How to Use a Wax Pencil When Scrapbooking

A wax pencil is an excellent scrapbooking tool for use with photographs. The soft, colored wax in these pencils is commonly used for tracing designs onto photographs because the wax rubs off when the tracing is complete. Wax pencils are also good for decorating and for most scrapbooking uses where non-permanent marks are needed.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wax pencils
• Photograph
• Paper towel

Use a Wax Pencil for Scrapbooking Projects

1. Select a wax pencil. You may want several in a variety of colors so that you can use them for decorating as well as cropping photos. The most popular wax pencil color for scrapbooking is blue. You can find a selection of wax pencils for scrapbooking at ScrapbookGiant.com (see Resources below).

2. Find a photograph you would like to cut for a scrapbooking project. Scrapbookers find all sorts of creative ways to cut photographs into different shapes. You may also want to cut individual people or objects out of photographs and apply them to your scrapbook pages.

3. Use your wax pencil to carefully draw the design you want to cut out onto the front of the photograph. Make sure you can clearly see the line the wax pencil is making.

4. Cut out the design you just made. Cut along the wax pencil lines, taking care to cut as closely along the line as possible.

5. Wipe away the remnants of the wax pencil line. Once you have cut out your design, there will probably be traces of the wax pencil line still in place along the edges of the cut photograph. You can wipe the lines away with a paper towel. Wax pencil lines should come off of the front of a photograph very easily.

6. Label the back of the photograph with the wax pencil. The mark on the back of the photograph will be permanent.

Tips & Warnings

• Wax pencils can also be used to write on plastic or even glass.
• You can use colored wax pencils to decorate your scrapbook, too. Use them to draw or color borders, lettering and accents.
• Be aware that when you use a wax pencil to write on the front of a photograph, the ink is not permanent and can easily be wiped off. However, when you write on the back of the photograph with your wax pencil, the writing is permanent and cannot be removed.

Resources

• Buy wax pencils at ScrapbookGiant.com