Sugar Ornaments

Materials:

two- piece plastic ball ornament
cup of sugar
teaspoon of water
one tablespoon measuring spoon (preferably metal)
Christmas cards or small figures
homemade icing or Royal icing
acetate for "window" - optional

1. In a bowl, thoroughly mix together sugar and water. Put the resulting mixture into one of the plastic ornament halves. Pack it very firmly, as you would when measuring brown sugar (figure A).
2. With measuring tablespoon, carefully scoop sugar mixture out of the ornament until a shell about 1/4 inch thickness remains (figure B).
3. Cover a piece of cardboard with plastic wrap or waxed paper. Place it on top of the scooped out ornament and carefully turn everything over. Place on tabletop and carefully remove the ornament. If necessary, tap it gently to loosen. Allow the sugar to dry for eight to 10 hours. If you wish to scoop out more of the sugar, you can do this after about three hours, when the outside is rather hard but the center is still loose.
4. Build a snow scene in the ornament half with Royal icing as the snow, and miniature figures added in. I usually use small buildings, trees and people cut from Christmas cards. Leave a small tab on each figure so you have something to bury in the snow to help it stand up.
5. Decorate around the front border of the ornament with more Royal Icing. To put in a plastic window, place a small amount of icing on the edge of the ornament, place acetate into position, and cover with decorative icing around the edge.

• If you wish to hang your work on the tree, carefully poke a hole in the partially dried ornament and insert a hanging thread. Place a small bead or button on the underside so the thread will not pull through the sugar.
• To make a full, ball-shaped, "see-into" ornament, first make two sugar halves. Before removing from the plastic, take a scoop of sugar out along one side to create a half-circle opening (figure C). Do this to each half. When the sugar dries, construct the scene in one half (figure D), then use the Royal icing to glue the two halves together. Decorate around the seam on the outside.
• To make a blue sky, color some water with a drop or two of food coloring or paint, and VERY carefully paint the sky. Be sure you do not add so much water that you melt the sugar.