Combining Encaustic with Mixed Media Scrapbooking Techniques

I’ve been a scrap booker since I was a teenager, and I began working with mixed media elements in my scrapbooks, art journals, and on canvases as an extension of that passion.  This was all long before I became an encaustic artist.  I’ve been wondering for a long time if there was a way I could replicate my favorite mixed media looks in an encaustic painting.

This is the end result.  What do you think?  I’ll need to watch this piece for a few months to see how the wax cures around the flowers.  Sometimes encaustic medium can develop a bloom as the painting cures, so I’ll need to keep an eye on it for awhile to see what happens.  So far though, I’m confident I’ll be able fix anything that might happen.

Planning the Techniques

When I create a mixed media scrapbook layout, I usually follow a simple pattern-

  • Color and/or stencil on the canvas
  • collage with some paper scraps
  • add chipboard pieces plus some extra texture
  • include any fabric or small textured pieces to stand out beneath the main elements
  • choose flowers and any other larger embellishments
  • photos, quotes, or any other final collage elements

I will mix other things in sometimes if I need some more elements or textures, or do things out of order, but this give you a basic idea of the process I follow to build up lots of layers and use large embellishments that really make my canvases pop.

Building up an encaustic piece in the same way was going to be tricky I knew, so for this experiment I kept things pretty simple and didn’t try to add too much or use too many techniques.  Collaging with paper in encaustic makes things more complicated, so I left that part out of this piece.  It also helps to know how different inks and papers interact with the wax so you can use them properly to get a good result.

Adding ink to the surface to try and add color was going to be tough- india ink balls up on the surface, and alcohol ink is not as fast or smudge proof as india ink, so I decided to just use purple wax to add some color splashes to the base of the piece.  It’s not only a lot of fun to mix the colors around with my heat gun, but I don’t have to worry at all about the integrity of the colors or the surface as I continue working.

encaustic with mixed media

Mixed Media Embellishments

Adding the chipboard was next.  Once I stained them with ink and let them dry, I used tweezers to dip them in wax and then stick them to the surface.  This method worked soooo much better than just brushing wax over the chipboard on the surface.  Brushing the wax over it piles the wax on top of the element, and adds way more than you really need.  Your elements can get buried and be harder to see when you use a ton of wax.

You also need to remember that the wax is going to change the colors a little bit.  You can see with the chipboard that it added a bit of a yellow tinge to the parts of the chipboard that were still white, and darkened all the ink colors.  Because I dipped it to use as little wax to fuse as possible, the colors were still pretty bright, though, and the chipboard has the appearance of being stuck to the surface without buried under a pile of wax.

Fusing was also much easier since the chipboard was already saturated with wax.  It was a pretty quick process to fuse the pieces to the surface.

More Mixed Media Embellishments…

The cheesecloth was easy, too.  I didn’t want it to be saturated with wax, so I only added wax to a few places. I used my tweezers to press those spots down to make sure the cloth fused to the wax.  One warning- the cheesecloth is very light and porous, and the heat gun makes the fabric very hot.  There were a few times while I was fusing that the cloth began to smoke a bit.  Make sure that you don’t keep the gun on it for more than a few seconds so the cloth doesn’t get too hot.

When I added the flowers, I was going to just dip the bottom in and keep the top dry. I quickly discovered that wasn’t going to work, so I just started dipping the whole flower.  Once I placed and fused them all, I added some more wax to the middle of most of the them, especially the big ones, and fused again.

It was really satisfying to test all the flowers once the wax cooled and find they were all stuck fast! Perfect!!  Adding the white india ink to the flowers for the perfect touch.  The wax makes them look wet, and the ink on the petals gives them a frosted look.  Super cool.  I love when things work out even better than you imagine!

I’m glad pushpins in the corner of this quote was enough to nail it the surface.  In my mind I had to use nails, which are big and ugly.  The pushpins are small and the heads are symmetrical and pretty.  I used gel medium under the paper and on the back of the painting to make sure they won’t move.  I LOVE how the quote completes the mixed media look without compromising the encaustic nature of the piece.

Sorry this post has been so long!!  What do you think of this piece?  Was it worth the attempt?  Is this something you might like to try?  Let me know!