Beeswax Collage Play Date

I had a play date today with my good friend Amie. We did beeswax collage together. First we did collage on 5x7 canvas boards. We added fun beaded handles - going with a random pattern.

Next we used 8x10 stretched canvas, working on the back, so that our compositions are "pre-framed". We melted the beeswax in a mini crock pot and worked with a selection of papers from my stash. Amie sent me some gorgeous photographs of flowers which i printed out on matte photo paper. I used copies of vintage images.
Amie used one of the tin bugs i bought the other day - the colour was a perfect match for her purple flower. She chose some lovely quotes from a book i had, which set a beautiful tone for her artwork. Be sure to check out more of her fabulous photography at fifolilo.com
I went with an all white monochromatic theme to match this wedding studio photo. It of course becomes very golden with the natural beeswax. If you click on the pic you'll see my toungue in cheek humour with the dictionary scrap. The drips happened by accident, but we thought they looked cool, so we left them.
After Amie left, i got to work (play?) making some ornaments for a swap i am doing with the California Art Girls. I wanted to make little canvas collage with beeswax, in a holiday theme.I punched holes in the little canvas boards and applied a base coat of wax. You may notice the extra holes. At first i planned to make them in the vertical "portrait" format. I had some angel paper and decided to use that. I cut out the two little angels and the Christmas poem. But the angels were too wide, so i went with the horizontal "landscape" format instead.
For background i used some vintage sheet music combined with some Venetian scroll paper. For the gap in the middle i used a white lacy paper. Since most of it would be covered, i economized and just used two scraps under the wings.
I used melted beeswax to combine all the papers. I chose some holiday words and attached metal letters to spell out Noel, Joy and Peace. You never know how far you are going to get with a set of letters, luckily there were enough vowels to spell 4 words!
In the past i have used wood or chip board letters on my beeswax pieces. Let me say they are SO much easier. The metal gets so hot when you try to remove the excess wax, that they slide all over the place. Then you burn your fingers trying to put them back in place. Next time i would just glue them with The Ultimate. (as per Tim H.)
Some paper and the poem finished off the backs. More beaded handles and a touch of gold organza ribbon finish them off. Once i figure out how to sign my name in beeswax, i'll send them off to my artsy friends!