I love making monogram cookies! They are perfect for many cookie events like weddings, bridal and baby showers, and birthday celebrations. Monogram cookies can easily tie into any decor theme, but floral monograms always have my heart! Take a look at some of my simple tips to make floral monogram cookies the star of your cookie show!

Plaques are the typical go-to cutters for making monogram cookies. Many other cutters have the potential to make beautiful monograms. For this cookie, I used the largest of the Sweet Sugarbelle nested flowers. 

A. Metallics: Just a pop of metallic color can take monogram cookies to another level. I use Crystal Colors metallic dusts, liquified with Everclear. The alcohol evaporates quickly, leaving behind a pretty shine (that is FDA approved!).
B. Greenery: Use 2-3 shades of green icing for the greenery. Also, don't just create ordinary leaves. Add some variety with leafy stems and spikes. 

Pretty piped flowers aren't just for cakes! Pull out those specialized icing tips to pipe a single, large blossom. I piped this flower with an old Wilton 126 tip. Just keep in mind that the monogram is the main focus of this cookie. The single flower is a strong supporting actor. You really don't need other flowers in this design.

A. Dusts for Depth: I dry-brushed a little bit of Wilton petal dust (available at Michaels and other local stores) to the flower to give it some depth. What a difference a little bit of color can make!
B. DOTS: Add a  few dots in white icing (or whatever your icing base color is) to pull together your design.

I can't help it. This cookie just makes me swoon!

Ice cream cone cookies are a staple for sweet summer-time events, and you don't need a heat wave to make drippy ice cream cone cookies. Best of all, you can make an ice cream-inspired cookie using whatever shape you like! These cookies were for a sweet first birthday party, hence the "1" shape. No matter what shape you use, you can make some great drippy cones with this technique!

What you'll need:
* baked cookie shapes, in whatever shape you want! 
* royal icing in the following colors/consistencies:
    ivory- 20 second + piping
    ice cream, whatever "flavor" you desire- 18-20 second + piping
* sprinkles (optional)
* airbrush + airbrush color (optional)

1. Bake the shape that you're turning into an ice cream. This "1" cutter was from Sinful Cutters. Find it here! Use the ivory icing to make the "cone" part of the cookie. You can airbrush it a little, if you want! Let this section fully dry. 

2. Think about where you want the ice cream to drip and not drip on your cookie. Use the piping consistency of the ice cream color to pipe a line where you DON'T want the ice cream to drip. This icing line is creating a dam to prevent or slow down the movement of the thinner icing. 

3. Flood the ice cream part with the thinner icing. Add a little extra icing to the places where you want the ice cream to be drippy.

4. Immediately after flooding the ice cream part, hold the cookie UPRIGHT. Gravity will do the drippy work for you! Gravity will pull on the thinner icing, and allow it to create natural drips. The piped lines will slow down the drippiness in those ares. Feel free to hold the cookie at different angles if you want the icing to drip in a certain direction.

5. Top off your ice cream with sprinkles, if you like!

I especially love that ever-so-subtle dribble off the edge of the cookie!

Looking for another way to decorate ice cream cookies? Check these out!

These tri-color flower cookies are the perfect way to use up leftover dough and icing! They're created by layering different icing colors in a single decorating bag (versus striping the inside of the bag with colors). Best of all, you can make them with whatever icing colors you have on hand! In this case, I had leftover red and navy blue icing- perfect for a patriotic platter of cookies! Deeply tinted icing is tough to re-purpose into another color because it's already saturated with food dye. So why not use it up to make some small treats to share with friends and family?

* Take note: prepping the icing bags takes some time, so don't let the next series of pictures alarm you. Once the final icing bag is ready to go, the flower cookies are really quick to decorate! 

What You'll Need
* baked cookie flower shapes (I used a 2 1/8" flower cutter from a concentric flower cutter set, similar to this one)
* stiff royal icing in 2-3 colors
* disposable icing bags; thin ones and at least one thicker bag 
* plastic wrap
* Wilton petal icing tip #104, and coupler/ring set (I love Ateco couplers and rings)

1. Bake your cookie shapes using your favorite roll-out cookie dough.

2. Prep your icing. You'll need 2-3 colors of icing in stiff consistency. Put each color in its own disposable icing bag. Generously cut the ends off of each bag.

3. Spread out a piece of plastic wrap, about 12" long. Squeeze the icing into a thick consistent layer, one color on top of another. I wanted the traditional red-white-blue color combo, so I layered the icing accordingly. Each icing "squirt" is about 1.25" wide x .75" tall x 4" long. It's a lot of icing. 

4. Gently fold the plastic wrap over the "pod" of icing, and continue to roll the pod to use up the remaining of the plastic wrap. Twist the plastic wrap at each end of the icing pod. 

5. Feed one end of the icing pod into an icing coupler. Turn down the opposite end. Drop the whole pod into a thicker icing bag, keeping the one end tucked next to the pod. This will prevent icing from squirting out the back of the bag when you use it!

6. Cut the exposed end of the icing pod. Squeeze out icing until you see the all of the icing colors. 

7. Time to add the icing petal tip! Petal tips have a thick and thin end. The thick end will create the middle/bottom sections of the flower petal. The thin end will create the outer edge of the flower petal. Place the icing tip according to how you want your flowers to look. Be careful as you screw down the outer ring of the coupler, because it's easy to turn the icing tip by accident. Make sure you squeeze out a little icing to make sure it looks right before you go to your cookie.

Whew! Still with me? I told you that the icing prep was lengthy! Time to actually decorate the cookies! This is easy! Hold the icing bag so that the THICK end of the icing tip is closest to the middle of the cookie. Gently squeeze the icing bag as you move the bag towards the outer edge of the cookie and then pull it back down towards where you started. Release the pressure on the bag. You made the first flower petal! Turn the cookie a bit to pipe the next petal, then repeat to create the rest of the flower. I topped off the completed flower with a few white nonpareils and sugar pearls. Perfect! 

To change the look of the flower, remove the icing tip, clean and dry it well, and replace it in a different orientation. If you're going to platter the cookies, make some flowers in solid colors so that the tri-color blooms POP!

Looking to change up the blossoms even more? Just pipe another layer of petals. BOOM!

Have a wonderful July 4th holiday!

Yard Maintenance: One of those grown-up tasks that both my husband and I dislike. Between pulling weeds and trimming with the weed-whacker, we would much rather spend our weekend afternoons doing something other than yard-work. It was a glorious day when our eldest child was old enough to work the lawnmower, and we happily pay him a small fee to take care of the grass cutting chore. Unfortunately, pulling weeds is akin to pulling teeth- you literally can't pay my kids to do it. I'm not looking forward to the day where the voluntold help no longer lives under my roof.

Mind you, we have great appreciation for those who live for that well-manicured lawn. My dad and my father-in-law are both lawn guys, so it's higher on their priority list than an afternoon pilgrimage to IKEA. It was only fitting to make them lawn mower cookies for Father's Day because they truly are "A Cut Above The Rest". 

For these cookies, I re-purposed the top hat/toast cutter from the Sweet Sugarbelle Shape Shifter 2 set. You don't have to use this exact cutter- a basic rectangle would work too. I just like to make creative use of the cutters I own. Here's a sketch so you can see where we're going!

Here's what you'll need:
* Baked cookie shapes
* Royal Icing in the following colors and consistencies
    White: flood or 20-second (optional)
     Red: 25 second
     Gray: 25 second
     Black: 25 second
     Green: piping
* Optional: airbrush with blue and green airbrush colors

1. Cut and bake the cookie shapes using your favorite roll-out recipe.

OPTIONAL STEPS:
Flood the cookie with white royal icing. Allow it to fully dry. Airbrush the sky and grass background. I used Creative Cookier's airbrush colors and pearl sheen found here. But it's totally ok to skip these steps if you're short on time, or you want to go to IKEA for the afternoon...

2. Use the red royal icing to pipe these lawn mower sections. Allow these sections to crust over.

3. Use gray icing to pipe the middle section and pull cord. Use black icing to pipe the wheels and mower handle. I used a size 3 decorating tip to pipe the handle, as I wanted a rounded look. Allow these sections to crust over.

4. Use smaller tips, like PME 1.5 or Wilton 1, to pipe details. Don't get hung up on where the lines should go. Pipe details where you want them. Remember, you're just striving for the impression of a lawn mower. Allow these details to dry for a few minutes.

5. Use the green icing to pipe some grass, if you want! Pipe a little, pipe a lot. It's up to you!

Another Option: Add a cute face to your mower! Because who doesn't smile when doing yard-work? (imagine me sheepishly raising my hand)...

Cute cookies deserve cute packaging! I added some icing sprinkles (just dried icing pieces) inside the bags. You could also just buy some green sprinkles to add to the bottom of the bags.

Happy Father's Day!
Now go out and do some yard-work. You know you want to.
I'll be on my way to IKEA.