Like a lot of women, I love shoes and have a sizeable collection. As a single mother I rarely have the money to go out and buy a nice new pair of shoes, especially since a lot of the time I will only wear them once and put them away at the back of a cupboard. I decided to combine my love of crafting with my shoe obsession and came up with a way to revamp your old shoes for under ?20! Painting your shoes is a great hobby and it gives you beautiful, unique shoes that will be the envy of all your friends.
What you will need:
· An old pair of canvas or leather shoes (or a pair from a thrift shop or some super cheap ones, it doesn't matter if they look boring, as long as you like the shape of them. Fake leather also works well.)
· Nail polish remover and cotton wool balls
· A cheap set of acrylic paints, can be found in craft stores for ?10
· A bottle of clear acrylic varnish, also found in craft stores
· Paint brushes, if like me you are on a budget you can use make up brushes. Liquid eyeliner brushes are great for painting details.
· A fine tipped permanent marker to outline details (optional)
1. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area before you start. Lay down some old newspaper on your work surface before you start and make sure you wear old clothes as acrylic paint does not wash out.
2. Soak a cotton wool ball in nail varnish remover and begin to rub it all over the material of your shoe. This will clean off all dirt and also strip away the waxy protective layer. You may want to repeat this step a few times, it is very important that you get all of the top layers off so that the paint will stay. Make sure that you get in to all the creases, the shoe should look dull once the wax has been taken off.
3. Now it's time to decide what you want the base colour of your shoe to be, you could leave it the original colour, paint it a whole new colour or maybe even get adventurous with stripes or another pattern. Whatever you decide to do, you need to remember to use more than one coat of paint, this will ensure that there are no gaps or lighter areas where the paint has been spread thin. Make sure the paint is fully dried before starting the next step.
4. If you are good at drawing you can paint all sorts of designs and pictures on to your shoes, this is where a clean liquid eyeliner brush can come in handy. It can also be useful to carefully trace your design on to each shoe with a pencil first. It is important to look for where the most creases are on your shoes and avoid painting designs there, these are places where your shoe bends while you walk and designs painted there can easily be ruined. Be sure to let each layer of paint dry before starting a new one, you don't want to smudge your gorgeous new creations! You can use the fine tipped marker to outline any drawings, it's much easier than trying to paint a thin black line.
5. Once your artwork is finished and has had time to fully dry, you need to coat the shoe in clear varnish to stop any damage being done to the paint. Your new shoes will need two separate coats of varnish, usually leaving 24 hours in between each coat to give the layers a chance to dry. Once the second coat is dry, your new shoes will be ready to show off to the world!
The best part about this whole project is that once you have bought the paints and other items needed, you can use them over and over, producing up to ten newly spruced up shoes. Why not try experimenting? You can use glitter on your shoes before applying the varnish, you could use metallic paints, stick on jewels or even use a hot glue gun to apply small items such as fake flowers or other decorative pieces. Whatever you choose to do, painting your shoes in a fun, addictive hobby with the best reward - new shoes!
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