I Want!

I Want!

August 30th, 2010 @ 11:01 am by Mrs. Knitting
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I really love paper and all things paper related. I think gorgeous stationery is so much fun, and I love going to stores like The Paper Place or Paper Things in Toronto and browsing through all of their fantastic papers, cards…etc. I love picking out new thank you notes and I may or may not have random blank invitations stored away in my closet that I bought because they’re pretty and I might have some use for in the future.

However, one of my favourite things to look at in paper stores are wax seals. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here are a few examples:

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Can you guess why I included this one?

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I think these would be so much fun to include on our invitations. I especially love the ones that look a bit messy. Those are the ones where you melt the wax yourself and then use a stamping tool to imprint the design. The perfect ones are pretty too, and are definitely a lot easier as they are of the peel and stick variety, but the imperfect ones give off a very vintage homemade vibe, which is perfect for our cozy Christmas vintage wedding.

Look, they even make Christmas-specific ones:

Source

I’m still not sure if we’ll end up using these on our invites. I love them a lot but I’m not sure how me + hot wax + envelopes will work out. I see this as a recipe for potential disaster for me. I think more research is in orde. If any of you are a bit more brave/talented than I am and feel up to DIYing wax seals, there’s a great tutorial here.

Have you used wax seals on your envelopes? How did they work out?

Tags: invitations, stationery, toronto |

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21 Responses to “I Want!”

1 2 Last

Member

mjchexum (message) 485 posts, Helper bee

I’ve never used one before but I absolutely love them. Makes everything look important and old and worth keeping Try it out! see how it works and let us know! I agree though, I’m not sure how hot wax and I would get along either…I’m a tad bit clumsy…

8/30/10 @ 11:19 am (reply)

Member

LittlestBirds (message) 2,605 posts, Sugar bee

Love the North Pole one. Wax seals are utterly lovely, but everything I’ve ever received in the mail that had had one applied, had it fall off in transit. You’d want to include an outer envelope, and put the seal on the inner one.

8/30/10 @ 11:20 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Locket (message) 2,837 posts, Sugar bee

I used them on my invites and honestly didn’t think they were as bad as some people said. It was a tad time consuming and not every one was perfect, but they def added a great touch to the invites.

8/30/10 @ 11:21 am (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Turtle (message) 782 posts, Busy bee

We used wax seals to hold the belly band ribbon together on our invitations, and I LOVED how they turned out! I was worried about pouring hot wax on our perfect *and expensive, cough!* invitations, but I used the Sewings’ tutorial, and it was the perfect solution! Check out her post. It involves pre-making all of the seals and then hot gluing them onto the invitations. Good luck!

8/30/10 @ 11:21 am (reply)

Member

TheFutureMcBride (message) 4,461 posts, Honey bee

This was McHusband’s requirement for our invitations, so we did it and, although we both got slightly burned, they looked great and everyone loved it. FYI: If you mess up a stamp, wait until it dries completely and you can take it off and redo it.

8/30/10 @ 11:21 am (reply)

Member

kokuu (message) 90 posts, Worker bee

If you’re gonna go the wax-seal route, definetly go with the hot-glue gun faux wax rather then the real wax. Less messy, way easier, and you’re less likely to burn yourself if your a klutz (did wax-seal invitations with the traditional wax for a sorority invitation back in college, and I burned myself quite a bit because of the open flame.) Also make sure to have one of your invitations weighed at the post office, because they charge extra for wax seals- better to know before hand.

8/30/10 @ 11:23 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Glasses (message) 2,741 posts, Sugar bee

I want too. We are past the invitation stage so I’d have to figure out what I could use them for - maybe thank you notes? If you do wind up using them, I’d love to see your experience! And thanks for the porn

8/30/10 @ 11:25 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Sand Dollar (message) 1,305 posts, Bumble bee

Super cute, I’ve always wanted to use a wax seal for something. It seems I should get the Christmas ones and do them on Christmas cards sitting by our fireplace with hot cocoa or something! I’d be so excited to get a wedding invite, and have to crack open a wax seal!

8/30/10 @ 11:52 am (reply)

Guest

Stephanie

I used them! But I used the glue stick kind! They worked so much better than the seals I have previously gotten in the mail. And you can make them ahead of time on a silicone mat and then stick them on with a glue dot! Way easier than worrying about ruining a good envelope or invitation by messing up a real wax seal!

8/30/10 @ 12:05 pm (reply)

10.

Member

gulbraa44 (message) 391 posts, Helper bee

I am going to do wax seals on my invitations. I am going to get the Chinese double happiness seal bc my fiance is Chinese. I am super excited about it. I have never used a wax seal before so I will be sure to practice.

8/30/10 @ 12:08 pm (reply)

11.

Bee

Miss Jellyfish (message) 1,423 posts, Bumble bee

I used them, and they came out great!! We also used them on our menus. We bought the glue gun wax from http://www.letterseals.com, I highly recommend them!

8/30/10 @ 12:12 pm (reply)

12.

Member

luckyduckluk (message) 127 posts, Blushing bee

We used wax seal for our invites…everyone loved them!!

Using the ‘faux wax seals’ really made things easy.

8/30/10 @ 12:16 pm (reply)

13.

Member

sarahcisme (message) 346 posts, Helper bee

We used a faux wax seal with a sticker backing for our invitations. They looked great, stayed on through mailing, and were hugely easier to apply than real wax. Some things to consider which I hadn’t thought about before mailing- 1. the seals increased the weight of the invite and in turn increased the necessary postage. 2. The envelopes could not be machine processed, so the post office charged us a fee to hand cancel them (about 20 cents per invite i think). I’m still glad we used them, just wish we had worked the extra costs into our invite budget in advance.

8/30/10 @ 1:27 pm (reply)

14.

Guest

Shoppingdixie

We used the wax you can put in a hot glue gun and it was really simple. You get the real wax seal look and it wasn’t messy.

8/30/10 @ 1:47 pm (reply)

15.

Member

azure6700 (message) 175 posts, Blushing bee

I’ve used them to seal letters for years now…I’m a romantic, I guess. I got my mom into it, and many letters that I mailed to my fi had a wax seal (got him hooked on it as well!) They made it through the mail just fine–and we were dealing with international mail! I use the sticks that have a wick on them. They are a bit hard to find, though.

8/30/10 @ 1:50 pm (reply)

16.

Member

azure6700 (message) 175 posts, Blushing bee

@Sarahhcisme: So strange, I can’t tell you how many letters I have posted w/a wax seal, and I’ve never been charged for extra postage! I wonder if it’s because it’s only one letter that they let it slip by…? I guess a stack of 100 envelopes COULD attract their attention, ha.

8/30/10 @ 1:52 pm (reply)

17.

Bee

Miss Knitting (message) 1,072 posts, Bumble bee

Ahh I’m all stressed out now. Thanks for the tips everyone. These are defintely a few things I hadn’t thought about…

8/30/10 @ 2:56 pm (reply)

18.

Member

cmdw (message) 54 posts, Worker bee

I did them. I used the hot glue wax in an Aqua color and my stamp was a seahorse. I made the cool down process a little faster by keeping the stamp on ice. The hot glue gun was used on low temp. I would let the stamp sit in the wax for a few seconds and then just stick it back on an ice cube.

I wasn’t charged anything extra to hand cancel or additional weight. My invites went out at the normal rate.

8/30/10 @ 4:07 pm (reply)

19.