Friday, February 5, 2010

Melted Crayon Wax Technique

I love using melted crayon wax in my projects - it's colorful, adds texture, and is cheap! The bargain brand crayons work just fine, I think I paid about $2.00 for a box of 64. Think about how much 64 bottles of paint or 64 stamp pads would be!

Step 1: Melt The Wax

Chose the crayon you want to use, peel off the paper, and break into small pieces. I use a mini muffin tin lined with foil to hold the wax, for easy clean up. You could also just shape some foil into a little cup.




Use a heat gun to melt the wax. Heat until liquid, but not to the point of smoking. You want to do this in a well ventilated area and avoid breathing in the fumes. You can also melt the wax in a warm (250 degrees) oven, but that takes a bit longer.



The wax doesn't stay liquid very long. If it hardens up while you are working with it, just reheat briefly.



2. Stencil Technique

Place some type of stencil over a piece of cardstock and brush with melted wax.




The finished product. Note that black crayons make a bigger mess than most, and kind of rub off a little bit.


Then, your stencil can be used like a "stamp" by briefly heating the wax left from brushing in the last step and then pressing it onto cardstock.



The result is the reverse image of the stenciled piece above. Cool!



3. Splatter Technique

Super easy. Just dip a q-tip into some melted wax and (carefully) flick it onto your paper.



I love the way the yellow crayon looks like pollen on this card:



4. "Wax Seal" Technique

Pour melted wax into a little puddle on a piece of cardstock.



Choose a small stamp and ink it up with clear embossing ink. This is not absolutely necessary, but it does keep it from sticking.



Press the stamp firmly into the wax and hold for a couple seconds before removing.



Ta-Da! Let the "seal" harden, then carefully peel off the paper and trim the excess wax if you like. If it didn't turn out like you want, just re-melt the wax and start over.



Use a glue dot or other strong adhesive to adhere the embellishment to your project. Of course, this would look cool as an actual seal on an envelope.



5. Wax Paper Sandwich Technique

Using an old cheese grater, grate crayon colors of your choice onto a piece of waxed paper. You could also use a knife to chop it up really small.



Put another piece of waxed paper over the crayon bits and heat with the heat gun until melted. The colors will mix and blur. An iron works well for this job too.




Here, I sewed the waxed paper "sandwich" onto an ATC, trimmed the excess and embellished.


Have fun with it!

5 comments:

Thinkie said...

Great techniques. LOL, when my husband and I were kids (and not yet married, obviously ;-) ) in 6th grade we accidentally left a box of wax crayons on the radiator (my husband sat next to it so it was an easy place to put things out of the way, I sat across the table from him). When we came back after a holiday the stuff had melted all over the carpet!

McMGrad89 said...

We used to leave crayons out on the hot Texas sidewalks. It was fun. We also used to recycle crayons by putting them in muffin tins and using them as mixed up crayons. My daughter recently found a crayon maker at a garage sale. We have made crayons that way too. Crayons are so fun.

Amy Wing said...

Thanks for a totally fantastic post - so much fun!

joyce rodli said...

Wow and Kool.

jacque4u2c said...

These are great ideas!!!!!!!!

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