Mixing Paint For a Tote Bag

A hand-painted tote bag is a fun and creative way to express one’s personality. It’s a great gift for Mother’s Day, graduation or any special occasion. Using acrylic paints, it is relatively easy to create a unique one-of-a-kind tote while Mixing 2 year old paint. The key to success is proper preparation, including thorough mixing of the paint.

Whether you are creating a rainbow or just an individual color, the first step is to prepare your paints. The easiest way to do this is by adding Fabric Painting Medium to each of the colors you are going to use. This makes the paint a little thinner and more fabric friendly so that it will not crack or peel when the tote is bent or moved.

After establishing your base layer of colors, it is time to start laying down the dotted pattern. I like to start with the lightest colors and work my way up to the darkest. It is helpful to have a general plan of what you are going to do, but you can also improvise as you go.

If you are painting a rainbow, it is helpful to have a template available. You can print out a pdf or use a printed sheet of paper that is the same size as your tote. You can then trace the template with a pencil on the back of the tote, allowing you to paint around the outline. For this project, I used the stencil from this tutorial.

Traffic paints are produced in a wide variety of formulations to meet various DOT requirements for dry times, VOCs and other variables. They are typically available in a range of densities and viscosity measurements, and the density is commonly displayed on the product data sheet as a ratio to water (specific gravity). The higher the specific gravity, the thicker the paint.

Mixing these products requires a versatile mixer that can handle varying liquid levels and a large range of container sizes and shapes. Mixers are available in a number of formats, from pail kits to 55-gallon drum agitators. For larger volumes of paint, a tote tank mixer attaches to the top of the drum and provides quick, efficient mixing. Pulsair offers this type of high-speed, vertical 'bottom-up' air mixing process for IBC tote tanks as well as drums and rail tank cars. This efficient and fast mixing process is a perfect solution for blending traffic paints prior to application.