Happy Birthday USA

Hi there people in blog land. Today I am posting a layout I did for a class recently that featured beeswax. I love working with beeswax & finally opened my Melting Pot by Ranger. One of the challenges for me is I don't always feel like bringing out the machines, it seems like a bit of an effort when you just want to quickly add something to a page. Other times I want to work on multiple projects at once & I don't mind dragging stuff out. Sound familiar? The great thing about beeswax is all you need is your heat gun to add a touch or more. I use the ranger heat gun to start getting the beeswax to melt & move to the standard but "windier" version to move the wax around. The standard gun is trickier to melt the wax as it blows the pellets, but you just need to keep the gun further away until the wax starts to melt & gradually move it closer to the project. 

I started with corrugated cardboard & added printed paper with decoupage glue. Next step was some dylusions sprays with stencils & random stamping to create the base. I layered my objects in with wax. Heating a thin layer & embedding the objects into the wax, than fusing the wax with a bit of heat. A fun technique is the stamp. I stamped the star on the bottom layer, put a thicker layer of wax over the area & let it cool a bit. When the wax was still soft using a stylist follow the lines of the stamp to create grooves in the wax. Add layers of wax over this area with a brush. Only natural bristle brushes work in wax as the heat melts synthetic. Also your brush cannot be cleaned, only reused with wax projects. Add the wax lightly, moving the brush in the same direction. The wax will adhere to itself. When the desired depth is reached touch up the lines with your stylist if you need to. 

Another product that works well with the wax is perfect pearls powder. I dusted the powder over the cooled wax around the edges to create a nice shimmer.  It binds to the wax naturally. If the powder is not adhering well either heat the wax just a touch to warm it or swipe it with perfect medium & apply the powder. Practice makes perfect so just go play!