Shoe Makeovers Overload

I have been in the mood for Spring cleaning lately. I went through cubbies, drawers and closets to down size and organize. It is surprising to know how much you can accumulate over the years. I was doing pretty well and making progress thoughout the house, then, as I was cleaning my closet I hit road blocks. Can you guess what they were??

My Shoes. I mean several of them.

Those are the shoes that I no longer wear; they are still in good condition but with scuff marks and such. I thought about putting them all into the "Donate" bag, then one of my shoulder angels (I don't know if it was the good one or the bad one) whispered "paint them, it will be so fun". Grr... yes, I agree, it will be SO fun. That's what I have ended up doing. Here are the Before pictures of them.

See the potential? So let's see the before & after...

*Before* (black mary jane with kitty heel)

*After* (I loved the shape of these shoes, I just wanted to give a facelift with a subtle unusual color.)

*Before* (Brown square toe Shoes with belt) --- I have sentimental attachment to these shoes. This was the very first "heel" I bought after I got my prosthetic leg with an adjustment ability in the ankle. The highest heels I can wear are about 1 1/2".

*After* (The tip of the shoes were pretty scuffed up. I decided to paint the whole thing except the belt. I love the two tone look)

*Before* (Dark brown flat with gathered front and ankle strap)

*After* (I love everything about these shoes except I wanted to paint them with more of an unusual color)

and the final shoes... these is my most favorite and I had the most fun painting them. So, here they are:

*Before* (Red mary jane with kitty heel)

*After* (Coming up with a floral design is so much fun!)

I have several ideas for painting shoes in my sketch book. I think it will be fun to do something more modern and non flowery next time. what do you think?? If you have shoes in your closet you no longer wear, painting them might be the way to get you a customized new pair of shoes without spending a fortune. :)

Shoes Refashion ~ $4 Shoes to Two Tone Beauties

Psst... I have been sewing something lately and it is done, but I can't reveal what it is until a couple months from now... Just a little teaser here, hehehe.

In the meantime, I just painted another pair of shoes I found at a thrift store.

Here is how they look before...

Then after...

If you have been reading my blog for a while, it is no secret that I love thrift stores and garage sales. I love finding things for cheap and giving them a second life by fix them up and adding my personality to them. There is one thing I hardly ever buy... shoes.

There is something about shoes that I usually stay away from. If I decided to buy, it has to look brand new or very close to brand new. On top of that it has to be the right size, right style, right height (with my prosthetic it has to have a heel 1 1/2" or less), what are the odds of finding a pair that qualify based on those standards???

I was at a thrift store the other day, and found such shoes, can you believe it?

When I first looked at them, I thought "!!!!!".

Then when I took a second look I thought "It looks a little granny-ish..."

It wasn't until the third glance that I saw the potential.

I have been wanting to have two tone shoes, I decided that these shoes are a perfect candidate for them!

In the picture, the main part looks more like light beige, but it is actually light gray. I went back and forth if I should do gray + peachy orange or gray + mint green. When I looked in my closet, I noticed that I have some mint green clothes... I decided to go with that. After I painted them with gray + mint green, I felt like still there was something missing. After thinking it over for sometime, I decided to add a line of gold. Than I thought "YES!".

I love how my $4 thrift store find turned out. I can wear them with casual outfits like this, or with something more dressy. I am looking forward to enjoying them for a while. :)

Special note: Big thanks to Mr.TRH for taking picture of me before our date night. XOXO

Shoes Refashion ~ Plain Black MaryJane to Anna Bond Inspired Shoes

I bought these flat black Mary Janes 10+ years ago. They are comfortable, but I hardly ever wear black clothes or shoes. They have been sitting in my closet collecting dust.

I have been drawing lately and was inspired by Anna Bond... My love for floral designs started when I was very young and I have never gotten tired of them. When I was organizing my closet last week I found the black shoes and was going to give them to DI, but decided to give it a make over just like I did a while ago with these shoes. After all, they are very comfortable shoes...

This time I kind of wanted to do a Swedish fork art style floral design and decided to just dive in to it. The only challenge was, I don't have that many different colors of leather paint. I had to work with what I have and I made my own colors by mixing them up.

Yay! They are done! It is time to try them on.

I am so glad I organized my closet, I found this blue cardigan that goes perfectly with my new shoes!

I love how they turned out, they look pretty much like what I had in mind. I know those one of a kind painted shoes cost a pretty penny, mine just cost me my time and some paints. Better yet, I enjoyed the creative process so much!

I should go 'shopping' in my closet more often. :)

Tutorial ~ How to Paint Leather Shoes

I contributed this post at Brassy Apple a few weeks ago, and I am posting this today in case you missed it.


Last summer, I spray painted my shoes with a regular can of spray paint. I loved the color and the shoes turned out very pretty. Though, after a couple times of wearing them, the paint started to crack here and there. I did touch up paint and wore them the whole summer, but after that I said good by to them. Hmm, there has to be a better way, I thought.
After searching online, I finally found the product I have been looking for! Angelus carries all sorts of items to help creative craving. I bought items that I needed and got busy! If you have old shoes still in good condition but in need of a face lift, or you want to create one of a kind shoes, you are in luck. :)


{You will need}

Leather shoes
Angelus professional leather prepare and deglazer
Angelus paint
Angelus Acrylic finisher
paint brush
Old rag(the kind the doesn't have lint)

*Note: I bought the smallest bottle of paints which is 1 oz in size. The reviews said that you don't need a whole lot of paint to paint the shoes and they were true! After painted my sandals I used the color of vanilla the most, but I still have tons left in the bottle. The 1 oz bottle is going for $2.69, but if you buy 5+, they become 2.45 each.


{How to}

1. Wipe the shoes clean with a slightly wet rag and let them dry. Follow the instruction of the bottle and wipe the shoes with deglazer. Wait until the shoes are completely dry.

2. Tape painters tape or washi-tape to tape off the bottom and heal.

3. If you are painting your shoes just one color, you can ignore the next few steps. I wanted to paint my shoes with multiple colors; so I painted using the vanilla color first, because that was the largest area that I needed to paint. I had to apply 3 coats of paint to cover the original color completely. Here is a few bits of advice for you...

*Don't put too much paint on at once.
*Spread a nice amount of paint evenly.
*Make sure to apply the next coat of paint when the surface is completely dry.

Don't worry about brush streaks. This paint is AMAZING! Once it dries, it looks nice and smooth.

4. I chose the color of patty for my next step. I had to apply 3 coats of paint again.

5. The third color I chose is Shell Pink. I painted the rest of the unpainted surface.

6. I was going to leave it as is, but it was so tempting do more. This is the chance to create something completely original, so why not, right? I painted the back part of the sandals.

7. After the paint is dry, apply Angelus finisher.

8. They are done!

It is time to enjoy...

I am wearing a dress in this picture, but I wore them with my slim pants with a plain t-shirt today. I loved the shoes with causal clothing too.

Ahh... It was so much fun. My choice of colors are muted soft palette, but I can picture in my mind what these sandals could have looked like in bright vivid colors as well. The possibilities are endless!

I want to paint more shoes and experiment.  I will share pictures when I am ready in the near future.

Shoe Makeover ~ How to Paint Leather Shoes

Hello everyone! I am posting my "How to paint leather shoes" tutorial on Brassy Apple today. I found awesome leather paints online and OH MY! They are my new favorite things! Please head over there to see what I did, you don't wanna miss this!

Shoes Makeover

Sorry for the ugly picture to start this post folks...BUT this is a post about shoes makeover. These were one of my favorite shoes for a couple years. It is easy to wear, has a little bit of a heel to give me an extra inch, and it went with almost every outfit I have.

Though, it is showing its age, the structure is still fine but the leather looks awful now. They definitely have seen better days.

I always wanted to try spray painting shoes. So I did some looking around and found that spray paint for leather exists, because I googled it and saw them online, but I didn't see the color I liked. Also, if I have to pay a lot for paint and pay shipping, that kind of defeats the purpose. I have decided I will just use regular spray paint I bought for less than $4 at a local craft store and see what happens.

Here is what I did. I cleaned the shoes with leather cleaner. Then, prepped the shoes by stuffing them with paper, and put tape around the heels, so the paint won't get on those areas. I was out of masking tape, so I just used duct tape instead.

I heard that to do a thin layer of paint multiple times is the best, so I did about 7 coats of spraying, making sure to let it dry between each coat.

Then, this is what happened...

I added bows, to mimic the look of ballet shoes. I love this cheerful color of green!

It has been a few days and I have been wearing it to see if the paint is going to start cracking, but so far it is holding up and they look just fine. I will let you know if there are any problems. In the meantime, I wonder if I have any shoes that I can paint cherry pink...