A Creative Workshop for Cookie Loving Kids

Creativity often flourishes within constraints—a principle we celebrated in our Make Your Own Sugar Cookie Stickers workshop. Hosted the week before Christmas, this festive event encouraged students of all ages and skill levels to unleash their imaginations. The theme? Winter holidays and activities. Beyond that, the possibilities were endless, allowing students to turn Christmas elves, kind phrases, or candies into one-of-a-kind sticker designs.

Using sheets of vinyl sticker paper and learning the basics of sticker-making, students created everything from cheery cartoon Santas to playful snowflakes and adorable reindeer. To guide their work, I—a professional graphic designer and head workshop instructor at Rosell Studios LLC—introduced elements of my own creative process. I demonstrated how I use a drawing tablet and shared the digital art software that helps bring my sticker designs to life, giving students a behind-the-scenes look at how graphic designers merge traditional art with modern technology.

But the creativity didn’t stop there. After the initial sticker-making session, we dove into fun, holiday-inspired design challenges, including drawing a paper gingerbread house and crafting a personalized elf character. In my time as an instructor, I've learned from the students that school has a rigid framework for how designs are done, leaving little room for drawing or painting exactly what they want. That is what we offer in our workshops - creative freedom while also playing with design challenges to get students to exercise their creative muscles. 

Design constraints—whether a specific theme, format, or challenge—may initially seem like boundaries, but they are gateways to innovation. They encourage creators to make bold choices and explore ideas they may not have considered otherwise. Many students expressed how working within the holiday theme sparked unexpected inspiration and gave them a sense of achievement when their ideas came to life.

Workshops like this exemplify the joy and growth that creativity can bring. By exposing students to professional design tools and techniques, we’re proud to bridge the gap between traditional art/crafts and modern design, sparking a passion for self-expression that extends well beyond the classroom.

We can’t wait to see what festive creations our future workshops inspire! Want to join the fun? Follow us on social media for updates on upcoming events and other creative opportunities. Together, let’s explore how imagination thrives with just a dash of sweet, strategic constraint.