!!! lol
Newlyweds do you have the template for daisies that goes on your flower nail? It comes in the coarse two book. It makes it so easy. Just laminate them attatch to the flower nail and cover with your waxed paper. I always start a little outside the circle because the RI doesn't attatch itself to my waxed paper right away. Does that make since?
My daisies on my basket cake are done the wrong way, but I found that out by mistake. It is much easier to do them that way! Just keep practicing, it will come. Wilton teaches techniques to do things. It is not mandatory to do them that way. I also turn my nail the opposit way when doing my roses...you have to find what works for you!
~Aimee
Corners!!!!!!!! ughhhhh!!!!! I hate them! I am always cringing, hoping someone doesn't ever ask me for a square cake! I love the round ones since I have taken to the upside down technique. My next venture is the faux fondant!!
I just cannot do the rosebud or the daisy....I need to practice but I just dont get the instructions for the rosebud in the book, and I dont really think the ones my instructor was doing looked like rosebuds either...
Also for me the reverse shell is much more forgiving than the shell border, I just cant get the shell border to all be the same size shells (if that makes sense) but the reverse shell hides a lot of imperfections (I always wonder if that is why i see it used on so many grocery store cakes) and since my family thinks its so cool...I will probably be doing many more reverse shells!
I can't do rosebuds or daisies. I'm actually taking Course II again (starts tonight) in hopes that I will learn more from a different instructor.
Oh I forgot. I can't do the chrysanthemum either and I love that flower.
ROSES !!!!! I can't even get past the first petal 
I have never taken a class, so I suppose that might help...I would like to know the wrong way to do daisies though! I'm good at borders because I had to do so many of them at my last 2 jobs- I'm also pretty good at getting clean edges on my corners.
Amber
I actually use the template for the daisy -and laminated it...so cool b/c I can wash and reuse- but anyways, even though I use the template, they end up looking...not like a flower. My instructor showed us how to make them, and the way she made them, they ended up looking pretty, they almost resembled a pinwheel.
Oh yeah, and did someone say rosebud...mine ends up looking like a tulip
I gave up on piping flowers a long time ago. Fondant and gumpaste are my friends!
My hand writing in atrocious! Thank the Lord for FBCT!
Newlyweds- I wouldn't worry to much about your rosebuds...your roses are absolutely beautiful!!!! Your pansies are really good too.
Amber- It really does help to watch someone else do roses and lots of practice. Your doodlebug cake it adoreable!
I don't know if I am bad at them or if they are just really ugly flowers, but I hate sweetpeas! Also I'm really bad at leaves. The leaves themselves look good, but I don't do a good job of placement...I go overboard everytime!
Diana
I do have to say that it is encouraging to me that all of you who make such gorgeous cakes are challenged by some techniques. It gives me hope that I might be able to make some cakes that are as beautiful as all of yours are! (can you tell I've been peeking at your galleries?)
Here's to practice and learning new techniques! Now, I just have to use that leftover BC for practice instead of swiping spoonfuls of it....
I have trouble with the rope border. I just have such a hard time figuring out how to start. Once I get going though, it's ok. I'll stick to shell borders for now.
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