Wax Resist Painting – How to Make Surprise Messages and Drawings (VIDEO)
Wax resist painting is a fun way to teach reading and art with surprise messages and drawings!
Last year for my son’s 2nd birthday, my daughter and I had a blast creating a Wax Resist Cake Painting for him!
In addition to creating a special gift, magic messages with wax resist is a versatile way to engage children in learning.
Here is our video of the Birthday Cake Wax Resist Painting! Turn on volume for the Happy Birthday music in Chinese from A Little Mandarin!
Since Chinese is a minority language for our family, we try to make it as fun as possible. The words you seen in this post are Chinese, but you can apply the principles to your family’s language(s)!
Are you ready to see how we did this fun hands-on activity?!
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Benefits of wax resist painting:
- Process art encourages kids to let loose and explore without the confines of boundaries
- Reluctant readers may be motivated by the element of a personal surprise
- Fun way to encourage writing
- Even children who are too young to read/write can enjoy the drawing and art!
Making minority languages fun and exciting!
Since my kids are learning both Chinese and Korean as minority languages, we can make those languages exciting with simple activities like wax resist painting!
Otherwise, everybody prefers English, our native language.
Wax resist painting is also a wonderful process art activity for children, and the method celebrates the journey of creating!
Here is a close-up look at how to set up wax resist painting invitations for your children.
Magic messages with wax resist painting – What you need:
- White wax:
- Candle: We typically use a birthday candle. However a number candle or a white candlestick would work better because they are thick and can thus apply more pressure.
- White crayon is another option if you don’t have a candle
- Watercolor paint or marker
- Paintbrush with broad brush tip
- Pencil
- Watercolor paper
- Painter’s tape to prevent the paper from moving on the table
That’s it! 🙂
Wax resist painting – How to make surprise messages and drawings
- Write words and draw designs very lightly with pencil
- Trace over pencil with candle wax
- Paint to your heart’s desire!
Tips:
- For watercolor paint, use less water and more paint for the words to be more visible. Bold paint colors provides more contrast.
- If you are worried about painting being too messy, you can also reveal the magic messages with markers!
With a birthday candle, I wrote 生日快乐 (Happy Birthday in Chinese) and drew the cake.
Meanwhile, my daughter drew the balloons and had fun choosing the colors!
Both kids loved watching the words and cake drawing appear magically!
Teaching tips
- Let your child decide which colors to use and take the reins with painting or coloring with markers.
- Ask your child to guess what the painting will reveal.
- After the activity, discuss why the colors were chosen and describe what you see to encourage observation, reflection, and communication.
- For kids who enjoy drawing or need encouragement for writing, offer the wax candle for them to create secret messages!
We hope you can enjoy the wax resist process art activity with your family!
