What am I doing wrong.
I use
1 stick crisco
1 bag powdered sugar
and 1/2 cup of water
While I am putting it on the cake it is smooth, then it because hard and lumpy.
Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?

Seems like that might be a crusting buttercream. This kind of icing will "crust over" slightly, after it's been sitting about 10-15 minutes.

Some decorators like this effect, because they can use the VIVA method to smooth it out--or they can paint lustre dust, etc. on the cake.

If you prefer your icing NOT to crust, there's a recipe for that here on CC in the recipe section, under "non-crusting buttercream."

HTH,
--Knox--

I use the Wilton recipe for buttercream - because it's easy and people prefer it. It is half butter, half Crisco and a little milk. The consistency is wonderful!!

When you say bag do you mean 1 or 2 pounds of sugar? Hmmm I am not familiar with that recipe. seems like maybe a lot of water, but maybe that gives you a thin consistency. I am not sure. Maybe you ought to try a different recipe and see.

The one I use is :
1 cup crisco
1 cup butter, softened (I like salted, but you can use unsalted)
about 3 tsp of flavoring (usually I use 1 1/2 vanilla and 1 1/2tsp almond, but use what you like...I just tried adding some lemon extract and reducing the almond today...its yummy)
2 pound bag sugar (I usually add an additional cup sugar as the icing is a little soft if you want stiff)
4 TB of heavy cream (you can use milk or water)
I then thin with water/corn syrup, but you can thin with milk or cream if you want.

It always comes out nice. It is a rich buttercream with the heavy cream and butter, but very good. There are a lot of recipes you could try on here.

I think your recipe is not ok, you are using just 1 stick of shortening for a hole bag of sugar.
Use thin icing to frost your cake.

Use this recipe: (yields : 6 cups of icing)

2 stick of crisco (2 cup)
2 pound of confectioners sugar (1 domino's sugar bag)
1 teaspoon of vanilla flavor
1 teaspoon of butter flavor
1 tablespoon of merengue powder
1 pinch of salt
4-8 tablespoons of water or milk( the amount of water will make your icing stiff or thin)

STIFF ICING: 4 tablespoons of water (use it to pipe flowers)
MEDIUM ICING: 6 Tablespoons of water ( use it to pipe borders, stars, etc)
THIN ICING: 8 Tablespoons of water (use it to ice the cake)

You can substitute half of the shortening for butter or cream cheese

Oh I meant to say that that recipe gives you about 6-7 cups of icing. you can halve it if you want.

I started by using the Wilton icing but I did not like the shortening taste of it much. But that is just my personal taste.

Check the www.earlenescakes.com and she is got a really good cream cheese buttercream icing or I was reading earlier today in backing911 about a butter cream icing, here it goes:
2 sticks crisco, 1 stick butter, 1/4 or 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream and 2 lbs powder sugar and vanilla flavor. I hope this helps!

Thank you so much! Have anyone used karo syrup in their icing?
Someone told me I should do that, but I have not.
But anywhoo, thank you so much. !!!

I have never heard of that but there is a lot of recipes out here though and variations of it too. www.sugarcraft1.com also has good icing recipes