Creating Wax Seal Stamps out of acrylic
Wax seals are coming back into fashion! Especially for announcements or cards! This blog will show you how you can use acrylic and your laser to jump into the Wax seal craze! You can watch our YouTube video with all the steps here.
Let’s start from the beginning! We need to make a design. Here is a link to the free file for the wax stamps on our website:
So let’s talk about how to create the file for wax seals.
Wax seals are different than making stamps from rubber stamp material. For Wax stamps, The stamp needs to be a deep engrave of the design that you want stamped.
I’ve found with the trial stamps I’ve made that designs with thicker lines and thicker fonts work the best.
Putting an engraved area around your design helps the seal shape. Smooth areas around the edge of the stamp help it come out of the wax easier.
You can use any color of acrylic for the stamp.
The settings that I used for the Glowforge basic for 1/8” acrylic are:
Engrave: 545 speed Full Power 270 LPI
Cut: Medium Black Acrylic settings 150 speed full power
You will want to make a handle for your stamp. Here is the link to a free file for the handles on the website:
Once you have your stamp made attach the handle to the stamp portion. I used weld-on acrylic adhesive for this but you can use what ever type of acrylic glue that you like.
You can buy wax seal wax online. I got it on Amazon. There are 2 main kinds you can buy. The first is wax sticks and the second is wax pieces.
I practiced making a lot of stamps to get the procedure down before I made the video. You can see in this picture that I had a lot of discarded designs.
Tag us on social media so that we can see the projects you make at @craftclosetsupply
Let’s start from the beginning! We need to make a design. Here is a link to the free file for the wax stamps on our website:
So let’s talk about how to create the file for wax seals.
Wax seals are different than making stamps from rubber stamp material. For Wax stamps, The stamp needs to be a deep engrave of the design that you want stamped.
Traditional wax stamps are round or oval but you can make a wax stamp any way you want!
I’ve found with the trial stamps I’ve made that designs with thicker lines and thicker fonts work the best.
Putting an engraved area around your design helps the seal shape. Smooth areas around the edge of the stamp help it come out of the wax easier.
You can use any color of acrylic for the stamp.
The settings that I used for the Glowforge basic for 1/8” acrylic are:
Engrave: 545 speed Full Power 270 LPI
Cut: Medium Black Acrylic settings 150 speed full power
You will want to make a handle for your stamp. Here is the link to a free file for the handles on the website:
Once you have your stamp made attach the handle to the stamp portion. I used weld-on acrylic adhesive for this but you can use what ever type of acrylic glue that you like.
You can buy wax seal wax online. I got it on Amazon. There are 2 main kinds you can buy. The first is wax sticks and the second is wax pieces.
I practiced making a lot of stamps to get the procedure down before I made the video. You can see in this picture that I had a lot of discarded designs.
I found that the best way to make the wax impression is to:
- Melt the wax. Don’t get it super hot, just hot enough to melt.
- Pour the melted wax on the envelope or paper that you want it adhered to.
- Let wax cool for 10-20 seconds. It should start to form solid around the edge.
- Push the stamp in and let it sit until the wax is cool. The wax will turn a bit duller.
- Wiggle the stamp back and forth and pull off. Make sure you let the stamp fully cool before you pull the stamp out or the wax will stick to the stamp. If wax is stuck in the stamp, drip some more wax and push it in again.
Tag us on social media so that we can see the projects you make at @craftclosetsupply
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