Spring-y Decorated Sugar Cookies

I LOVE making my "special cookies" which is really just cut-out sugar cookies that are decorated (that's the special part!)
With LJ's preschool carnival coming up, I knew I wanted to contribute something for the cake walk!  Since I needed to drop it off a few days beforehand, I went with these cookies.
Check out the best recipes and tips all in one place- the blog Glorious Treats.  If you don't follow her blog you are missing out on some great ideas for parties, cakes, and of course, cookies!
I used to use a different recipe but now I use hers and it turns out great every time.

Step One: Don cure apron and no make-up.  (Okay, the no make-up part is just on there as a disclaimer!)

Step Two: Make dough, chill, roll out, then choose a couple of flower cookie cutters and go to town.  I know, I know, that is a million steps.  HINT: Roll out your dough on top of a flour-cloth towel that you have rubbed flour into.  It will NEVER stick, and it won't add a bunch of flour to your yummy dough!

Step Three:  Bake em'.  HINT:  Cool your sheets in between batches by throwing them in the freezer for a minute!  This will keep it from melting your dough too soon.

Step Four:  Make some Royal Icing and separate it into batches for different colors.  I used the green, yellow, and pink as-is, then mixed pink and blue for purple too.  These are the Wilton gels and they worked great.  HINT: I take a ziploc, put the interior plastic part for the frosting coupler in the corner, but DO NOT snip corner off yet.  Then you can fill with the frosting and seal so it doesn't dry out while you are doing the other colors!  You will need to snip the corner before you frost, obviously!  Use the freezer bag ones or your bag might split.

For my daisies, I did the petals first,then made a spiral of contrasting icing in the center.  Then I added a dot of green.

For my tulips, I decided to get a little crazy and make a floral scene.  I did the grass outline first, then flooded, then did the flowers, then the stem/leaves, and finally, the dots in the center in contrasting icing.

And to make everything look better, fancy packaging!  I got three of these cupcake boxes for $3.50 at TJ Maxx.  They are the "Meri" brand if you want to try to find some.  They are perfect for cupcakes, but worked fine for the cookies too!

I hope this inspired you to get baking!  I hadn't done this in a while and it was fun, I have missed it!  My house was a mess after because I let my 2 year old run wild.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten the cookies done!

I am working on the i-spy tutorial!  I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and spent waaaaaay too much money buying miniature things to put in them. So excited to get the first one done!