You remember how I’m never on time, right? I’ve got a bunch of cookies I want to share from this past Valentine’s Day, so I’ll have to put them into my “Never-On-Time Series” as well. Hey, at least I’m getting to them before St. Patrick’s Day, right?

Now, I didn’t have a reason to make Valentine cookies other than I just really, really, really wanted to. I bought little mailboxes, and I wanted to fill them with cookies for some of my favorite “adopted” nieces & nephews (the kiddos of my best friends). I also had a sketchpad & list going of decorating I wanted to try, so I set aside one night just for “playing cookie,” and I was pretty excited! ♥

First up, I had found some cute stamps at our local party supply store, and I wanted to try my hand at inking cookies. Once the cookies were base-iced & completely dry, I painted a bit of Dusty Rose Americolor gel paste full-strength onto the rubber stamp, and then gently applied the stamp to the cookie.

It worked better on some cookies than others, but I think that has more to do with my needing practice for this particular technique than the different stamps.

For the stamped cookies, I gave them a quick border of simple dots for a finished look. Sweet!

Some other cookies I’d been wanting to make centered around new cutters I had acquired, rather than a new decorating technique. For example, I had purchased a winged heart cutter & a double heart cutter, and I was itching to use them!

I kept the winged hearts very simple: a smooth, solid red or pink heart, with sugary white wings. Classic! I also turned some plain squares into simple Valentine envelopes with a bit of red piping icing and a large heart sprinkle, too.

I made several of the double heart cookies, and I decorated each one just a bit differently. I also turned some scalloped squares into VERY easy hearts-with-arrows. Seriously, these could not have been easier to decorate!

Another decorating technique I had been wanting to try was lacing (or “lace icing,” if you prefer). I’ve made lots of beautiful real lace with thread, but trying with icing was quite different! Luckily, my sweet friend Callye put up a lacing tutorial earlier this year that made it look just easy enough to try! I gave it a whirl, and these were my finished cookies:

This style is my favorite. I love the little hearts in the lace. ♥

I also made some sweet “love” cookies with a bit of cursive. I loved making these cookies last year, so I wanted to repeat them this year as part of the assortment as well.

I tried my hand at brush embroidery again, with only *slightly* better results than my awful, failed attempt this past fall. There are some really great cookiers out there that do a magnificent job with brush embroidery, if you want to see better more, too. I tried to make kiss-face lips with my little cookies:

These would work well for St. Paddy’s Day cookies, too! Pair them up with some shamrocks & call it “Kiss Me, I’m Lucky!” or something. *mwah* ♥

Lastly, I wanted to draw some sweet cartoons on larger cookies, too. I iced these cookies with a white base first, and then I let them dry completely before drawing Valentine-y stick figure cartoons. I love these!

I “played cookie” for hours that night, and when it was all said & done, I had NINETY cookies to show for it! I was just having too much fun to stop!

And, believe it or not, that’s still not ALL of the Valentine cookies I made this year! Be sure to check back for the next set that I didn’t blog in time. I promise they’re worth the wait!