Spring cookies!

Here in the depths of winter, it's nice to think about spring arriving one day. I made these for our teachers in May last year, and I'm about ready for some signs of spring for this year!

I used royal icing on sugar cookies for all of these. For the butterflies and top flowers I used a toothpick dragged through the wet icing to get the patterns. For the 'thanks' cook I freehand wrote the letters--they were a little squished, but overall I thought they turned out ok. For the bunnies I mixed a little clear alcohol (vodka I think it was) with a very little red pearl dust, and then painted in the ear color. Once the alcohol evaporated, the ears were left as a delicate pink.