TOP 10 Wax Seals Tips

hello Crafters this is Janice makula welcome or welcome back to my channel in this video I am talking all about wax seals what to do what not to do and how to have fun while you're at it tip number one is to trim the wick of the tea light candle to prevent soot from forming on the back of your spoon this is something I did not do when I unboxed my wax seals starter kit from spellbinders you can watch that video in my channel if you missed it and I had soot everywhere a simple solution is to trim the wick a little bit you know this will keep the fire a tiny bit further from the spoon and thus you'll have no suit buildup now this will take a little longer to melt your wax but I would rather wait a few extra seconds than have all of that soot in my white craft room and guys it is so hard to clean tip number two is to use various amounts of wax beads if you are making a wax seal for the first time I mean starting with a clean spoon use four beads to have a decent sized seal once you have laughter wax in your spoon because when you pour your wax you know you will always have a small amount of wax left in the spoon so if you have wax left in the spoon you can add three beads for the next seal three beads are the bare minimum you need to have a good looking seal in your project I suppose you can try using two beads but for my taste that seal would be too small if you're pouring wax onto a dimensional surface and by this I mean a gift where you have Ribbon or a card where you have dried flowers try using five or even six beads and don't pour your wax all at once pour a little bit to level the surface and secure the pieces together if they aren't secured and then pour the rest of the wax and add your stamp sometimes when you have too much wax you pour it and you press your stamp into it you can have air bubbles forming in the wax if you have that try using less beads tip number three is to Mark the bottom or the top part of your seal you can use a Sharpie or any permanent marker for this is especially handy when you are creating a seal directly on your project for example on a card or on a gift or even on an envelope and your seal has a sentiment to it or a design is directional and you don't want that design or that sentiment upside down in your project you want it correct side up so mark your seal and this way you'll know how to stamp it correctly tip number four is press or don't press so typically you do not want to press your seal into the wax this is not a clear block with a stamp on it or a Misti where you need to use all of your buddy Force to press that stamp and really get that ink onto the paper now here we do not want to do the heavy pressing 99 of the time you don't want to press it all you just need to gently position the seal over the wax and let the gravity pull it down the only case where you would want to press the stamp into the wax is if you are sealing over Ribbon or dried flowers or any other bulk in this case the surface you're placing the seal over is not flat it is bulky so you do need to apply a little bit of force to press the seal into the wax you know just a few for a few seconds to let the wax cool I find I need to do this when I'm wrapping my gifts and I have a bunch of Decor on top of my gift so I pour my wax I place the stamp and then I hold it and at the same time press it a little bit to make sure that it sits there and makes a good impression tip number five is to mix your wax colors and this is oh my gosh the best part so there are two ways to go about it you can mix different colors to create new colors this is very addictive a little bit of color theory will go a long way here allowing you to create new colors of wax to match the colors of your projects or you know just new colors of wax you can also add wide beads to make the color of your wax lighter or black beads to make the color of your wax darker the other way to mix wax is to not actually mix it but rather combine various color beads in the spoon and pour them together for a marbled look that also looks amazing now considering you need to use three full beads to make a seal you can also add a half bead for lesser color variation I would say so if you want to have just a hint of another color you can cut your bead in half or you can cut a part of a previously poured seal that you didn't like and use that you don't have to always start with a full size beat use a half or even a quarter or you know whatever amount you want keep an eye on how you put the beads in the spoon how you position them so one color bead on one side and the other color bead on the other side a gold bead in the center or one color closer to the pouring lip and that will end up on the bottom of your seal mostly covered by other colors and the other color further from the lip will end up on top of your seal most prominently visible so you can use a little bit of planning when you are positioning your wax beads in the spoon to plan the end result tip number six is to re-melt your failed seals I do this all the time so you pour the seal you didn't like it do not throw it away cut it into pieces and re-melt it to create a new seal or save the cut up pieces to remelt later you don't have to waste anything you can reuse it all maybe you did not use enough beads in your wax seal ended up too small for your taste re-melt it add additional beads and redo it or maybe you didn't like how the colors marbled together so cut it up re-melt it maybe mix it to have one solid color and see if you like that or if your seal isn't perfectly centered cut it up re-melt and reuse nothing goes to waste now when you cut your seal to add it to the spoon to re-melt it make sure you cut it into small enough pieces and place it in the center of the spoon so that it doesn't go over the edge otherwise you'll have wax running on the outside edge of your spoon tip number seven is to add stuff to your seals you can add gilded flakes over your seal to spice it up especially if you are using a solid seal but do not drop the flakes into the spoon while you are still melting the wax add the flakes only once you've poured your wax you can also drop tiny die cut confetti or glitter we all have loads of glitter you can try adding that to your wax seal for a very cool result I prefer to add glitter to the spoon where I can mix it well with the wax I don't like add adding glitter once I've poured my wax so play around and see what you can make of it you can also use perfect pearls or other embellishments that you have in your stash tip number eight is to use a paper towel to clean the laughter or wax in your spoon be careful as the spoon is hot alternatively you can wait for the spoon to cool off and for the wax to harden and then scrape the wax off but personally I prefer wiping my spoon using a paper towel or I leave the wax in the spoon and I just let it Harden next when I want to do more wax seals I just add other color wax beads to my spoon that has left to relax in it and I go from there I just mix my own colors I also have two spoons and it is helpful to have more than one spoon because if you are for example making dark colored seals using one spoon you don't have to wipe it clean if you want to start making light colored seals so you can use another spoon for that tip number nine is to let your stamp cool off I noticed that if I Mass produce seals and I keep using the same stamp to make seals the stamp warms up and becomes hot from the contact with the wax this affects the end result so I find the stamped designs they degrade they become less prominent so it is better to use different seals I would say if you're Mass producing you know maybe change between two or three different designs so that your stamp has time to cool off together with the wax tip number 10 is to use markers to highlight the seal design any opaque marker or pen can be used for this to help the seal design pop it doesn't work every single time I have messed up my fair share of seals doing this but I've also made some really gorgeous seals by highlighting the designs and remember if you mess up just cut it up and re-melt it nothing goes to waste that's it for me for today I hope you enjoyed this video thanks for spending time with me love you guys and I'll see you next time

Channel: Yana Smakula

Views: 59,664

Keywords: Cardmaking, Yana Smakula, diy greeting cards, diy handmade card, Handmade Cards, a2 card making, beginner cardmaking, card design, card ideas, card making ideas, card making tutorial, card tutorial, diy card, easy card making, greeting card

Id: 7rDzGF9Uk6o

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 14 2022