INFOGRAPHIC SERIES - Gingerbread Cookie

'Tis the season for yummy things. So why not make a gingerbread cookie with a wonderful texture and a warm fringe around the edge and put some icing on it for fun.

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Start the body with a rectangle. Add a fill, no stroke. 

Select the bottom two corners with the Direct Selection Tool and pull the Corner Widgets in to the center. 

Duplicate the shape and rotate on leg 10° using the Transform panel and the other -10°. Overlap them slightly.

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Duplicate the leg and use them as the arms. Overlap them on the legs. 

Draw a circle for the head. Select all the shapes and use the Unite Mode in the Pathfinder Panel to combine the shapes. 

With the Direct Selection Tool, select the arm and leg corners to activate the Corner Widgets. The red line is the area to drag over to highlight the corners, then drag the corners out slightly to round the angles. 

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Select the body shape and use the Object>Path>Offset path to create a path inside the main shape.

Add a stroke to the offset path, remove the fill color. 

Add texture to the body. To create texture, here is the tutorial on how to create a vector image trace of a texture. 

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Copy the texture, select the main shape and click on the Draw Inside Mode at the bottom of the Tool Bar. 

Paste the texture into the shape, fill it a slightly darker color.

Add a curved line to the arms and legs. 

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Apply a Zig Zag effect to the lines from the Effect>Distort & Transform> Zig Zag. 

Apply the effect to all the curved lines. 

Add circles with fills for the buttons. 

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Add eyes and an arc for the mouth. 

To create a darker edge on the cookie, select the main image and apply an Inner Glow under Effects> Stylize> Inner Glow. Set the Mode to multiply, ass a slightly darker color and set the opacity at 50% and click the Edge radio button. 

Here is your freshly created gingerbread cookie.