I received an Encaustic Paint starter set for the Holidays, this year and I have been experimenting with it. What gorgeous backgrounds the wax makes!! I have used Beeswax as a finishing coat, and to make thin paper translucent, and to adhere items, but I had always used plain beeswax. The encaustic kit included colored encaustic paints in a few really nice colors. I also ordered a few paints in metallic colors, since I love to add glitz to everything I work on. To me, the glimmer from the metallics would look really nice with the matte colors of the wax.
NOTE- encaustic painting requires some reading up on safety measures. I HIGHLY recommend taking a class, or getting a book, finding a YouTube video on what you should and shouldn’t do when working with Encaustic. I decided, since I was just going to be dabbling in it, to buy pre-mixed paints and mediums since some of the dangers come in mixing. I also decided to go fo a warming tray rather than a griddle that can get too hot- there are more dangerous fumes when the wax gets over heated.
Most encaustic painters use stiffer substrates than card-stock, but I wanted to play a bit before I invested too much in the encaustic boards etc. And of course since I am a stamper, I was dying to see what I could do with the two together. I just used very thin coats of the encaustic paints, so that the flexible card stock did not crack the wax once it was cooled.
NOTE. that when you are using heat directly on stamps, you need to use red rubber stamps- not the clear polymer stamps. Those will melt! Here was my first experiment with Encaustic paints and Rubber Stamps…
I first melted encaustic paints on my plate- dark blue, white and then a mix of the two…
Then I dipped my Rubber stamp in the melted wax…
and stamped onto the card stock that was warming on the plate…
Here is the result…
In this example, I started with melted dark blue wax on the card stock…
Then I dipped my Rubber stamp into white melted encaustic paint…
I stamped on the card stock and viola! I loved this look!!
I loved the texture, and depth the encaustic paints lend to the backgrounds I created. If you are going to try this, and want to make a card with the backgrounds, the best adhesive to use is glue. Tapes didn’t seem to be strong enough to hold the waxy card stock to the card base.
Enjoy!!
