Royal Icing Christmas Light Bulb

This is a good case of piping what I know. I grew up on the classic C7 and C9 Christmas lights, and never warmed up to any other variety (especially those cool-burning environmentally-friendly lights that look like the inside of a refrigerator; they may save the earth, but they're the antithesis of festive!). All you'll need to pipe tiny little classic Christmas lights are stiff consistency royal icing in yellow, black, and whatever color you like, round tips #12, #8, and #2, a glue stick, a flower nail, a Styrofoam block to rest the nail in, parchment paper squares, and a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of cornstarch and powdered sugar. Start by sticking a parchment square to the flower nail with a dab from the glue stick. 

 Hold the #12 tip almost flat alongside the surface and squeeze out a ball of icing. Move the tip along while decreasing pressure for a little more than half an inch. Stop pressure and pull the tip away.

 Pipe the base with the #8 tip on the yellow icing. Hold the tip against the wide end of the bulb, squeeze briefly, move the tip along, then stop pressure and pull the tip away. I tried to create "threads" by pulsing the tip in and out but they sort of melted together.

 Pipe a tiny black dot with the #2 tip, then flatten it with a fingertip after touching it to the dusting pouch. These would be cute peeking out from under the eaves on a gingerbread house!