2016 #3 Mini Canvas {By Tracy Scott}

2016 Topic 3: Wax

Hi everyone Tracy Scott here, joining you this evening with a post about ‘Wax’ 

When I saw this theme I knew it was the one for me !! I’ve been looking at all the gorgeous posts online using melted wax crayons and knew this was the perfect opportunity to give it a try and play.

I decided to go with a 3x5 mini canvas as it was the perfect size for Clare’s Christmas Angel Stamp and was big enough to experiment on without getting the whole room covered in melted wax crayon !! I had some of the Wendy Vecchi art parts lying around on my desk so decided to use some of those to create a stand. Using a wooden spool on the top to give a bit of extra interest.

Step 1: I used a white wax crayon and drew some random circles onto my canvas to create a resist, then using my FrescoChalkAcrylicPaints in Pansy, Mermaid, Eggplant, Orchid and Bora Bora.

I rubbed the colours in randomly to the canvas with my fingers creating a mottled effect making sure that I covered all sides, top and bottom with the paint. Once painted I used my heat gun going to dry the paint and melt the wax circles, once heated I rubbed over the circles with a paper towel removing the wax from the canvas leaving the white circles clearly visible.

Step 2: I positioned the coloured crayons against the top of the canvas, and held the heat gun over the crayon pointing downwards in the direction I wanted the wax to run, so that it melted and trickled down the canvas. (Important as I had the heat gun sideways at one point and had hot wax droplets flying everywhere !!). I allowed each layer to dry which only took a few seconds and continued to layer with different coloured crayons.

Step 3: I decided to create some drops next with the wax, to do this you need to lay the canvas down and hold the crayon and the heat gun over the canvas, hold the heat gun at a distance so that the melted crayon doesn’t fly everywhere, it will start to drip,  at this point you can also shake it over the canvas to add some smaller droplets. Repeat this step in different colours.

Step 4: I stamped the angel and wings from Clare Lloyd's stamp set ECL08...

... onto 340gmsPaperArtsy Heavy Smoothy card and added colour. I choose to colour mine with Caran D’ache Pablo pencils but you could use any of your favourite mediums to colour. Once coloured I cut out ready to add to my canvas.

Step 5: I then painted my canvas base and top with black paint and used some 3D foam tape to add my beautiful angel and wings to my canvas, I found this the easiest way to adhere her to the canvas due to all the wax that was now on the surface, I had some parcel string sitting on my desk and a small heart charm so decided to use those, wrapping the string around the canvas 3 times, attaching the charm and tying in a bow.

Step 6: To finish off I found a vintage button in my stash and attached to the top of my canvas, the black stand, wooden spool and button were then rubbed over with a little of the metallic gold paint to give an aged distressed look, I also went over all of the edges of the canvas with black distress in to finish off and make all the colours pop.

I absolutely loved playing with this technique, it was so much fun and can see much more of this in my future. I used very cheap crayons for this which were not so highly pigmented as the more expensive crayons but they did the job perfectly. Portfolios would also be fine for example.  Maybe if I  want more vibrant colours in the future I would go for slightly more expensive crayons but lets not forget that they melt in about 10 seconds flat so certainly would not want to be spending a fortune !!!

Clare’s angel stamp is gorgeous for colouring and can be used for much more than just Christmas, I think she will popping up in many more projects in the future.

You can check out more of my work at www.facebook.com/myjournallingjourney

Thank you 

Tracy

Tracy this looks like a great idea to play around with! And I love how you have coloured the girl too, she looks amazing as the focal point. 

Just a reminder to everyone that they should check out your 'faces' feature in the current issue of Craft Stamper Magazine, and that you also have a new collaborative  DVD out teaching people how to draw faces called Creating Faces, along with our own Kim Dellow, Clare Lloyd and editor Trish Latimer. What an awesome resource that is for us to enjoy! Lovely to have you back here on the blog, another beautifully vibrant project! 

Thankyou ~Leandra

We would love to see how you interpret this Hearts  topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #3: Wax, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post.