Tuesday's Tute: More Bling!

A while back I wrote about adding your own paint and bling to shoes instead of buying the expensive ones. We've been consistently creating more and using more techniques.
All of the shoes pictured here are from our local Dollar General or Walmart. They seem to be closing out their supply, but this same type of shoe is available at these types of stores in a variety of colors. Our's cost $5-6 a pair. We added the paint, dye, marker, and the crystals. You can also use grossgrain ribbon instead of laces. I'm sorry the crystals did not photograph well.

I'm going to divide this tutorial into sections for each type of application done.

Pink Floral and Black Floral:
Materials:
Masking Tape
Craft Paint
Small Paint Brush
Glitter spray
Crystals (real or plastic)
Gel super glue or loc-tite
Wire brush (optional)

Directions:
1. Mask the rubber parts of the shoe and remove laces.

2. Paint design on the shoe:
Many designs have more than one design layer. For instance a flower has the petal layer (bottom) and the center layer (top). And if you want any of the design to overlap, that would make another layer. Paint all of the bottom layer first. Apply about three coats. If your paint feels think in the application, add a couple of drops of water (it doesn't take much). Too wet, it will bleed.
After your bottom design layer is complete on both shoes. Begin with the next layer. The paint dries quickly enough to continue painting the next element while other elements are drying. If you don't like something, paint over it.
Do not paint in the area of the shoe that will bend. The paint will crack.

3. After all of the elements are painted, let the shoes sit to dry completely.

4. Spray with glitter spray (optional)
We've done this will all of Curly's shoes, but it doesn't show up really well.
Do this on a surface that can get glittered. We use the garage floor or outside. You can also lay down paper.

5. Remove tape.

6. Glue on crystals
Put a dot of super glue on the shoe where you want the crystal and carefully set the crystal into the glue. We've glued on the rubber, fabric, and on the paint. All of stuck well. A few of the crystals on the rubber toe have popped off after heavy use, but are easy to replace.
Some of the super glue gets on the crystals and can make them look a bit cloudy. We use a wire brush to shine our crystals up. A fabric (tooth brush type) did not work well.
The pink floral pair have crystals in the form of a flower on the toe and some crystals as flower centers on the shoe fabric. The black floral pair have two flowers painted on the rubber toe and a line of crystals along the top edge of the rubber toe.

7. Put laces back in.

Lavendar Shoes with Lots of Bling:

Materials:
Masking Tape
Tye Dye Spray Kit (at craft stores)
Glitter Spray
Crystals
Super Glue or Loc-tite

Directions:
1. Mask rubber parts of shoes and remove laces.

2. Spritz with tye dye colors as you desire. Do this on a surface that can be dyed or a large sheet of paper. Save the paper for the glitter spray step. Let dry completely.

3. Spray with Glitter Spray. Do this on a surface that can be glittered or a large sheet of paper. Let dry.

4. Remove tape.

5. Put a dot of super glue on the shoe and lay the crystal in the glue. On these shoes we glued a design on the outside of each shoe and covered the rubber toe with crystals. Our toe crystals got cloudy with super glue residue. We wire brushed the crystals to shine them up again. Let dry.

6. Put laces back in.

Black Baseball Shoes:

Materials:
Paint
Sharpie
Circle for pattern
Paper
Tape

Directions:

Remove laces.

1. Find an object the size of circle you want for the baseball. I used a honey bear lid.

2. Trace the circle onto paper and cut out the circle.
Cut the paper down to fit onto the side of the shoe and tape it down to hold it in place. It won't be secure against the shoe though.

3. Dab (do not brush) the paint onto the shoe. Use paint lightly so that it doesn't bleed through under the stencil. It's better to apply several coats that to go thick.

4. Let dry completely

5. Apply details with the sharpie.

6. Put laces back in.

We have a second pair of shoes planned for handsome dude. They currently have a heart on them, but will soon have soccer balls, footballs, and basketballs instead. And, a camoflage pair may end up with a jet on the side. If I can get brave enough to paint a jet.

There's no limit to what you can do with these shoes. Well except make them light up. lol

Please share your shoe creations in our flickr group and sources for buying the cheap ones with us here.

Oh, and scroll down to see Miss Molly! She was designed and made by Curly...yep she's 6.

Happy Sewing (or painting)!
Debbie