Introduction: 3 Cheap Ways of Making Wax Seals at Home

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About: I like making DIY proyects and finding interesting ways of recycling.

Wax seal making materials are kind of expensive so I wanted to find a way to make them at home with accessible materials. These are the three ways I found work well. Each one of them with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Supplies

Materials:

  • Different color crayons cut up in chunks of about 1/2 a cm.
  • Hot glue sticks also cut up in the same sized chunks.
  • Candle wax in 1/2 cm chunks. You could also use beeswax or candelilla wax.
  • Tea light candles or other type of candles.
  • Metal spoon. The bigger the easier it will be.
  • A stove for melting wax, it can be homemade (optional, but it makes things easier)
  • A surface to pour the wax on. Could be glass or a piece of stone/marble countertop.
  • Oil. It helps removing the seals from the chosen surface, especially the hot glue seals.
  • Glitter, mica powder or powder makeup palettes (optional)
  • Stamps. They can be bought but they can also be made with two part epoxy, lino, coins and even laser engraved acrylic.You can also use things that have interesting patterns like buttons, bottle caps and so on.

Step 1: The First Recipe

The easiest one of the three, the only thing you need is a hot glue gun and some hot glue sticks.

  1. Pour a glob of the hot glue in your surface of choice and put the stamp on top of it.
  2. You can add glitter or mica powder to make it shiny.
  3. Remove it from the surface of your choice (should be pretty easy if you used oil)
  4. Stick in with more hot glue or other type of glue to the desired place.


  • Advantages:

- The easiest to setup

- Doesn't require candles or spoons

- It produces detailed seals

- It's really flexible

- The easiest one to apply directly on paper if you want

  • Disadvantages

- The texture is not waxy

- Needs paint it if you want color

- It's too flexible

- Needs oil to remove it from surfaces

Step 2: The Second Recipe

This one only requires one more ingredient: crayons.

Like stated above I've cut up the crayons and the hot glue in pieces approximately the same size.

The ratio is: 3 parts hot glue per 1 part crayon.

  1. You should put the hot glue first because it takes the longest to melt.
  2. Add the crayon and mix it up using whatever tool you have.
  3. Add the glitter and/or mica powder if you wish and combine.
  4. When it's combined pour it on your surface of choice and put the stamp on it.
  5. Remove it from the surface.
  6. Stick in with more hot glue or other type of glue to the desired place.


  • Advantages:

- You can choose whatever color you want

- Has a fair amount of detail

- Texture is more waxy

- A little flexible

  • Disadvantages

- Requires more setup and materials

- Doesn't look waxy enough

Step 3: The Third Recipe

The most elaborate of the three but still fairly simple.

Requires candle wax on top of the other two ingredients.

The ratio is: 2 parts hot glue, 1 part crayon, 1 part candle wax

  1. Put the hot glue first to let it melt.
  2. Add the crayon and the candle pieces.
  3. Add the glitter and/or mica powder if you wish and combine.
  4. Pour and put the stamp.
  5. Remove it from the surface of your choice.
  6. Stick in with more hot glue or other type of glue to the desired place.


  • Advantages:

- You can choose whatever color you want

- The most waxy texture, looks the most genuine

  • Disadvantages

- Requires the most setup and material

- Kind of brittle

- The least amount of detail

Step 4: Results

This is a comparative table showing the 3 wax recipes and how they look with different types of diy stamps.

Step 5: Notes

You can multiply the ratios depending on the quantity you need. For example, instead of 2 parts hot glue, 1 part crayon and 1 part candle wax you could use 4 parts hot glue, 2 parts crayon and 2 parts candle wax.

You can make a big batch of your wax of choice and put it in molds to have it on hand son you don't have to make the recipe each and every time.

You can re-melt seals.

You can use glitter, mica powder or powdered makeup to make it shiny.

You can buy a special spoon and stove for melting wax seals but it's not necessary. You can make do with most metal spoons.

You could pour your wax directly in the piece of paper you want to stamp but I always make a mess. I found that using a special surface that keeps cold and doesn't transfer heat makes the wax easier to stamp and it doesn't spread as much.

I use and old piece of marble countertop but you could also use glass and maybe even MDF.

Seals that are not made with just hot glue are usually easy to remove from the surface of choice but I still use a little bit of oil both in the surface and in the stamps.