Followers may notice my recent obsession with these portrait cookies. I started with this gift for my niece. The next year I made these favors for her art-themed birthday party. And now, portrait cookies for my mom for Mother’s Day.

This is my mom.

This is my brother and his family.

This is my sister and her family.

And this is me and my family.

Seriously, the likenesses are, ahem, uncanny. No really. It’s as if I studied the fine art of portraiture.

Gift-buying in my family is never easy. We all have way too much clutter and need very few things. That’s why I always turn to cookies. They can be personalized and they never leave clutter. Only crumbs (hahahaha…. groan).

Here are some favorites of Mother’s Day past:

all about mom Mother’s Day cookies

preppy cookies

over-the-rim cookies for mom’s tea

And of course, there are plenty of flower-themed ideas. Felt flower cupcake toppers, gerbera daisy cookie pops, carnation cookie pops, bite-size daisy cookies, how to make a flower cookie arrangement, springtime marshmallows.

 to make Mother’s Day family portrait cookies… I cut out rectangle cookies with my cookie dough. Bake and let cool completely. Then I prepared my royal icing and tinted it white and gold with Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Bright White and Egg Yellow). I prepared a disposable decorating bag with coupler and tip, size “4″. I filled the bag with the gold icing and closed with a rubber band. I piped rectangles on the cookies, leaving a border. Then, I switched the tip to size “3″ and piped the frame part. After the gold set a bit, I thinned the white icing to flooding consistency, filled an empty decorating bag, snipped the tip and piped to fill the frames. Let the cookies dry super duper well, overnight.  And then I drew with the portraits with edible writers.  For basic cookie decorating how-tos click HERE. For tips on buying and using edible writers, click HERE.

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I think I may have found a new replacement for cookies as my go-to, unique and personalized gift for everyone for every occasion. Here’s a clue… see the “Good Stuff” in my sidebar? That would be Paper Coterie.

I checked out their site, chock full of modern/vintage-y/chic (I couldn’t decide the best adjective, since all apply) styles and choices for photo books, calendars, cards, gifts, memory keepers, planners, and journals. Loved ‘em. So I became an affiliate. Which means it behooves me if you choose to make your own personalized book or card, that you click on the site via yours truly. Here’s that link again: Paper Coterie. For all the current deals you get the scoop on just because you know me (another benefit of being in my good graces), scroll to the end!

I had to try them out for myself before I went around saying how much I love Paper Coterie. And phew. I love Paper Coterie. I knocked something off  my to-do list: I made a cookbook of all those recipes my mom made growing up that she kept handwritten in a blue notebook. And of course I ordered extra for my mom and my siblings.

My order arrived in the cutest packaging with the cutest personalized note. All along the way, I felt like my mom’s recipes were guarded with care by a real live person.  And the end result is a high-quality, durable and adorable cookbook.

I chose the “Food for Thought” style cookbook. You can customize each and every page (and add more pages) with your choice of colors, fonts, photos, text, pretty much anything. The book was super-easy to make with the self-explanatory tools… though I spent forever arranging just so because I’m nuts like that.  But now I have all my mom’s recipes in a handy dandy little booklet.Yep, my mom’s homemade bread, asparagus rolls, chicken divan, Bernaise sauce, cheesecake, key lime pie… I’m getting terribly hungry. (By the way, I’m the Little Red Riding Hood below.)

And now some deals just for you… great for Dad, grads, birthdays, yourself…

All About My DAD books  60 percent off

Enter MYDAD at the checkout.

Journals $6 all week!

Enter code BIRTHDAYJOURNAL at checkout.

Cards and books for grads 60 percent off

Enter CONGRATSGRAD at checkout.

Memory Keepers for only $20.

Enter HAPPY1STBIRTHDAY at checkout.

(And receive a free calendar with purchase while supplies last.)

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

Just to give you one more option for the bite-size, mason jar, I heart you mom cookies… You can also fill your jars with mini daisies. So super easy to make, too. I make dot daisies a lot, since they are handy to have around for parties, too.

Find the original how-tos to make dot daisy cookies HERE.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

Do you find it harder and harder to buy gifts for those in your life year after year? As we get older, we need less and less after years of accruing junk. And I’m in such a “no more clutter” phase (not successfully, mind you) that I almost cringe now when getting gifts.  (Sort of, please don’t stop buying me gifts, people in my life.)

That’s why cookies are the most perfect gift ever. They dry well enough to package all cute like. You can personalize them to reflect to the recipient that yes, you do indeed know them and thought about them. And you consume cookies, so no residual clutter.

This jar o’ bite size all-about-mom cookies is a handy little gift not just for mother’s day, but for anyone anytime. To make these, I prepared and chilled my cookie dough, cut out 1 1/2-inch circles, baked and let cool. I prepared my royal icing and tinted white. I piped an outline on the cookies, thinned the icing and flooded the centers. Then, I let the cookies dry very well, overnight at least, before drawing pictures with my handy dandy food pens.

And see? It even allowed me to point the blame for the fingers-in-the-icing to the appropriate source, my daughter. You can’t see too well in the picture, but the indents are what happen when you mess with flooded icing before it’s dry.

So what’s the special mother in your life into?

As my mom is my most loyal follower, too, she’ll be getting these early this year.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

click HERE to visit the whole idea book

And just in case you get The Costco Connection, be sure to check out p. 59! They feature my Mother’s Day over-the-rim cookies for tea.

You can find the original blog post with how-tos HERE.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!