Review:Craft Smart Acrylic Paint

Continuing my reviews of matte  finish acrylic paint..

Second Place: Craft Smart Acrylic Paint by Michaels

The description on Michaels.com:

A paint that delivers great quality at an affordable price! It is ideal for simple base coats and a multitude of craft projects. Designed to brush out smoothly and evenly, it covers in one or two coats and dries quickly to a soft matte finish. This versatile acrylic paint is perfect for general arts and crafts, stenciling, ceramics, school projects, home decorating and decorative painting. It adheres to most surfaces: canvas, fabric, paper, cardstock, poster board, wood, metal, ceramic bisque, terra cotta, resin, plaster, polymer clay, Styrofoam and more. Craft Smart Acrylic Paint is nontoxic, permanent, water based, intermixable and cleans up easily with soap and water. Shake well and apply with a synthetic or sponge brush.

For an inexpensive craft paint, this paint performed really, really well.  The color is smooth, coverage was full, with little to no brush lines.  This paint took second pace because although I got decent coverage with one coat, if I were working on an important project or something where coverage really mattered, I think I would need to apply a second coat to ensure my paper did not peep through the paint.  

Here is my test swatch:

At $.59 for a 2 fl oz bottle, this paint offers OUTSTANDING comparative value.  This paint has a ton of colors so for that price, you could try dozens of colors without breaking the bank.

Using Old Craft Supplies

I have been doing a lot of art journaling but feeling kind of uninsipred lately so I decided to focus a little on my first true love- rubber stamping and card making.  This really simple Valentine's Day card card is my first foray into card making in a couple of years.  I really like how it turned out. 

I created the background  by using watercoloring a piece of watercolor paper cut down to size.  Once the watercolor paper was THOROUGLY dry, I stamped the heart in clear embossing ink and embossed it with white embossing powder   The sentiment is a rub on. 

I really like the simplicity of the card.  I decided the card did not need ribbon, bling or any other embellishments.  The simplicity speaks for itself.  I could see adding three simple dots either in brown or crystal in one of the corners but nothing more than that.  I enjoyed making this card.


What is interesting to me about this card is that with the exception of the jar of embossing powder (Hero Arts 2015),  all of the supplies I used are super old!  The stamp is a PSX from 1995.  The rub ons are from the Joann's crafts essentials line, circa 2004-2006.  I don't even know if Joann's sells this line any more!  The watercolors are two sets I have has since at least 2009.   The watercolor background is mounted to a piece of cardstock from a pack purchased in 2011.




I have tried different watercolor media over the years and I repeatedly come back to these sets , which I love.  The rub ons work really well and even after all of these years, I was able to rub them on smoothly and cleanly.   My older supplies really came through for me!

It has been a while but well... summer.   It was difficult to be indoors blogging while the weather was so nice.

Anyway,  back to chalk paints. Here are the rest I tested in no particular order:

1. Soft Matte Fabric Paint by Tulip 

I really wanted to like this paint.  It comes in a variety of colors and is affordable if you don't need a lot of paint ( $1.79 for a 1 fl oz bottle).  It is a fabric paint and whether that makes a difference for paper uses,  I don't know.   I tested the color periwinkle.  Unfortunately,  when I created a swatch,  the coverage was a little thin and when the swatch dried it was matte but had a slight sheen.   There is nothing wrong with this but since I was looking for a true matte finish,  I was  a little disappointed.  It goes on smoothly and is pretty when applied,  but not the best choice for me as a chalk paint for paper.

The Tulip swatch is on the left.  The photo is not great but you can see the black paper showing through the paint and the slight sheen in parts of it.

 

 

2. Folk Art Home Depot Chalk

This is a matte acrylic paint that appears to be marketed for furniture painting and other crafty projects.  The coverage is a little thin.  In the photo it is the paint swatch on the lower right and you can see the black paper showing through slightly.  However,  it dried to a nice soft truly matte finish.  The color I tested was "lilac" and it is a beautiful soft dusky purple with a tint of rose.   The paints are sold for $7.99 for an 8 oz jar and are at Joanns and AC Moore and probably other craft retailers as well.

The Folk Art Chalk Home Decor paint is on the lower right.

3. Buttercream Luxe Craft Chalk Paint- Matte Finish

This is a new craft paint line and is being sold at Joann's.  It is marketed for home decor products and the product line also included stencils, wood-carved stamps, home decor items, embellishments, fabric and miscellaneous doo-dads.

The color i test is "Lavender Fields", which is  a nice soft lavender purple color.   I don't really understand the "why" behind the  buttercream line, but I like this paint.  It goes on smoothly, without streaking and gets good coverage.  With one coat, there is very little peek-through from the black paper.  The paint dries to a nice, smooth matte finish, with no sheen.   The color dries to the barest purple, with rose undertones.  It is likely that with more than one coat ( and over a white surface), the purple color will deepen in intensity.

Here is the official color swatch from Joann.com:

Here is my swatch.  The buttercream paint is the swatch in the middle on the right.:

The paint is retailing for $8.99 for a 8 oz jar at Joann. I think the price is a little steep but it is good paint with good one coat coverage, which means you will need to use less of it, so it could be worth it. 

I have some other paints to report on so will post again on this topic and include my final findings.

Thanks for reading!

Review of Chalk Finsh Paint and Matte Acrylic Paint

I know .  It has been a while since I last posted. I have had a lot I wanted to post but have not been able to find the time.  I thought I would share one project I have been working on: ultra matte finish/chalk paints.

Chalk paints are not new.  They have been a feature in the interior decorating world for a while as decorators seek to create the "shabby chic" look for their walls, furniture and home decor projects.



When applied, chalk paints give a smooth, soft, matte finish to a surface.  This finish is not to be confused with chalkboard paints, which create a chalkboard-like surface on which you can write.



I was interested in a paint that had a matte finish rather than a satin or shiny finish, which is why I started looking at chalk paint as a possible solution. However, because I wanted to use the paint in my art journal and paper projects, I wanted an acrylic paint formation, rather than a latex- based chalk paint.

There are a couple of different options in the market, ranging from $.59 to $9.99.   While I expected a range of quality in the paints the results were surprising.

ATCs created with chalk finish paint

Various brands of matte finish and chalk paints

First Place: There was a three way tie for my first place vote:

1. Chroma's Jo Sonja Artist Color Matte Flow Acrylic

Here is a description of these paints from the Chroma website:

Jo Sonja's Artists' Colours are flow formula acrylics offering the look and feel of traditional gouache. They offer superb handling and brushing characteristics together with purity and strength of colour. Acrylic gouache is a popular medium for design works on paper and decorative art, providing opacity of colour and a beautiful, matte velvet finish. Unlike traditional gouache, colour layering can be achieved easily throughout a painting, as the paints will dry within minutes.

The  color I tested is Storm Blue.  Storm blue is a muted submarine blue that is very reminiscent of Payne's Grey, one of my all-time favorite neutrals.

Why this paint ties for first:

The Jo Sonja paint went on smoothly and had fantastic coverage.  Some of the tested paints needed multiple coats in for full coverage but the Jo Sonja covered easily in one smooth coat and dried to a even, muted finish with no gaps.  The dried paint had a beautiful soft, chalky finish.  And best of all- no brush lines! The Jo Sonja paint is just perfect.

Swatch of Jo Sonja paint.  Unfortunately, my camera did not do a good job of capturing the true color.  For reference,  the swatch is painted on black cardstock.  In this photo it shows up as brown!

A 75ml tube of Jo Sonja French Blue is $2.60 at jerrysartarama.com

2. Tied for First: Blick Matte Acrylic in Blue Medium.

These paints are available from dickblick.com.  Here is what Blick has to say about them:

Blick’s opaque, matte-surface acrylics are water-based, quick-drying, and permanent, yet non-toxic and safe for everyday use.

Let me just say:  I am a fan of these paints.  They come in a wide range of colors, are affordable and most importantly, the paints do what they say they will. The coverage was not as complete as the coverage I achieved with the Jo Sonja but the paint dries to a smooth, muted finish with no brush lines.

Why this paint tied for first: great colors, easy to use, and smooth application and finish.

A 2 oz bottle is $2.14 at dickblick.com.

3. Tied for First: Americana Decor Chalky Finish

Official description: ... an ultra-matte chalk paint that requires no priming or sanding before using. The color palette includes 29 intermixable colors carefully selected with home decor trends in mind.

Why this paint ties for first: American Decor's description does not do this paint justice. This paint has amazing coverage.  I need only one coat to achieve a relatively smooth swatch, with no blotchiness or gaps.  There was a small hint of brush lines,  but not noticeably so.  The coverage was just fantastic.  Although I used only one coat of paint, it laid down a nice, thick layer of paint with even coverage.  The color I tested, Treasure was a lovely sea blue-green.

This paint retails for $8.99 for 8 fl. oz. at Michaels and Joann's.

I tested four to five other brands that did well but they did not do as  well as the three posted here.  I will post my review of the other paint brands over the next few days.

I hope these reviews you in your selection of a matte finish paint for your project!

Note:  I purchased all of the paints mentioned in this review.  My review reflects my personal opinion.