has anyone done mini flowers (like roses) in royal icing?
are they hard?

Yes you can do them, but i find its easier to just buy a mold and use some fondant for them. I end up with much more mini detailed flowers then i could get piping them that small

They would be for me cause I can't pipe a rose to save my life!!!

I have done mini roses for Rose heart cake and tiny flowers for lilac in my photos. I did them with BC, and it was very easy (RI would probably be the same). Unless you want them even smaller, then I don't know. Good luck anyway!

The mold i use is a sugar bouquet mold, and no longer available, but i do see that sunflower makes a mold very similar. You can find it at globalsugarart.com

I used this mold to make the flowers that are on this bouquet they are done with premade fondant. Very easy to do

thanks for your suggestions!
i have some time to play around, so maybe i will try them first in
RI, and if i can't get that to work, i will definitely get the mold. what a great website, by the way. thanks again!

just thought of another question...
if i use fondant, can i just use white fondant, and paint
it after it dries? can you also paint royal icing?
and what could i use to paint it?
thanks for your help!

I just wanted to say that your flowers on the cookies are sooo cute! They look so pretty!

I make mini rose weekly.  I use WILTON tip #101s and will pipe them on a toothpick.  Once dry, just a matter or minutes, slide them off the toothpick to use or store them.  I prefer royal icing as these little beauties can then be stored and be available anytime.  I will pipe in white and then spray them the color as needed.   They can be piped using other mediums.

P.S.  The Wilton tip #101s is the smallest petal tip available.  If using another brand, it will be larger in size.  

As someone who was intimidated by the idea of piping anything, and believe me I still need lots of practice. I loved working with RI, the flowers dry hard, you  can make them ahead of time. Below were my first .......don't even get me started on those leaves....ugh. Play around with it, the key is practice and steady hands. I colored my batches with gel pastes. I like the idea of spraying them with color.....will have to try that. Sorry about the humogo pic.

Also I watched videos on you tube and they were very helpful.  Search  Chef Alan Tetreault, he's  very straight forward. IMO