Retired. – Plum Street Samplers

… 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?

12 Comments

Claulem

October 15, 2010 at 11:22 am

Eh! What about Sophie? She deserves a nice pair of shoes too!

joann tx

October 15, 2010 at 1:07 pm

ah, i was thinking the same thing…. maybe sophie would like a pair too? so in the mean time we’ll all send your super fine canvased shoes to keep you practicing!
plus you draw better than me! 🙂 LLLLLY!!!