Artists lend me your ears. How to paint on Plastic?

Cafe Society
1

The title does not say everything. I have a plastic 3-ring binder, which I want to emblazon a graphic on. Said graphic is an original work of mine, and I am certain that there is no process out there short of painting the image myself, that will work. So, what kind of paint should I use? Are there primers for such paint that work better?

The Binder in question is an Avery Dennison Poly Binder that you can find in Wal-mart or Office Depot. It is flexible. I can’t find an image of one on their website. I know that everyone has seen these.

That is about all

Thanks in advance

2

Artists are not allowed in General Questions. They are all over at Cafe Society. :slight_smile:

Moved to Cafe Society.

samclem General Questions Moderator. (who has NO artistic ability)

3

Well, I know that Krylon Fusion spray-paint is designed to adhere to plastic really well, so maybe you could cut out the design on a piece of paper, stick that on the binder, then spray-paint it?

4

A freind of mine worked at a screenprinters and there are special inks that will print on plastics and vinyls. They smell terrible and take a long time to dry, but they give solid coverage. If i recall correctly, they were using those inks to screen print “Coastguard” onto reflective vests or something.

So might look into textile paints and inks.

5

This may sound real goofy, but maybe paint designed for plastic miniatures might work? Games Workshop has some spray base that adheres to plastic quite well, so could work as a base. The paints are okay too (exept the yellow ones, they’re too thin to cover anything).

You should finish with some sort of clear seal, to stop the paint flaking later. That’s true no matter what paint you use.

6

I thought acrylic paints usually stuck to plastics, but I could be wrong.

7

I was gonna vote for acrylics as well, they’ll stick to about anything. If in doubt, apply a little gesso first.

You might want to test it out on some inconspicuous part…

8

I seem to recall that those poly binders are real slick and I would think that acrylics might be prone to peeling off. I’d suggest that wet sanding with some 200 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper would make the paint stick a lot better. Never tried it though, so take this with a grain of salt.

9

Go to one of the craft stores and tell them what you’ll be painting on. They have paints for just about everything.

10

Regular acrylic paint will peel right off even with gesso or sanding.
Several of the craft paint companies have come up with new paints for painting on plastic. (Folk Art is one that I know of) They’re said to work pretty well. You will need to go to a craft store like Michaels or AC Moore for them, they won’t have them in the “craft” section of a big box store.
Another option would be to use permanent markers, like Sharpees or Le Plume Pigment markers. They have them in many many colors now.