Wax Paper Resist Challenge

My friend Steph and I have regular ‘play dates’ where we get together to try out different products and techniques that we can use in making cards.  At the end of the session we split the backgrounds between us (we often make 2 of each) and challenge each other to use them to make finished cards.  It never ceases to amaze me how different two cards can be even when they start with the same material.  Steph has kindly let me show some of her cards in my blog.  So I will show you some of the techniques we have tried and the different cards we have made from them.

Today’s Technique is Wax Paper Resist.

You will need:
Wax paper
Glossy cardstock
Dye ink (Distress Inks are ideal)
Scrap paper
Iron

First, cut some wax paper into pieces just bigger than your cardstock pieces. Check whether it has wax on both sides or just one. If it is only waxed on one side, then Steph’s tip was to mark it in some way, e.g. with the wax side down cut off the top left hand corner, so that you can always tell which side is which.  Crinkle up the wax paper: scrunch it up into a ball, or fold it in different ways, try a combination – the more crinkles and patterns the better. Flatten the paper out.

Heat up your iron (not too hot – to approx ‘Wool Setting’). Put some scrap paper onto the ironing surface, then place the cardstock (glossy side up), followed by the wax paper (wax side down – see tip above), and finally more scrap paper to make a ‘sandwich’ protecting both your iron and the ironing surface. Iron the ‘sandwich’ until the wax has melted onto the cardstock – it shouldn’t take very long but check and adjust the temperature as required depending on how many layers of paper you are using.

You can only see a faint impression of the wax on the cardstock until you start to apply the ink. It was a hot day when we did this and ordinary dye ink was drying too fast for this technique to work properly but we swapped to Distress Ink and it worked well. To apply the ink you can use any method that you like depending on the finish and intensity of colour that you are looking for. You could use a brayer and Kaleidoscope ink pads, an ink applicator, a tissue or wet wipe, or just swipe the ink pad over the cardstock. You can use one colour over the whole card with some natural variation in colour application or mix several colours together. If using several colours, a light bright colour such as a lime green or yellow can really make the colour blend ‘sing’.

Here are some of our finished cards using the Wax Paper Resist backgrounds: