Some of you have been asking for more detailed pictures of the process, so here are a few. I promise to work on adding more. :)
For the step-by-step instructions for making these, go here. The cookies above have been outlined, sectioning off the areas that will be different colors. After this dries for several minutes, it's OK to begin flooding the cookie with thinned icing. Here, I started with the darker icing because I figure if I accidentally drop some of the lighter icing on top of it, it won't matter as much. I'll be covering the darker pink with sanding sugar.
When flooding with the thinned icing, I work about 3 cookies at a time. This one had been filled and the icing has begun to spread while I filled the other 2 (and grabbed the camera). From here, I used a toothpick to guide the icing to the edges and into the corners.
Here she is after using the toothpick. After this step, the cookies sit out overnight (uncovered) so that the icing will dry. Click here to see details about how I set up a sanding sugar station.
Since I had the stopwatch out timing my son on some math problems, I timed how long it takes to "sand" each of these cookies....43 seconds. I was surprised it was so fast! From there you can figure about how long it will take to add sanding sugar to 1 dozen: 9 minutes, For 5 dozen: 43 minutes (plus the time to get out supplies and set up).