How to use Sanding Sugar to Decorate Cookies

Decorating with Sanding Sugar is as easy as using Elmer's glue and glitter - Use wet royal icing, cover with sugar, shake off excess - that's it. If you want just a small area covered in sanding sugar you will have to do this in sections.

I really only use white Sanding sugar. I love the way it softens the colors of the royal icing. With the small Easter Eggs above I simply covered the eggs with thin consistency royal icing then sprinkled white sanding sugar on top of the egss. The sugar sort of takes on the color of the icing.

Sanding sugar looks best with simple designs. It adds texture, and allows for light to bounce off the cookie in hundreds of directions. I had to make A LOT of simple Valentines Day Cookies and Sanding Sugar made these pretty.
To add sanding sugar just to the edges add icing to a cookies as usual, allow it to dry completely. Add a thin royal icing border and immediately add the sanding sugar. Shake off the excess. Just like adding glitter to a simple craft.
Do not use sanding sugar on detail work such as lettering or scrolls. I used yellow sanding sugar on the duck on the right. It does not work there. I used white sanding sugar to outline the bubble letters "BABY" - it works there because it follows simple lines.
Here is another example of sanding sugar giving something extra to a simple design. These flower centers and the edges of the petals were added on the second day of decorating.

Sanding sugar gives these chicks and birds a fuzzy look.

I used white sanding sugar on these elephants. I added the sugar to the first elephant immediately, for the second and third elephants I waited a moment to add the sugar and the sanding sugar was not able to absorb the grey color of the icing.

Again sanding sugar for simple designs.

We used sanding sugar here to help hide the fact that our icing was way to thin. So use sanding sugar to hide mistakes.

When you are asked to donate over 12 dozen cookies, and you are really tired use a simple sanding sugar design. I love the way it looks on stars. These look very impressive, especially when light bounces off the cookies.

This crystal sugar made these chocolate cookies so pretty and delicious.

Other notes:

1) RED SANDING SUGAR tastes so so so so gross. I would only lightly sprinkle that on a cupcake. Use with caution.

2) I only like sanding sugar on thicker cookies. It makes a thin cookie too crunchy.

3) Keep out of the reach of children.

Any other thoughts???