Acrylic Paint Pour Vases

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Paint pouring has become one of my favorite activities. I love that you never know exactly what you’re going to get. I still consider myself a beginner (I have SO much still to learn and experiment with!), but I feel like I have had some very successful pours. Only recently have I started pouring on vases, and WOW. There’s nothing quite like a paint pour vase. Each one is totally unique and beautiful in its own way.

I’ll share what I’ve learned so far—pouring both over a canvas and without, and I hope you’ll be inspired to give it a try!

*** I apologize in advance for the fact that I did a pretty terrible job of documenting this process with photos. I have photos, but they’re from several different pours.

You can find my first post on paint pouring HERE, where I write about using Floetrol and a variety of brands of paint. My supply list was quite a bit simpler this time, but no less effective or beautiful.

I resisted buying ready-to-pour paints for a long time because they’re more expensive than mixing your own, but I also know myself and know that the easier it is to get started, the more likely I am to grab my paints and GO. I had a good Michaels coupon, so I bought a bunch of colors of the Artist’s Loft paints to try out. Then I found some of the DecoArt brand paints on clearance and bought those, too.

You could probably pour over just about anything, but I’ve been buying vases from Dollar Tree. They have some fun shapes there, and I think I’ve tried just about all of them.

I hate wasting paint, so I like to pour over a canvas so I can get a second piece of art out of each pour. I’m always happy with canvas I get, though, so I’ve started pouring just on a vase.

One of our neighbors recently gifted me a bunch of canvases in a bunch of different sizes, and it has been SO nice to try them out and see what I like. I’m still using the value canvases from Michaels, but someday I expect I’ll move up to something a little higher quality. For now, I appreciate having less expensive canvases to experiment on.

The one thing I often forget to do is tape off the back of my canvases. You get a much cleaner look if you do that, and regular painter’s tape does the trick.

To prop up the canvases, I’ve been using whatever I have on hand. Seriously, whatever. Pringles can lids, empty dog food cans, cups of peas (I don’t know), etc. I keep thinking I should order these, which I often see in pouring videos.

To prop up the vases, I’ve also been using whatever I can find. I’ve mostly used disposable plastic cups I’ve had on hand (the size depends on the size of the opening of the vase). I will say that it is important to make sure there’s enough cup exposed under the vase that you can grab it and move it off the canvas. I’ve had more than one vase take a tumble because I was struggling to get ahold of it.

I’m not always good about wearing gloves, but I really should be. Not only is it easier to clean up, it’s also easier to hold on to everything.

Here’s my list of supplies:

• Vase
• Something to prop up the vase
• Pouring paints
• Measuring cup
• Painter’s tape
• Gloves

Optional:

• Canvas
• Something to prop up the canvas (whatever you have on hand or something like this)

Pouring over a canvas

First, prepare your work surface and canvas. I’ve been pouring over some combination of a disposable tablecloth, parchment paper, and a clear shower curtain. I like to have somewhere for the leftover paint to dry because I use that for other projects. The shower curtain is my favorite. The paint peels up so easily and is so smooth on the bottom.

Tape off your canvas so you can keep the bottom clean (or clean-ish).

Prop up the canvas so that the excess paint has a place to go. Carefully set the vase and whatever you’re using to prop up the vase on top of the canvas.

Prepare your paints. So far I have only layered my paints in a cup and then poured that over the vase/canvas. You could just pour one color at a time over the vase, though. I use a paint pouring calculator to get a rough estimate of how much paint I need. You can put in the dimensions of your canvas to get an estimate, and then add a little to make sure you have enough to cover the vase.

Remember that the paint on the bottom of the cup will be the paint that goes on last.

Pour! I generally just start pouring and moving the cup around and around the vase as I go. The last little bits I can get out of the cup I pour wherever I think it maybe needs a little bit extra. Sometimes I start pouring in the center of the bottom of the vase and let the paint fall however it’s going to.

Once the paint has mostly stopped dripping off of the vase (2-5ish minutes), you can move it off of the canvas. Carefully!! I have dropped more than one of my vases.

Set the vase somewhere it can continue to drip.

Start tilting the canvas to get the paint moving the way you want it to. I like to go from corner to corner. If there’s something intriguing in the center of the canvas that I want to stay centered, I’m careful to not let it run off the edge. Otherwise, I just tilt and tilt until I’m happy with how it looks.

Set the canvas down on top of whatever you’ve set up to prop it up.

Then, this is the hard part… WAIT. I try to wait at least 24 hours before I even touch the vase or the canvas. From what I’ve read, though the paint should be dry by 24-28 hours or so, it won’t be fully cured for much longer. I’ve read a lot of different info on curing time, but it seems to be somewhere around 2-4 weeks.

You can wait until the dripping is pretty much done and use a craft stick to clean off any paint drips that are still hanging on. Some people like the drips, but I prefer a cleaner look.

All that’s left to do is seal the vase. I’m still experimenting here. From what I’ve read, some people only seal with resin. Others use a spray sealant. I’m going to do my own comparison, and I’ll keep you posted!

Pouring without a canvas

I don’t think there is a paint pour calculator out there that will tell how much paint you need to cover a vase, so this involves a little trial and error. I dislike wasting paint so much that I’m inclined to err on the side of too little. However, you have to find a balance between not using too much and making sure the paint will actually cover the whole vase evenly. I kept pouring what I know was enough to cover the vase (based on the excess that ran off), but for whatever reason, the paint would run down one in one spot more and not quite enough in another spot. I started using the Measure app on my phone to make sure the vases were level, and I found that 2oz of paint was enough to cover the smaller vases, and 3-4oz was enough for the bigger ones.

I’m still learning, but I don’t mind getting SOME excess paint, because I’ll use it for paint skin projects later! (That might be my favorite part.)

You can be a little less picky about what you prop a vase up with when you aren’t painting over a canvas because you aren’t going to have to move it. 

Once again, waiting is maybe the hardest part. So worth it.

Happy pouring!