I think that you could use the regular sugar instead of the sanding sugar, I've tried it before. As for coloring the sugar, put the amount of sugar yu want in a plastic bag, then with a toothpick add a bit of your choice of icing color gel paste, then just rub the sugar and the color together to mix them. You will have colored sugar. It won't be the same as the colored sanding sugar, because the sanding one is fully colored, whereas the regular one that you colored, will only have a color coating.
Hope this helps.
One other thought on this.......regular sugar has smaller crystals than sanding sugar so it won't have quite the sparkle, but to get the most "visual" out of the regular sugar make sure to let your iced cookie sit for a couple minutes before applying the sugar so it doesn't just sink down into your fill icing. After sitting a while the cookie will still be tacky to the touch and the sugar will sit more on top of the icing for maximum sparkle.
I've also found there's a huge difference in looks when you sprinkle sugar over the cookie and tap off the excess right away vs. sprinkling sugar over the cookie then setting it down for 20 minutes or so and then tapping off the excess. You'll end up with more sugar covering the cookie which adds to the sparkle and just looks better IMHO. Good luck to you!
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