Shortbread decorations?

hi everyone, the kids and i are making shortbread to bag up and give to preschool teachers for the end of year.i am not much of a cook so brought so festive cookie cutters from the supermarket in the shapes of gingerbread man, shooting star, tree, bell, angel and snowman. i just have no idea how to decorate them. i did think of edible glitter but i cant do them allll like that. i have seen bicuits with little decorations on them, would these be made out of fondant or icing or how do they do it! also would i need more special cutters to make those sorts of shapes! any ideas would be really great thanks

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As you're not too experienced, At the supermarket, you can get Icing pens. You squeeze them out like paints and draw on the cookies with them. It's a bit like using a felt crossed with a piping bag.

If you're feeling adventurous you could watch some you-tube clips on how to Pipe royal icing, and while it's wet you could sprinkle your eadible glitter. You can also use those little silver edible balls (called cashoos [but I don't think that's how you spell it.])

If you want to have a go at making flowers etc, you can make it like you would make anything with playdough, only instead of using playdough, use pettinice icing from the supermarket. (the white stuff you roll out usually. Fondant I think.) Again, you can watch some you tube stuff on how to make things out of fondant. However - you're likely to get amateur results without the right tools etc for that. You Can buy the decorations ready to go, from on here or in a cake shop. Just "glue" them on to your cookie with a dab of icing.

Alternatively, you could just prick them in a pretty diamond shape with your fork before baking and call it done. The silver balls can be pressed into the shortbread before baking so they stick without icing.

As you're not too experienced, At the supermarket, you can get Icing pens. You squeeze them out like paints and draw on the cookies with them. It's a bit like using a felt crossed with a piping bag.

If you're feeling adventurous you could watch some you-tube clips on how to Pipe royal icing, and while it's wet you could sprinkle your eadible glitter. You can also use those little silver edible balls (called cashoos [but I don't think that's how you spell it.]) http://www.youtube.com/watch!v=2DJibaS4uLE

If you want to have a go at making flowers etc, you can make it like you would make anything with playdough, only instead of using playdough, use pettinice icing from the supermarket. (the white stuff you roll out usually. Fondant I think.) Again, you can watch some you tube stuff on how to make things out of fondant. However - you're likely to get amateur results without the right tools etc for that. You Can buy the decorations ready to go, from on here or in a cake shop. Just "glue" them on to your cookie with a dab of icing.

Alternatively, you could just prick them in a pretty diamond shape with your fork before baking and call it done. The silver balls can be pressed into the shortbread before baking so they stick without icing.

There are some pretty red and green sprinkles in festive shapes (I've got xmas trees) that you can buy in supermarkets. Also you can press in red and green lolly pieces before baking.
Another nice way is to simply dust with sieved icing sugar.

Also maybe you could mark a pattern on the shortbread before baking it as mentioned above and then dip the backs of them in melted chocolate.Also can just dip half the cookie in chocolate( sort of like you would dunk a biscuit, if that makes sense) then dip it into or sprinkle over the red or green sprinkle shapes or 100's and 1000's.You can do holly leaves out of green fondant using a teaspoon to cut shape or a knife -doesn't have to be a sharp knife.Then make little red balls for the holly berries and use melted chocolate to glue them on.Also as already mentioned you can buy the ready mixed icing in tubes from some supermarkets to useto stick them on if working with the chocolate sounds a bit hard - althouch you can melt the choclate in zip-lock bags in microwave and then snip a tiny tip off one corner and use like an icing bag, squeeze choc out through that.There are lots of ways to make decoration cutters using everyday items.

Also you can make great Rudolph heads using your gingerbreadman cutter and turning it upside down, so the legs become where the antlers go.

if you're planning to bag them up it might be a good idea and do what another poster suggested, and use royal icing. it sets hard and won't squish against the rest of the shortbread, nor will it make the shortbread go soft. Cashous are an easy way to bling them up, you can also buy little pre-piped royal icing decorations in some supermarkets at this time of year, just stick them on with royal icing. personally i think fondant or the tube type glitter icing would just make a mess and ruin your hard work. Dipping them in chocolate is a great idea cookiebarrel :)
Royal is easy to make, get an egg white and beat in enough sifted icing sugar to make a meringue-type consistency. You can colour it if you want too.