	Siskiyou Decorative Artists
Return to top of Page Siskiyou Decorative Artists - Julie Veronneau, President Contact Us [ Home ] [ Our Chapter ] [ Meetings ] [ Newsletters ] [ Painting Projects & Seminars ] [ Calendar ] [ Photo Gallery ] [ Links ] webmistress Claudia Plankenhorn Contact webmistress
Home Our Chapter Meetings Newsletters Painting Projects & Seminars Calendar Photo Gallery Links Members Only For a Siskiyou Decorative Artists membership application click here For a Society of Decorative Painters membership application click here	Tips Index Test for Color Substition Cleaning Natural Brushes Folding Paper Towels for Absorbency Paper Towels on TP Roll Prevent Seeping in Masked Areas Straining Old Paint Products for Dried Paint Removal Need Straight Borders? Easy Opening for New Paint Can't Clean Brushes Right Away? Handy Storage for Magazines Use for Surgical Brush Great Spray Paint Test for Color Substitution - OK you are partially through a piece and now some trim calls for a color you don't have. Do you want to see if another color you do have is going to look okay> Take a clear piece of plastic, such as used for transparencies, and cut off a 3x5 (or so) piece. Place it over your already painted piece and then use your new color on the plastic. You will be able to see them side by side before you commit yourself to using the wrong color on the original. It helps to put a piece of colored tape on one end of the plastic so you can find it again. A clear piece of plastic is hard to locate. - Courtesy of Lori Larkey Cleaning Natural Brushes - Natural brushes such as sable should only be cleaned with water by swishing in your water bucket. Synthetic brushes should be cleaned with Dove "Scrubby Brush Cleaner". (www.dovebrushes.com) It has a reticulated brush cleaner built in. It cleans acrylic & oil paint from your brushes. It gently cleans between the brush hairs and has a conditioner built in. NEVER, scrub your brushes back and forth on the bottom of your water bucket , this breaks the hairs and ruins the tips of the brushes.-Courtesy of Arlene Linton. Folding Paper Towels for Absorbency - A way to quit wasting so many paper towels. You see everyone putting out torn sheets of paper toweling, folded into quarters. Instead, tear off 2 full sheets. Keeping them back to back, fold once in half. You now have a double thick, half size piece of paper towel. Now fold that piece in thirds, overlaying the left 1/3 over the right 1/3. You wind up with a pad of toweling that has 6 usable sides. It takes up less room on your table, is very absorbent, usable over and over until it's so covered in paint you throw away - 2 pieces of paper towel. - -Courtesy of Lori Larkey Paper Towels on TP Roll - Constantly getting drops of water from your ferrule into your painting? Take a mostly used up (maybe down 2/3 or so) roll of toilet paper, tear off 2-3 paper towels. Center the TP roll on the first piece of paper towel and roll the paper towels around the TP roll. Take the ends of each side and tuck them into the hole at the end of the roll. You have a neat, small place to take off pesky water droplets or to take off a ball of paint from the end of a liner. When the roll is wet, roll it over. When it's full of paint, take off the outer layers of paper towel and replace only the toweling. - Courtesy of Mo O'Leary Prevent Seeping in Masked Areas - To help preventing your paint from seeping under the tape when painting a masked area, paint the area first with your background color. If paint bleeds under the tape it will be your background color and should seal the gaps. Then when you paint in the area with the color you want you should have a clean edge. Straining Old Paint - When bottles of acrylic paint get old and get bits of hardened paint in them don't throw them away. Cut a piece of nylon tulle and stretch it over the top of the bottle and replace the cap. This acts as a strainer and you'll get much more mileage out of the bottle. Product for Dried Paint Removal - I discovered a GREAT product! "Brush Cleaner & Restorer" by Winsor & Newton. I had 2 small stipple brushes that I was going to throw out because they had become solid like dried pencil erasers. I poured a small amount of this product into a 3 oz. paper cup and let the brushes sit overnight. Then I washed the brushes well with soap and water and they are now like brand new brushes! I love it! Some additional products that are also good for this purpose are: Power Wash by Mona Lisa products; Simple Green (found in the auto dept. at WalMart); and JW Etcs Safe Strip Brush Cleaner. Use all these products sparingly as they are strong enough to eventually damage the brush bristles. Courtesy of Sharon Hoffman Need Straight Borders? - To make straight borders on a project, you can use a commercially sold border tool; put a chalk pencil in a compass; or you can do the following: Take a plastic lid with a lip from any container that has one (coffee can, butter, cottage cheese) and cut it in quarters so that you are left with 4 triangle shapes. Cut off the top point of the triangle if it bothers you. Punch holes in the lid using a hole punch from the lip edge up every 1/2" or as close as you can space them. Then you can put the lip of the lid on the edge of project surface and put your chalk in the hole that corresponds with how wide you want your border. Make them with different size lids. Easy Opening for New Paint - You can easily remove the plastic paint bottle cap protectors on new bottles by using a small seam ripper. Cindy Hayashi suggests that you carry one with your painting supplies for easy use. [Great idea - thanks Cindy!] Can't Clean Brushes Right Away? - Amber Hall of Palmdale, CA says that for those times when she knows she won't be able to clean her brushes right away, she wipes out the excess paint in them, rinses them in water, and then dresses them in DecoArt Traditions Extender and Blending Medium. This will hold them until she can give them a proper cleaning. Handy Storage for Magazines - Store painting magazines in laundry detergent boxes. Remove the lid . . . Cut a "V" at the top of one end (for easy loading and unloading magazines) . . . Spray paint the box with Krylon Fusion Paint . . . Fill with magazines and line them up on the shelf. They are free, easy, and look great! Courtesy of Peggy Harris Use for Surgical Brush - Use E-6000 glue to glue a surgical brush onto the inside of your cleaning basin or your collapsible water buckets. They have soft plastic bristles that are very gentle. You can buy them from www.leevalley.com. Put "surgical brush" in the search box on their website. The brushes are also great for use in the kitchen for scrubbing vegetables and for cleaning paint off your hands - and - they are very inexpensive! Great Spray Paint - Great spray paint for decorative surfaces: Krylon Fusion, Satin (Wal-Mart, etc)…super for plastic, wood, metal you name it! Spray lightly - spray again and again with no delays in between coats (like most brands have)!! Courtesy of Peggy Harris

Siskiyou Decorative Artists

Siskiyou Decorative Artists - Julie Veronneau, President
Contact Us

[ Home ] [ Our Chapter ] [ Meetings ] [ Newsletters ] [ Painting Projects & Seminars ] [ Calendar ] [ Photo Gallery ] [ Links ]

webmistress Claudia Plankenhorn Contact webmistress Webmaster at work

Home

Our Chapter

Meetings

Newsletters

Painting Projects & Seminars

Calendar

Photo Gallery

Links

Members Only

For a Siskiyou Decorative Artists membership application click here

For a Society of Decorative Painters membership application click here

Test for Color Substitution - OK you are partially through a piece and now some trim calls for a color you don't have. Do you want to see if another color you do have is going to look okay> Take a clear piece of plastic, such as used for transparencies, and cut off a 3x5 (or so) piece. Place it over your already painted piece and then use your new color on the plastic. You will be able to see them side by side before you commit yourself to using the wrong color on the original. It helps to put a piece of colored tape on one end of the plastic so you can find it again. A clear piece of plastic is hard to locate. - Courtesy of Lori Larkey

Cleaning Natural Brushes - Natural brushes such as sable should only be cleaned with water by swishing in your water bucket. Synthetic brushes should be cleaned with Dove "Scrubby Brush Cleaner". (www.dovebrushes.com) It has a reticulated brush cleaner built in. It cleans acrylic & oil paint from your brushes. It gently cleans between the brush hairs and has a conditioner built in. NEVER, scrub your brushes back and forth on the bottom of your water bucket , this breaks the hairs and ruins the tips of the brushes.-Courtesy of Arlene Linton.

Folding Paper Towels for Absorbency - A way to quit wasting so many paper towels. You see everyone putting out torn sheets of paper toweling, folded into quarters. Instead, tear off 2 full sheets. Keeping them back to back, fold once in half. You now have a double thick, half size piece of paper towel. Now fold that piece in thirds, overlaying the left 1/3 over the right 1/3. You wind up with a pad of toweling that has 6 usable sides. It takes up less room on your table, is very absorbent, usable over and over until it's so covered in paint you throw away - 2 pieces of paper towel. - -Courtesy of Lori Larkey

Paper Towels on TP Roll - Constantly getting drops of water from your ferrule into your painting? Take a mostly used up (maybe down 2/3 or so) roll of toilet paper, tear off 2-3 paper towels. Center the TP roll on the first piece of paper towel and roll the paper towels around the TP roll. Take the ends of each side and tuck them into the hole at the end of the roll. You have a neat, small place to take off pesky water droplets or to take off a ball of paint from the end of a liner. When the roll is wet, roll it over. When it's full of paint, take off the outer layers of paper towel and replace only the toweling. - Courtesy of Mo O'Leary

Prevent Seeping in Masked Areas - To help preventing your paint from seeping under the tape when painting a masked area, paint the area first with your background color. If paint bleeds under the tape it will be your background color and should seal the gaps. Then when you paint in the area with the color you want you should have a clean edge.

Straining Old Paint - When bottles of acrylic paint get old and get bits of hardened paint in them don't throw them away. Cut a piece of nylon tulle and stretch it over the top of the bottle and replace the cap. This acts as a strainer and you'll get much more mileage out of the bottle.

Product for Dried Paint Removal - I discovered a GREAT product! "Brush Cleaner & Restorer" by Winsor & Newton. I had 2 small stipple brushes that I was going to throw out because they had become solid like dried pencil erasers. I poured a small amount of this product into a 3 oz. paper cup and let the brushes sit overnight. Then I washed the brushes well with soap and water and they are now like brand new brushes! I love it! Some additional products that are also good for this purpose are: Power Wash by Mona Lisa products; Simple Green (found in the auto dept. at WalMart); and JW Etcs Safe Strip Brush Cleaner. Use all these products sparingly as they are strong enough to eventually damage the brush bristles. Courtesy of Sharon Hoffman

Need Straight Borders? - To make straight borders on a project, you can use a commercially sold border tool; put a chalk pencil in a compass; or you can do the following: Take a plastic lid with a lip from any container that has one (coffee can, butter, cottage cheese) and cut it in quarters so that you are left with 4 triangle shapes. Cut off the top point of the triangle if it bothers you. Punch holes in the lid using a hole punch from the lip edge up every 1/2" or as close as you can space them. Then you can put the lip of the lid on the edge of project surface and put your chalk in the hole that corresponds with how wide you want your border. Make them with different size lids.

Easy Opening for New Paint - You can easily remove the plastic paint bottle cap protectors on new bottles by using a small seam ripper. Cindy Hayashi suggests that you carry one with your painting supplies for easy use. [Great idea - thanks Cindy!]

Can't Clean Brushes Right Away? - Amber Hall of Palmdale, CA says that for those times when she knows she won't be able to clean her brushes right away, she wipes out the excess paint in them, rinses them in water, and then dresses them in DecoArt Traditions Extender and Blending Medium. This will hold them until she can give them a proper cleaning.

Handy Storage for Magazines - Store painting magazines in laundry detergent boxes. Remove the lid . . . Cut a "V" at the top of one end (for easy loading and unloading magazines) . . . Spray paint the box with Krylon Fusion Paint . . . Fill with magazines and line them up on the shelf. They are free, easy, and look great! Courtesy of Peggy Harris

Use for Surgical Brush - Use E-6000 glue to glue a surgical brush onto the inside of your cleaning basin or your collapsible water buckets. They have soft plastic bristles that are very gentle. You can buy them from www.leevalley.com. Put "surgical brush" in the search box on their website. The brushes are also great for use in the kitchen for scrubbing vegetables and for cleaning paint off your hands - and - they are very inexpensive!

Great Spray Paint - Great spray paint for decorative surfaces: Krylon Fusion, Satin (Wal-Mart, etc)…super for plastic, wood, metal you name it! Spray lightly - spray again and again with no delays in between coats (like most brands have)!! Courtesy of Peggy Harris