Sugar Cookies + Royal Icing = Awesome!

I have long admired the many food bloggers who make amazing decorated sugar cookies. The kind that look like they came from one of those Cookies By Design places... only better. So when I offered to help plan a baby shower for one of my close friends I thought to myself, "what better take home than a decorated cookie?!" I figured, if all of these other women can do it, surely I can too. So I began my mission... to figure out how to make fabulous decorated sugar cookies that I wouldn't be embarrassed to give people at the shower. I searched blogs for cookie recipes and helpful tips. I learned a whole lot about royal icing... and the joys of lining and flooding (who knew?!). In particular, these blogs were helpful and inspiring:

Amanda at I am Baker (absolutely stunning decorating, great recipe for chewy cookies)
Bridget at Bake at 350 (adorable blog, great decorating ideas and tips!)
Susan at She's Becoming Doughmesstic (an all-around great blog with lots of inspiration)

So after much reading and several trips to JoAnn's for supplies, it was time to get to work! I decided to make some Christmas cookies to start. I needed practice! I stuck to the typical Christmas colors: red, green, and white. I practiced my lining (which was WAY harder than I thought it would be!). I practiced flooding (with a spoon no less...hadn't found a squeeze bottle yet). I practiced writing (which I ended up being much better at than I thought!). Overall it was lots of fun! The cookies turned out delicious (I'll post the recipe at some point) and it gave me some confidence about taking on the shower cookies!

I think Frosty was my favorite of the day. But wait til you see the shower cookies!