{Tutorial} Glittery Shoes

My daughter's shoes were getting a bit roughed up and I really had to stop filling in the scuffs with my Sharpie as she left for school in the morning.  I had two ideas:  spray paint and glitter!

Oh did she looooove both ideas as much as I did!

I had seen glitter shoe tutorials before, and I knew the basics: Mod Podge and glitter.  But I wasn't sure about the order in which to apply them and what do I do about things like straps and buckles and cute flowers on the shoes?  I mean do I mix the Mod Podge and glitter together and paint it on?  Or should I paint on the Mod Podge and sprinkle the glitter on?  Here is what I found that worked best for me!

I started with these...

and turned them into these...

and it was pretty easy!

{Tutorial} for Glittery Shoes (with straps and stuff)

1.  Prep your shoes by stuffing with plastic bags and taping off parts you don't want glittered.  I unbuckled the strap and let it hang out.  I taped off the velcro on the straps, too!
2.  Put about a tablespoon of glitter in a plastic cup or something you can pitch when you are done.  I mixed three colors of glitter here- all Martha Stewart glitters.
3.  Add a blob of Mod Podge to the glitter and mix with paint brush until is it a thick mixture of the two.  At first it will be dry but keep adding small blobs of the glue until it is a paintable glitter.  When you paint it on the shoe, work in small areas at a time.  **I found this works better than adding the glitter to the glue because I couldn't estimate the glue and had to dump a ton of glitter in or paint on a bunch of coats to get it as glittery as I wanted.  And I wasted a lot of glitter by painting Mod Podge on first then sprinkling glitter on it.
I started at the toe and worked back.  I glittered the strap last.  And don't get any glue on the flower, if you have one.
4.  As they are drying you can add more glitter to any spots you missed.  For touch ups on the toes, I painted on only Mod Podge and then sprinkled glitter to really get them sparkly!  Repeat the layers until they look glittery enough for you.
5.  When the main color was dry, I smothered the flower with Mod Podge and poured silver glitter in every nook and cranny.  I let it set up just a minute then shook off the glitter.

6.  After they are dry...Lastly, I added two thin coats of just Mod Podge over the entire shoe.

When they are completely dry (patience...) carefully remove the stuffing and the tape.  I had to use my fingernail to keep the tape from pulling off the good stuff.  Just go slowly.  Trust me.

I think these shoes are pretty durable.  The Mod Podge kept them flexible enough for a five-year old to run around in them.   I think the thin layers of the glue helped also.

Have you glittered any shoes for yourself or kids?  I would like some glitter just on the toes of shoes for me.

ALSO,  this is My entry into Thrifty Thursday is sponsored by Appliances Online and the Bosch Washing Machines.

Linking to these fabulous parties:

Today is a Big Girl Day!

My little girl is 5 today!  Where has the time gone?!  We all say that, don't we?

I have had so many half-done crafts and half-written posts to put here this week, but, birthdays come first!  So instead of showing you my t-shirt embellishing projects, the glitter shoes, the beaded necklace I made, a top for me I am working on, and all the other goodies in pause-mode right now.  I will show you what I HAVE been doing this week:

Paper Bunting:

I just sewed paper triangles to a ribbon using a zig zag stitch.  

And Paper Garland:

I broke down and bought a circle punch (I don't have a fancy paper cutter- just my scissors!).  Then I stacked two circles so it would be pretty on both sides and sewed together with a straight stitch.

And cupcakes for school:

Just regular box mixes and my homemade buttercream frosting.

Lots of it!

And yes, this is my attempt at the Rose Cake...except when you realize at ten o'clock the night before that you don't actually have Wilton tip #1M!!!!  

In that case you do the next best thing...improvise with tip #30.  

It is more like a swirly carnation cake!

However, I told myself that if she didn't think they looked like "roses" then I would redo it in the morning.  That is, if trying to convince her bribe her didn't work first.

What's up with the resolution of these pics anyway?  I don't have time to fix 'em now...they aren't too bad, I hope.


Off to the school in about an hour.  I am clearing off the video camera as we speak.  I am still in PJs.  Pizza and swirly carnation cake and chocolate ice cream tonight!

Happy 5th Birthday to our "Stella-Bella"!!  

(That's not really her middle name.  Please don't think I give my kids rhyming names. )

Spray Painted Girls Shoes

I knew I had an opportunity to try spray painting shoes when my daughter's school shoes came home looking like this.

I mean, they were now pretty ugly.  And I couldn't just "sharpie" them like I did to her black shoes.  It's too bad, too because these were her favorites.

Until NOW!

Now THESE are her favorites!

And mine, too.  I really think mama needs a pair just like this!

All I did was tape off the soles and stuff a bag inside.  I also had to tape off the velcro and the underside of the foot strap.
To be honest, I wasn't sure how to deal with all of the peeling vinyl.  I thought it would show so I wanted to peel it off a bit of the edges.  One shoe did fine with this.  But when I started to peel the second shoe...the whole thing came up!  I was freaking out at this point.  But really, it was too late to turn back now.  So I just peeled until I thought it wouldn't be that noticeable.

I used a plastic primer spray paint (because I already had it) on the unpeeled shoe.  I am not sure if it was beneficial or necessary though.  And I definitely needed two coats of the blue on both shoes.  The peeled shoe soaked up a lot of the paint after the first coat and I didn't think they were going to match in finish.  But after everything had dried, they seemed to match just fine!  I was so excited about how these turned out!  My daughter was too!

** I actually think the shoe that had the vinyl peeled off had a better result.  These shoes have been worn around the house for two days now and so they already have some minor scuffing on the blue paint.  But the peeled part was not scuffed at all.  It was a pain on my fingers to peel the shoe, but for this type of surface (fake patent leather) it seemed to be worth it.

I still have blue paint left...I am really wanting blue shoes, too.


Linking here:

It’s A Hodgpode Life ~ Fingerprints on the Fridge ~ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating ~ The Shabby Nest ~ Simple Home Life ~ Lovely Crafty Home ~ Whipperberry

{Tutorial} Make a Coupon Pocket Page

A few months back I showed how I made a binder to get my paper clutter and my mental clutter under control.  Well four months later, it is still working!  (miracle!)

One section in my binder is for coupons.  Now- I am not any kind of extreme couponer NOR do I know much about them. I DO know that you save money if you use them.  And I like to use them!  Always have.  Even when I was just a single gal and coupons weren't "cool".   I don't have a ton coupons, so this binder page works perfectly for the coupons that I use.

Since we are all still in "new year's resolution mode" and still cleaning and organizing, I wanted to share this little coupon holder that I made for my binder. 

Left page has 6-pockets & Right page has 4-pockets.  You can use front and back of each page!

To make this, you will need:

1. Put your cardstock in the document protector. 

I like to make light pencil marks on the center lines (horiz and vert) before putting it in the sheet protector.

2. Sew a zig-zag stitch down the middle- right through the protector!. (I used an old needle for this, then threw it away.) Remember to backtack at the ends.

3. Sew a zig-zag stitch across the page. 

For the 4-pocket one, you will want to sew *just slightly* above the center.

For the 6-pocket one, mark it horizontally by thirds and sew across your marks.

4. Optional, sew across the top of the page too for added stability when using the pockets.

5. CAREFULLY, seam-ripper below your horizontal stitch lines. Slit the plastic on each pocket individually- don't cut across your stitching. You have pockets on the back, too!

If you need to make custom pockets to fit your coupons, use whatever size you need.

I got this idea when I saw a lady at the grocery store a coupon binder and she used baseball card holders for her coupons!  Genius!  But I didn't want to buy the baseball card sheets (cheap-o me) and I had document protectors already (use what you've got, right?).  Now, I can't help you with how to organize your coupons- that is not my area of expertise. The only thing I am doing, is separating out the ones that are store-specific (Target, commissary). This makes it easy to find my store-only coupons.

Was this helpful? I would love to hear from you...leave me a comment so I know you were here!  

I will reply back, too!  SO PLEASE have your email address in your profile or my reply just goes into outerspace...boohoo.

Linking to these fun parties: