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7 + Sugar Cookie Decorating Ideas to Spark Your Creativity

Sugar cookie decorating ideas do not necessarily come at will. That’s why we cookie artists need inspiration, sometimes a lot of it!

This page gives you 7+ sugar cookie decorating ideas that you can build on…

If it's not a link, the page will be coming. Thank you for your patience!

1. cookie cutter flips

2. cookie decorating videos

3. cute sugar cookies decorated

4. simple decorated sugar cookies

5. sugar cookie designs

6. unique sugar cookies

7. using royal icing transfer sheets

After your delightful works of art are made, you’ll need to know how to price for decorated sugar cookies

If you have not grabbed my free 2-page download on Royal Icing Tips (hacks), you'll want to do that while on that page. It's invaluable!

Let’s discuss the 7+ sugar cookie decorating ideas

1. Cookie Cutter Flips. Fun. Creative. Satisfying. Need I say more? We all love browsing the endless ways we can reuse cookie cutters for more than their intended shape.

Sugar cookie decorating ideas shows a mug flipped to a wedding camera.Coffee mug or briefcase flipped to be a wedding camera
Sugar cookie decorating ideas: the popcorn cutter easily becomes a wedding veil.Popcorn cutter turned into a wedding veil

By joining the WeCookier’s Express monthly periodical, you will get first-see inspiration of the many ways I flip those cutters (and oh so much more). Perhaps I’m on a mission to be the Queen Cookie Cutter Flip, lol. I do find it addicting.

Flipping cutters gives great ideas. Couple that with morphing and you’re really on a role!

2. Cookie decorating videos. Enjoyable. Relaxing. Zzzzz. As a cookier, we can’t get enough of these videos. Right?

Cookie video tutorials give us the motivation to keep getting better as we gather ideas.

As you peruse these videos I made for you, I hope they aspire you to new sugar cookie decorating ideas as well as how to make professional cookies. Link to WeCookier's YouTube Channel, remember to like and subscribe. It continues helping me to help you...for free. Thanks so much!

3. Who doesn’t love cute sugar cookies decorated? Sweet. Charming. Precious.

I find baby shower cookies to be some of my favorites to decorate. Especially when my customer says ‘this is the theme, run with it'. Aren’t those the greatest customers?

Image of baby shower cookies with the Cuties theme for sugar cookie decorating ideas.Cuties baby shower theme

This page is sure to inspire the genius in you.

The great thing about these cookies is you don’t have to have certain shapes. The right sugar cookie icing recipe, (or a great glaze recipe) of course comes first. Basic shapes are usually the best so you’re not constricted.

With this list of Sugar Cookie Decorating Techniques, the ideas are never-ending.

4. I've fallen in love with cookie platters. My customers love them = win-win! They are growing ever popular. I have bought a lot of them from Semi-Sweet Designs, like this tray:

The image shows a bunny and chick cookie platter from Semi-Sweet Designs. They make for great cookie-decorating ideas.baby bunny and chick Easter or baby shower theme

5. Simple Decorated Sugar Cookies. Simple does not have to mean humdrum. Often, the less complex the cookies, the sweeter or more beautiful they are, like this baby unicorn cookie. The baby unicorn is a royal icing transfer that you can get in Shop Gotta-havs! with more options.

Read about the Royal Icing Transfer Sheets with a great hack for removing them with less breakage: Royal Icing Transfer Sheets

Image of a unicorn royal icing transfer placed on plain white sugar cookie icing with a border.A unicorn icing transfer from the WeCookier's collection
Sugar cookie decorating ideas for making an easy and simple but professional sugar cookie.Sugar cookie with food markers

I’m so used to decorating sugar cookies, that when I get so involved it’s hard to stop. I often forget simple is sweet.

6. Sugar Cookie Designs.  Even trying to think of the simplest designs can cause our minds to freeze. Are Google images and Pinterest your best friends too?

*Click here to go to Royal Icing Flooding. This page gives you many tips and hacks to make sure your cookies turn out perfect with no color bleed.

Sometimes just having a design pattern on a cookie is all it needs.

Food color markers will come in perfect for patterns of design. That link will take you to a page where I compare 7 brands of edible markers to see which ones work best.

Image of number 3's decorated with food color markers to make a bandana design on the cookies.Design drawn on with food markers

At a loss for designs? Have you checked out sites like Shutterstock?

Please be careful not to copy the images. I’m suggesting sites like this to only gain inspiration from. There is, of course, the option to purchase with a license.

7. Unique Sugar Cookies. Interesting. Compelling.

I love unique sugar cookie decorating ideas. I could spend hours looking through unique cookies. Some cookie artists’ talent is beyond words.

These 2 crosses are made with plastic suncatchers bought at Walmart. I impressed the image into the cutout shapes before being baked. I then decorated with colors the customer chose for a baptism.

Cross on plaque cookie. Cross is from a Walmart suncatcher pressed into cookie for its shape.
Image of a suncatcher from Walmart. Used to impress shape in dough before baking.
Cross made from a plastic suncatcher template at Walmart.

This is a photo of a display at Walmart I took. It shows all their suncatchers. They are .88 each at the time of writing this page.

Image of a plastic suncatcher display at Walmart to make cookie designs in sugar cookies.

More sugar cookie decorating ideas 

Trying to think of unique cookies to decorate?

Always remember, an edible cookie image can get you out of a mind freeze too.

One tip is to be ever-mindful of things in life around you. For instance, as I changed my physical calendar on the first of the month, I saw a gorgeous photo of a flower I want to emulate. Fingers crossed.

If something positive or funny hits the news, immediately try to capture the theme with a cookie to post on your social media.

If you are at a store in the sewing or clothing department, look at the print. Love it? Can you put something like it on a sugar cookie?

How about a very popular article of clothing, like boots or a blouse? If you love it, snap a picture of it and put it in your swipe file.

By the way, if you don’t know what a swipe file is, it’s a fast go-to running list of ideas. Everyone needs a swipe file! I keep a file on my desktop labeled 'Swipe File'.

You can take any ordinary cookies and put them on a stick too.

Have you thought about these sugar cookie decorating ideas?

The image shows a photograph of a fireplace that will be turned into an SVG for sugar cookie decorating ideas.
Image showing an SVG made from a website, used for sugar cookie decorating ideas

1. Skip right over to Picsvg. This amazing and super easy online tool is free! You can't go wrong with anything. It's all done for you. I love this tool.

Once you upload a photo or image, it populates the SVG for you. You can tweak it a little here and there if you want. Then just download and you're ready.

What do you do with the resulting SVG? 

If you have a cutting machine like a Cricut, you can easily make a stencil.

You can also use it with a projector to trace it on a sugar cookie.

It can really 'wow' a customer by getting something so personalized, like an engaged couple on wedding cookies or a birthday or anniversary of someone. Pretty slick huh?

2. Yes, the set of cookie cutters can be quite expensive for just 2 or 3. But if you just have a candy corn/pie shape cutter or even a stick cutter, you can easily make a scene with one cutter!

Mini cookie sticks make a cookie platterMini cookie sticks with mints inside

The nice thing about cookie cutter platters though, is you only need to purchase 1 or 2 cutters, just one if you have a circle or another shape for the center cookie. This is the one I did for the 4th of July: (the image is a link to that page)

4th of July platter cookies in the shape of a round antiqued flag

As this site will be a never-ending site, meaning I'll always be adding new pages, I try to add to different lists, ideas, tips, etc. on already published pages as I think of them. So keep checking back!

Top of Sugar Cookie Decorating Ideas

Here are some more ideas. This top image also has Valentine's Day cookie cutter flips!