How to Paint Kite Borders

Place the kite so that the edges are as flat as possible. Clean off the kite surface if it has been flown a few times, as the fabric can become dirty. Use water and a coffee filter. Pinch the wet filter around the edge and move back and forth. Coffee filters do not leave lint. Dry the edge with a filter.

Draw the border design onto a piece of paper. Use a straight edge and pencil. Adjust your design until you achieve the look you want. A border can look like waves, it can be a straight line, it can look like bubbles or strings crawling up the kite. Transfer your design to the kite. Draw your design with marker on a separate paper and place the design under the kite. You should be able to see the design through the fabric while you paint. Some materials will not accept pencil and you may need to use an acrylic paint pen to outline the border. Select a color close to or matching your border color.

Paint the border directly onto the kite material using thinned-out acrylic paints and an artist paint brush that has an angled flat edge. Thin the paints with water so that they go on as light as possible while still being opaque. Squirt a nickel-size spot of paint on a small plate, dip your brush in water and mix the water into the paint. Continue until the paint is thin but not watery.

Tape off straight lines using painter's tape if you have trouble keeping your hand steady when painting. Brush away from the tape toward the edge to prevent paint from leeching under the tape edge. Allow the paint 24 hours to dry before touching the area.