Overview
Tulip 3D fabric paint is a water soluble, kid friendly paint that is fully machine washable once dry.
Tulip® Dimensional Fabric Paint helps you get creative in 3D, it will hold its form in beads from 0.5mm to 6mm thick straight from the bottle.
Available in a variety of colours and finishes, this premium quality non-toxic paint is formulated for lasting adhesion to fabric so your designs remain dimensional and won’t crack or peel, wash after wash.
Each easy squeeze bottle is equipped with a fine point tip for precise application and endless creative possibilities, please note that the Glitter and Sparkles bottles have a slightly larger tip to allow the glitter in the paint to pass through without causing clogging.
Take your projects to fun, colourful new dimensions with Tulip®.
How to use
Before starting on your prized garment, especially if you have not used Tulip® before, it is well worth having a practise on some old paper or newspaper. You might also find it useful to create templates or guides to get the application just right.
1. If possible, pre-wash fabric before painting. Do not use fabric softener.
2. Shake the bottle well – most problems encountered with Tulip® such as folk thinking that the paint is thin, come from not taking sufficient note of this very important step. If the paint does not seem to be combining completely smoothly we have found that tapping the edge of one bottle on the bottom of another quite sharply can be extremely effective.
3. Insert cardboard between layers of fabric.
4. Squeeze Tulip Dimensional Paint right out of the bottle.
5. Hold the tip to the surface and squeeze gently. Let Tulip dry flat for at least 4 hours to form a skin. We have found that 24 hours per mm of thickness is best to be on the safe side, assuming that the item is in a normally heated room. Because Tulip® is water based cold temperatures will slow down the drying process.
6. Wait 72 hours before washing. Wash in warm water, gentle cycle with mild soap; line dry. Clean up with soap and water. Do not dry clean.
Tips
Choose fabrics that are machine or hand washable. For best results, use 50/50 cotton/polyester blends.
Test paint in a hidden area to ensure compatibility with fabric, although you should note that we have not yet found a fabric that Tulip has damaged in any way.
Hold the dimensional paint bottle in your hand like a pencil.
Tap bottle firmly, tip downward, on hard surface. Flush out bottle by squeezing out a small amount of paint, and wiping tip clean.
For raised lines, hold the bottle at an angle to the fabric, allowing more paint to escape. For flat lines, hold bottle straight up and down, allowing less paint to escape, you can also brush Tulip to cover large areas should you so wish. Practice your lines on pre-printed paper towels.
Replace and store the bottle upright on the convenient Cap Stand to keep air bubbles flowing away from the nozzle.
Set rhinestones, buttons and charms by squeezing a bead of paint about the same size as the stone. Place stone on top of paint. Gently tap rhinestone into paint so that the paint comes up around edges to form a setting. Let dry flat.
Tulip® fabric paint can be used on many surfaces as well as clothing and material. The important thing for it being permanent is that it has some form of key to cling on to. It will stick to shiny surfaces as well but this use would be deemed experimental.
You can wash off Tulip® fabric paint with a damp sponge whilst it is still wet but once dry it is very difficult to remove and fully machine washable.
As is usual with colours we suggest that you wash inside out, at low temperature using a non-bio detergent. If Tulip® has dried there is no ‘magic’ solvent that we know of that will get it off easily.
It is very important to shake the bottle well before starting to use Tulip® to ensure the bottle contents are mixed well. If you have 2 tubes tapping them together (not too hard!) works well to aid mixing.
All Tulip® fabric paint colours are mixable, if you simply must have a colour that is no longer produced, but please bear in mind that it is quite a thick paint so it is not very easy to suck up into a pipette or a syringe (we have tried).
The 1.25oz bottles all come with a thin nozzle applicator with which, with a little practise, it is relatively easy to get a line from just 0.5mm wide up to around 6mm if you squeeze harder.
The nozzles on the Sparkles and Glitter Tulip® fabric paints are slightly wider to allow the particles of glitter to travel through unhindered.
If you are mixing your own colours then an old glitter or sparkles bottle would be favourite for sucking up some mixed paint.
We have tried removing the nozzle on a bottle and refilling. The nozzles are hard to remove and once pushed back in are unpredictable as to whether they suddenly pop out under pressure. It is possible to get around this by cutting down the screw top supplied to act as a sort of keeper but it is not an ideal solution.
Uses
Tulip is absolutely ideal for:
- Security marking kids school uniform. Create your own unique logo and then using a colour as close as possible to the garment, mark it in an out of sight place inside. That way you and teachers can identify the garment but the child does not get bullied.
- Creating unique t-shirts, hoodies and canvas shoes
- Personalising items such as hats and scarves.
- Tulip is an extremely effective glue on many surfaces
Frequently asked questions
Q. Is Tulip® safe?
A. Yes, in normal use, the safety sheet is, however, 5 pages long so please get in touch if you would like a copy. Tulip conforms to the USA standard ASTM D-4236 which, in a nutshell, means that products need to be regularly tested and that any hazards are clearly shown on the product label. Tulip has no hazard advisories on its label.
Q. Is Tulip safe to use as a finger paint?
A. There is no official recommended use but we have tried this to create some hand prints, we used barrier cream first and then quickly washed the paint off so that it did not have a chance to dry under little finger nails.
Q. Is Tulip® permanent?
A. Yes, given sufficient time to dry completely and sufficient key to grip, Tulip is very difficult to remove, on cotton/polyester clothing, pretty much impossible – as well as cloth covered sofas and chairs – you have been warned!
Q. Can I wash Tulip® in the washing machine once it is fully dry?
A. Yes, as is usual with colours, wash inside out, at low temperature using a non-bio detergent.
Q. Can I use Tulip® on surfaces other than fabric?
A. Yes, Tulip is very versatile and we have not found anything yet it will not stick to. However, as this type of use is outside of the recommended use it would be deemed experimental and no guarantees are given or implied.
Q. How much Tulip do I need?
A. We used a whole bottle of Tulip on a piece of A4 graph paper making approximately 2mm lines, we were able to make 40 lines 29cm long and still had a bit left. Every bottle of Tulip comes with a hygiene seal, we are happy for you to return any bottles that you do not need for a project if the seal is in tact. It is far better to order plenty for a project as we can then make sure that you receive the same batch and therefore colour.
Q. Does the colour of Tulip vary?
A. We know that Tulip is made in at least 2 different factories and yes, we have noticed colour differences between batches.
Q. Where can I buy Tulip?
A. You can buy Tulip via our website by clicking here