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How to use acrylic paints

We’d love to see your finished works in the comments below. Happy painting


How To Use $1 Acrylic Paint On Fabric

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What if I told you that you can use acrylic paint on fabric and save money at the same time?! Of all of the fabric dye and tie-dye techniques using Acrylic Paint On my Fabrics to tie-dye or dye the fabric, my shirts are my favorite way.

Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with using fabric dye or dye powder to color your fabrics for a project. But why limit yourself to only a few colors when you can have over 150 colors, plus you can also mix and make your own unique colors!

red Acrylic paint on a white shirt with words on it

Can Acrylic Paint Be Used On Fabric?

Yes, acrylic paint works on fabrics, however, you will need to mix your paint colors with an acrylic medium or textile medium. You can not use regular acrylic paint on a piece of fabric without the medium and expect it to work.

You will mix the medium (ours is a glycerin wanter mixture) 5 to 1 and then mix it with your acrylic in equal parts. The drying time will vary when you use acrylic paint on fabric.

red Acrylic paint on a white shirt


What Do I Need Dye Fabric With Acrylic Paints?

  • acrylic paint in your choice of colors
  • Spray Bottles you can also use squeeze bottles like in this tutorial
  • Glycerin
  • Water
  • Measuring cup
  • White fabric items such as T-shirts

Just follow the step-by-step acrylic paint on fabric tutorial below. And watch the video to get even more clarification on how I used Apple Barrel Acrylic paints to scrunch-dye these awesome shirts for my kids to wear back to school.

purple Acrylic paint on a white shirt with words on it


Will Acrylic Paint Stick to Plastic?

The short answer is yes. Acrylic paints on plastic does stick. However, if you plan to use cheap acrylic paint from the retailer down the street — or even some more expensive paints — you must prepare the plastic accordingly or use a special primer on the plastic. Don’t worry, it’s easy. We will touch on that a bit in this tutorial.

Let’s jump into our regular programming. Here’s how to do acrylic paint on plastic:

Step 1: Gather materials

  • Plastic container
  • Acrylic paints
  • Brush
  • Sponge

Note: You can also use enamel paints instead of acrylic paints.

Varnish for the final coat to protect acrylic from flaking off because acrylic doesn’t adhere well to plastics and glass.

Step 2: Dab white paint

Begin by dabbing white paint as a base using a sponge to cover the entire surface.

Step 3: Let it dry

After the first coat, let it dry before giving it a second coat.

Step 4: Work background to foreground

Sush is using a blue acrylic paint mixed with white to paint a sky and apply it with the sponge.

Little tip: Keep dabbing the paint over it instead of applying in stokes to get a different texture.

Step 5: Work toward foreground

As you can see, she has added some clouds using the white and still dabbing the sponge over the blue sky.

Step 6: Foreground

Then Sush adds some green at the bottom for the grass. To get my green, she mixes some blue and yellow paints. Also applying it with a sponge.

Step 7: Dry and detail

She lets it all dry and then adds some details, like flowers, plants, butterflies — all using a brush. Let your creativity run!

Once you finish painting, let it dry!

Step 8: Coat with varnish

The last step is to coat it with Varnish and leave it untouched for a day.

How to Remove Acrylic Paint from Plastic

There are two simple ways to remove acrylic paint from plastic.

The first method involves a bag full of rubbing alcohol, a toothbrush, and some warm water and soap. Simply place the plastic piece in a baggie filled with rubbing alcohol, make sure it is enclosed, and shake it around for a minute or so. Afterward, remove the plastic and begin scrubbing excess areas with an old toothbrush. If it hasn’t all been removed, rinsing it with warm water and soap should do the trick.

The second method is a bit more technical. It involves a puddy knife and a mixture of vegetable oil, nail polish remover, and denature alcohol.

Use the puddy knife to scrape what you can from the plastic first. If it’s a thick coat of paint, you can probably use a razor blade. Just be certain not to put too much pressure on it or you could scratch the surface.

Use each vegetable oil, nail polish remover, and denature alcohol separately (in that order) if you can’t remove all with the puddy knife.

Best Acrylic for Plastic Models

The best acrylic paint on plastic models are acrylic lacquer paints, especially for hand brushing which is most often the method for painting plastic models.

For recommendations, check out our store!

Colin Wynn
the authorColin Wynn

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