Paint Pouring: Dollar Tree LOVE Sign

 

Oops! I forgot to post this before Valentine's Day but actually, I think I'm going to just leave this up all year anyway because why should we limit love to just one day?  I'd picked up an unfinished LOVE sign at Dollar Tree and decided to use it as my surface for a paint pouring project. 

Supplies: 

• Unfinished Sign
• Acrylic Paints, Choice of Colors
• Paint Pouring Medium ( I used Artist's Loft, Michaels)

This is the sign I found at Dollar Tree. It came with twine on the back so it could be hung up but I removed it both to avoid getting paint on it and because I knew I was going to stand it up. 

Choose the colors of paint you want to use. I went with white, silver and gold. The Artist's Loft Pouring Medium is easy to use with the paint to medium ratios stated on the bottle. I've done paint pouring using this as well as other additives and I like both ways but would recommend this for your first projects. 

Mix your colors. I just eyeballed the amount I needed for a smaller project. Since the medium makes the paint more fluid, you don't need much and I hate wasting leftovers.  As you can see, I re-use my stir sticks! 

I started with white and someday maybe I'll try making a video but for now it's pics! Then randomly added the silver and gold and tilted the sign to let the paints "move" around. They'll drip down the sides so you want to ensure you elevate your piece. 

I love paint pouring because no two pieces will ever look alike and as the paints dry, they just kind of "do their thing". 

It went perfectly on my entryway table with a canvas and some rhinestone covered letters I did a few yeas ago. 

And since the colors I went with aren't overtly Valentine's themed, I think I can leave it up year round! 

Sharing At: 

OurHopeful Home 

Family Paint Pouring: Meet Mr. Chocolate and Chocolate Chip

 

Since he left for undergrad, we've been used to going months without seeing our son each year and looked forward to his Summer visits. Needless to say with COVID, we weren't sure that was going to happen this year but he made a carefully planned drive from where he's studying in Chicago to come see us in the desert. We've been hanging out at home and it was the perfect opportunity to do a family craft project so I asked my "boys" if they'd want to try  paint pouring and they did. The above is mine which I kind of mucked up because I messed up the white paint and it got lumpy but theirs turned out GREAT! 

Meet Mr. Chocolate and Chocolate Chip (off the old block...get it?! I'm punny) and their paint pours! 

Mr. Chocolate loves yellow, silver and black so those were his color choices: 

During COVID, son started a plant collection so he chose colors to complement his plant area in his apartment, green, brown and gold. 

I'm working on some Halloween decor and decided to use burgundy, black and white. I ended up doing two canvases to use up some of the leftover paint. The one above and this one. Stay tuned for upcoming projects that will use these as backgrounds. 

All of the supplies came from Michaels: Artist Loft Acrylics and Pouring Medium

A good time was had by all and they're happy with their first foray into paint pouring! 

Mega Paint Pour 30 x 40 Canvas

Happy April everyone. If you love April Fool's Day good on you. Me, not so much! 

Sharing my biggest Acrylic Paint Pouring project today. I shall call her "Canvasouras".  I had so much fun with this one and have to say, it is my favorite one yet. 

Supplies: 

• 30 x 40 canvas (Michaels had these 70% off so this one was $34 less 70% final cost $10.20 and of course I bought 2  and any video of me getting these out of the store while pushing a cart is for sure hilarious)
• Artist Loft Acrylic Paints in White, Raw Umber, Black, Gold, Light Turquoise ( picked up a couple of large bottles that were 40% off at Michaels). The big bottles are $9.99 full price and the smaller 4 oz tubes are $3.99 full price. 
• Zinsser Flow Control paint medium
• Water
• Hand Sanitizer (secret ingredient!)

My first challenge was figuring out how I was going to stabilize my canvas and keep it off the floor. Enter giant Target plastic storage bin, the kind that will hold wrapping paper etc. Inexpensive , had on hand, flipped it upside down and worked great!

Next came mixing the paints. For this, I used bigger cups ( 12-16 oz red Solo drink cups for the white, black, gold and brown) than I've been using and one thing I've learned along my paint pouring learning journey is to get the paints thin enough w/out making them too runny. This is trial and error but I did about 1/2 paint and 1/4 ea paint medium and water. Stir slowly until really well blended. The secret ingredient? Hand Sanitizer! I saw this in a video and wanted to try it. The ingredients really aid in the creation of cells which is something I've been struggling with. More on this below. 

For this one, I did what's called a "puddle pour" which, as the name suggests, you pour your paints to make a puddle on the canvas, layering them as you go. 

I made puddles at each end of the canvas. One was white dominant and the other was brown dominant and I layered the colors randomly, and then took the rest of the the white and black and poured around each puddle on the corresponding side. 

The consistency was PERFECT this time because as you tilt the canvas, the paints flowed and were able to cover the entire canvas and run down the sides. Now for the "secret ingredient" the hand sanitizer. 

People use different mediums to create cells. Everything from WD40 to treadmill lubricant to hair serum etc. I picked up some hand sanitizer for $1.79 at the grocery store. The alcohol content plus the viscosity interacts with the paint to give you the right effect. Since I wasn't sure, I didn't add it to every color and will next time. I also discovered that if you don't securely have the cap on your paint tube, shake it so you can squeeze out the remaining paint, get it on your wall because oops....hand sanitizer gets it right off! Who knew? 

These are the "cells" I'm talking about. It's just chemistry magic. Don't ask me to explain it! I just love looking at them, mesmerized, as they emerge. 

This piece was going in our living room and while I'm known for neutrals, I wanted to pick up the aqua from the globe and tie in the brown from the clock , the chair etc. 

I'm SUPER happy with the results. What do you think? 

Sharing At: