Using Pamela’s Vanilla Frosting Mix, make the Royal Icing recipe on the package. Using as many small bowls as you want colors, divide icing into bowls; remember to keep some icing its natural color.
Color icing according package directions. Thin with water if too thick. The ideal consistency is thinner than frosting but not runny. Put each color icing in the corner of a sandwich bag. Press air out of bag, and twist bag to close and seal in icing. Repeat with each color, (if you have pastry tips you can put those in the corner of the bag before filling with icing.)
Line up cookies on covered sheet pans, about 1 to 2 inches apart. Cut a tiny corner off the plastic bag to make a tip. Start tiny, you can always cut off more to make a larger opening. Circle around the edge of the cookie with icing, then go back and fill in the center. Use as little icing as possible or else icing may break the circle and drip.
For colored frosting cookies, you are finished. Let cookies dry. For candies and sugar crystals, sprinkle decorations on wet icing and let dry.
TO MAKE CONNECTING HEARTS
Work on wax paper first to get the hang of it and then decorate your cookies.
Put down the 1st layer of icing (as described above). Try natural color or a very light colored frosting as a base. Add a drop of colored icing. Use red for hearts.
With a toothpick starting ½ inch above the dot, draw the toothpick through the dot and continue past it a 1/2 inch. Lift the toothpick at the tail of your heart. Practice a few times to get the hang of it. Then try a few dots in a row and repeat the process through all the dots; that will make a chain of hearts. You can repeat the process with many rows. Go up one row, and down the next row. Do this in different directions to get different effects. Keep it simple if you want it to look like hearts.
TO MAKE A HERRINGBONE PATTERN
Follow directions for the hearts, but do 2 or 3 dots per row, and have at least 3 rows. Take your toothpick down one row and back the other way on the next row, until all the rows are done. Then start on one side, go “across” the cookie through the dots one row and then the opposite way thru all the dots on the next row, etc. Do this until all rows are done. You should have something that looks similar to a Herringbone pattern. Let dry overnight before handling. The icing will be thick.
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