What kind of acrylic are you using? I've had pretty good success with yellow, using craft paint from A.C. Moore. Go to my profile and see my latest purse, it's got yellow flowers.
For thread, I use the 4-ply thread from here: Royalwood For books, you can't go wrong with Al Stohlman's Making Cases series. No specific purse patterns, but a wealth of knowledge to help make almost anything.
Jeff's a busy man! I have 2 from him, a 1" & a 11/2". As long as you hold and hit them squarely they should last a long time. My first 1" one I got from him lasted about 2 years until I smashed it off-center and collapsed the border edge. The 2 I have now are around 3 yrs. old, and act like they're new.
It's been a while since I've posted anything, in fact the last one was this pattern, and I was complaining about white paint. Well, I found a way around that. Instead of daisies, make them black-eyed susans!
I use Folk Art brand paints from A.C. Moore. I think they're up to $1.49 for a 4oz. bottle. Dilute it 60/40 water/ paint and it shouldn't crack, at least it hasn't for me.