What kind of paint pouring would James Bond do? A dirty pour with a martini glass of course! It’s not shaken or stirred, it’s layered!

What’s in the martini glass? Acrylic paint and Fleotrol from the hardware store. If you’re new to paint pouring and wonder how much pouring medium to use or how to set up your space the easy way, I’ve created a free Paint Pouring Guide to help you.

Get the free Paint Pouring Guide

There is freedom in paint pouring so you can add as much or as little paint as you want. I could have stopped here but I didn’t. Why? There were 3 factors that played a role in my decision to add more paint.

1. I don’t like white space.
2. There was still paint left in the martini glass
3. I wanted the cells to be larger, more stretched. Why? Because the last few canvases I’ve made had really tight cells with fine details and I’m just in the mood for something bigger.

Once I’ve added the paint to the edges, some of it will drip off. That’s why there’s a box under it, to catch those and make paint pouring mess free.

It’s not a fancy box, it’s just a recycled one. And that rack it’s on isn’t a “meant for pouring” thing. It’s a cooling rack from the kitchen section of the store.

Let it drip into the box for about 15-30 minutes. It’s important to move it because when it’s dry, it can stick, dare I say fuse, with the wire rack.

Your drying rack doesn’t need to be fancy, just functional. You can see how to make them from plastic cups and cardboard in the free Paint Pouring Guide.

What if you don’t have a spare martini glass around and you want to try this? You can use any cup to do a dirty pour. Just a reminder, that once a glass is used with paint, it’s no longer food safe.

Want more paint pouring? Then check out my other posts here.

There’s a heartfelt “secret” message for my daughter hidden underneath this paint pouring that lets her know exactly how I feel about her. When it’s dry, you’ll have to look at the canvas at an angle to see the words.

To do this you’ll need 2 main things. First, something to write the message with, I used dimensional fabric paint. That brought back memories in the 80’s of puff painting t-shirts! Next you’ll need paint and pouring medium mixture. To make it easy to apply I put it in condiment squeeze bottles.

What’s in the bottles? Acrylic paint mixed with Floetrol from a hardware store. If you’re new to paint pouring and want to know how it all works from setting up your space to mixing the paints to making pours, then get my free Paint Pouring Guide.

Get the free Paint Pouring Guide

Once you write the words on there, it’s very very important that the words are completely dry before going on to the next step, the color!

Squirt a bunch of paint directly on the canvas. It’s quite freeing to just squirt paint all willy nilly on there! Add layers until you’ve got the canvas filled.

This is very forgiving and you don’t need a “perfect” amount of paint. In the video you saw that I didn’t have enough so I just added more.

To create the cells, take a palette knife or something similar, and swipe. This will completely change how the canvas looks.

Over the next few minutes, it will continue to change, with more cells appearing.

So where is the secret message? You can’t see it at all here because the paint is wet. But it will appear as it dries.

This technique works best with Floetrol because of the way it dries. The paint is pulled very flat on the canvas so that when it is dry then you can see the raised words.

If you look closely at the dried canvas below, you can see the letter I and m. This is a very subtle look when the canvas is on the wall. Unless you’re looking at the canvas at an angle most won’t even notice it. That’s why it’s a secret message.

Here’s the canvas ready to go on the wall. You might notice the word “of” on the bottom left.

So now when my daughter goes by this canvas on her wall she will be reminded that I’m proud of her.

If you’re ever looking for a personalized gift to give, try adding a secret message to a paint pouring!

If you’d like to know how to do paint pouring, I’ve got a free downloadable guide for you here.