TIP: Buying Paint in Bulk- Cheaply

I tend to go through a lot of paint. A LOT OF PAINT. 

When I was going through a paint pouring stage (kudos if you're making that work!) I was stocking up on lots of paint. I hit up my local Habitat for Humanity store and few local hardware store for unwanted paint. They tend to sell excess paint, mistinted paint, and just weird colored paint for cheap. You can buy a whole gallon for about $5 compared to the craft size at about a $1 a piece.

I only buy LATEX paint. Some times they have oil paint, wood paint and things that look like paint but aren't paint for sale. Be sure to check the labels!

And I only buy colors in bulk that I use a lot (white, black, blue, gray...) Most of the time you won't find bright rainbow colors for sale in places like that (sometimes you DO though!!!) so it's good to stick to the basics. Even if you only buy white in bulk, you can always use it as a gesso prep for pages and canvas which is much cheaper than a new bottle of craft store gesso.

I did find a 5 gallon of gesso for $5 one time though that I will be using for the rest of my life... so there's that. You never know what you will run across.

How do you store your newfound bulk paint purchase? Well you're obviously not going to want to open a tin gallon bucket and break out the paint stirrers every time you want to use it- unless that's what floats your boat. It's cool if you do.

But if you don't, then you would need to pour it into something smaller for easier use. Make sure you stir the paint very well when you get it! I personally use the clear restaurant style condiment bottles that I store in a shoe storage hanger on the back of my door. They work well for mixing and they're easy to pour into and out of.

You can use anything you want- face cream jars, baby food jars, empty paint bottles, empty gelato jars... I've used all of them and they work great! I poured my white paint into a gelato jar and now I want ice cream every time I paint with it. So I wouldn't advise that. Ok, yes I would (: