Small jars of my hot sauce recipe sealed and stamped with bottling wax with a sisal rope to aid in removing the wax when opening.
I ended up making bottling/sealing wax when I was making invitations to an event I was planning. I wanted to seal the envelopes with wax and a stamp for that unique effect to go along with the theme of the event. I went to every store available to find this product. This was well before online shopping was widely available for purchasing anything you could think of. I wasn’t giving up on my idea and since Michaels stores weren’t prevalent in Canada yet, I needed to use my brain to figure this out. I went to the library and found a book that said that letter wax was originally made with beeswax, and then eventually mineral pigments were added for color. I had a few different colours of beeswax candles that I melted and this worked wonderfully with my sealing stamp that I had found among Nanny MacDougall’s crafty possessions.
Eventually I came up with idea to seal my jars of homemade condiments and wine and place my seal in the wax. It didn’t work how I wanted, and was too crumbly and a pain to remove. After many mixes and messes, trying everything from colored beeswax candles, cheese wax, and paraffin wax, I remembered trying to clean up the large round balls of melted glue stick that dripped on Mr. Handy’s grandmothers craft table. I used a small pot to melt the glue sticks. After testing a few batches with every combination of glue and wax I had, I came up with this recipe. A glue stick style wax which is a flexible sealing wax for mailing through today’s postal systems is now able to be purchased at specialty craft stores. However imo this wax isn’t great for dipping and sealing bottles and it’s expensive to use for this type of project. The only place I could find online for this type of product is Mexico.
The combination of the wax and the glue sticks allows the wax to seal and stick to the item, yet release without crumbling completely apart. I have used this for such projects as sealing envelopes, gift bag decoration, seal for pirate’s treasure maps, sealing ribbon to gifts, parchment paper letters, wedding invitations, decorative bottle sealing wax on bottles of hot sauce, homemade ketchup, homemade vanilla, and when I bottle homemade wine. I really love the look it gives my homemade gifts and as do the recipients.
Materials Needed:
- 15 crayons (45 grams)
- 30 glue sticks (90 grams)
- small old pot (filled 1/3 with water), electric candle burner (temp 140-240°), or glue stick melting pot (won’t need mason jar)
- small wide mouth heat proof jar (mason jar) (250 ml)
- disposable wooden stir stick (popsicle stick)
- utility knife (x-acto with new blade)
- Oven mitts
Place the pot of water over low heat to bring the water to a simmer. Do not put your heat up too high as this could lead to splashing water, or too much heat for the jar which could cause it to crack.
A small glue stick and a small crayon weigh about 5 grams each. I sometimes weigh them out if making a large batch for wine bottle dipping for instance.
Use the utility knife to cut down the length of the crayon to remove the label. Trust me this is easier than trying to peel them without cutting first. 
All the labels are removed.
I use a cutting mat/board and the utility knife to cut the glue sticks and the crayons into 1/2-1″ pieces.
Place the glue stick pieces into the small mason jar and then place into the pot of simmering water. You can see here that I am working on two colors of the sealing wax at the same time. Do not
I find it easier to melt the glue sticks pieces slowly first, stirring every few minutes to aid in the melting.
Once mostly melted start adding about 1/4 of the crayon pieces and stir to melt into the melted glue stick.
Repeat until all the crayon is added as it will fit into the jar as it melts.
Gently stir in every couple of minutes until completely melted.
The melting wax is now ready to use. I like to keep the jar either sitting in the gently simmering pot of water, or remove the jar from the pot with oven mitts and set on the electric candle burner to keep the wax from hardening while using. Use a small spoon and carefully pour the wax where you would like it and press the metal stamp in and release quickly.
How to Use Wax to Decorative seal Bottles
Materials Needed:
- Homemade bottling wax
- A bottle with cover, or a corked wine bottle (Link to the 4 oz bottle I am using)
- Optional: Shrink bands to cover the lid
- heat gun or blow dryer
- filament tape
- sisal rope or 1/4″ or smaller ribbon
- scissors
This is optional, however I prefer to shrink seal my covers on my bottles of homemade hot sauce, or vanilla
I then cut 12″ strips of jute string
Wrap and tie the string around the neck of the jar
Cut a small piece of tape (filament tape)
1/4″ wide
Pull both strands of the jute rope across the top of the jar cover
Tape the rope in place as pictured
Place another small strip on the other side of the cover to hold the string close to the cover
When the bottling wax is ready and flows in a thick smooth ribbon slowly dip you jar in the wax
Press the jar in the melted wax to the base of the cover and then slowly remove the jar from the wax. Be careful this wax is hot. Also it will cool quickly so have your stamp ready.
Quickly set the jar on a counter and gently press the stamp into the top of the wax, wait for 10 seconds and then pull the stamp from the wax. Set aside and let cool.
Finished. Now to open the jar just pull the strings to break the wax and it should be able to be removed in two pieces. 
Thank you… great instructions
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It all looks so wonderfully easy, and beautiful! I would like to seal 18 wine bottles – I am just not too sure from the above on quantities (I am not that good with recipes!) – how many crayons and glue sticks would one need to coat. for example, 1 wine bottle? Approximately?
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thank you for ur instruction
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You’re welcome 🙂
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Idk if you tried this on a smaller scale but would it work if I kept the 2 to 1 ratio for of glue sticks to crayons I’m wanting to jus seal something I wrapped and don’t want to make that much wax
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Yes it should work perfectly. Let me know how it works out.
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Thanks a million. I live in Sydney Australia and could not afford to go and buy the sealing wax, I use seals on envelopes to make my marketing letters a bit more interesting. Works brilliantly. Rob – Merry Xmas and Happy New Year
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Thanks for the message Rob. I’ve used this to seal invitations, and Christmas cards also. I’m glad it worked for your needs. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you.
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How do you use this method for letters? Is there a good way to store this melted wax in smaller quantities (like sticks) to be reheated later for a one-time correspondence use?
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I just melt the wax use a two spoons one to pick up the wax, and another to catch any excess from the other spoon so it doesn’t drip before I get it poured onto the spot I want it. I have only used this for bulk envelopes, etc. So storing this way works for me. If you come up with a way to make sticks to melt leave a message back here. I would love to know what you come up with. Thanks for visiting.
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Find silicone ice trays/chocolate molds that are long and thin like for ice that goes into water bottles. The molds must be silicone. Pour the sealing wax into those to cool and voila you have sealing wax sticks that you would buy in the store.
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Can you please give me some idea of how many bottles ie wine bottles a single batch of wax mix will cover. Thank you
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Hi Denis, Sorry for the delay in a response, not sure why I am just seeing this message now. I honestly have no idea how many bottles it would cover. Many variables at play, it depends on what type of bottle you are dipping, how far down the bottle neck you are dipping ect. I make large batches in a few colors and store in the mason jars so they are ready to melt and use again. I never took the time to count how many bottles this will cover. Please let me know if you do. Thank you for visiting. Hope it all worked out fine for you.
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Is any sealing wax not used reusable by just remelting it? I’m wondering if it’s okay to make up a large batch and keep it for use from job to job?
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Yes, this is exactly what I do. Works like a charm.
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Your jars with the wax seals are gorgeous. Do you only use Crayola crayons or have you tried other brands as well?
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Thank you. I have only tried it with crayola, but I can’t imagine why this wouldn’t work with other brands. Let me know how you make out if you use another brand. 🙂 thank you
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Tried it with dollar store some brand or other. They don’t draw as smoothly or evenly as crayola, but work fine for sealing wax. Just used it to seal envelopes.
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Thanks for letting me know 🙂
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Do you think that beeswax could be substituted for the crayons?
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I’m really not sure. Please let me know if you try it and it works 🙂
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Hello
Tried your method on my 2oz glass shave oil bottles, looks great but it was absolutely impossible to cut through it with attached jute twine…
Thanks
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I imagine the jute twine broke before it would cut the wax. Thanks for the update. I will remember that for my next bottling project.
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Are these really stiff or are they pretty flexible? I considered using these on some mailed invitations and don’t know if they would make it, or if i would have to place it inside a second envelope before mailing. What is your experience?
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Hi!
Will this glue-crayon mix work as a wax for envelope seals? or I should better use just the crayon wax for this purpose?
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Yes it will. I have used it twice for this purpose and they survived the mailing system in Canada and the US.
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I used it for envelop sealing, worked great
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Have you tried putting the jute under the shrinkwrap? Just curious.
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Do you think this could be done with just a candle warmer? I would like to do it with kids and won’t be near a stove.
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I am not sure if it would get warm enough. Let me know if you try it and it works. Thank you
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is there any option instead using crayon? because its hard to find one colour crayon that much 😥 maybe colouring powder or something?
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I’m not sure. I haven’t tried it with anything else. Please comment if you find another option.
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Michaels stores sell candle making dye
http://www.michaels.com/fuchsia-pink-liquid-dye-by-artminds/10475419.html
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crayons usually go on sale this time of year, for back-to-school, you can find a box of 24 for .25 to .50 each. buy 15 boxes for $3,75. or, you could buy just 5 boxes and use the red, the red-orange and the dark red together, that’s 15 crayons total if you need to make a batch this large. then you can do the same thing and bundle the greens, the blues, the pinks, the yellow-orange, etc.
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Thanks for this great tutorial. I am trying to use this method to make sticks of sealing wax for letters. Are you using mini glue sticks? Are they for the high melt temp guns or low temp? I am having a hard time getting the right consistency to get it out of the glass container or pourable at all, I think it’s my glue sticks.
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