… From painting shoes! I've painted my last pair (which makes a whopping total of 2 pairs), and I'm officially retiring from it now. 🙂 When Bre saw Bean's shoes last week, she decided to present me with her own blank footware – complete with an enormous, cheesy grin on her face.

After stammering a bit, I agreed to paint them. Here they are after being given the Sharpie-treatment.. Breanna's ink bled just a bit more than Sabrina's did, probably bc of the larger canvas weave (for lack of a better thing to call it). So if you decide to paint your own, be sure to get a finer "weave" when it comes to the canvas.

I used just a few sizes of flat and round brushes (between the two sets, I spent around $8) and the cheapest acrylic paints I could find. The point is not to try to get it perfect, but just to "scribble in" the paint, giving it more of a cartoon feel. If you do go outside the lines, simply wait for the paint to dry and re-draw the line with your Sharpie pen.

I didn't use any sort of fabric medium (which is designed to make the paint go on more smoothly when working with clothing) bc I didn't need it to. I was working in tiny spaces, and I mostly just stippled the paint onto the shoes, rather than brushing it on.

This is as fun – or stressful – of a project as you want it to be! If you decide that you're going to have fun with it, then you'll most likely love your shoes in the end. But if you worry about how they're going to look bc you messed up here or there, it defeats the purpose of having a pair of shoes that no one else has. 😉

You don't need a whole arsenal of paints, either. I bought 5 small bottles and when I needed a color, I went to mixing!  For example, the light green squares on the top of the right shoe were made by combining a little turquoise and a little yellow.

And there you have it!

It really is a fun project to do, but the reason I'm going into retirement from it is bc I have way too many hobbies already. And besides, I can't paint with one hand and drink coffee with the other.

Or can I?

Many many many days (weeks?) ago, my Sabrina bought a pair of plain white canvas zip shoes that she begged me to paint for her.

"What do you want painted on them?" I inquired.

"Oh, I don't care – just paint something!" she replied.

They sat on top of the dryer for ages, and every so often she'd say, "Mom, I thought you were going to paint my shoes? Pretty soon I won't be able to wear them…"

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Sweet-face guilt trip.

So today I picked them up and decided to paint them. I hauled all of the acrylic paints up from the  dungeon basement and found that most of them had dried. I also found that I hadn't properly cleaned my brushes the last time I used them, which rendered them useless. So off I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased new brushes and new acrylics. Then I grabbed my Sharpie and got to work…

Who knew Olga would show up? And what is she drinking??

I really hope Sabrina didn't have something else in mind, like just a solid color. Cuz then I think I'd join Olga in her imbibition.