Painted Shoes with Glitter Toe Caps

Every spring it seems that I get frustrated with my crowded closets, and lack of things to wear.  I sort through my clothes, and threaten to donate or throw them out; but they sit in a box in my hallway, until the day that I decide that I can't part with them if I can't replace them.

I've had these ridiculous floral shoes for about four years.  I've maybe worn them once or twice.  I picked them up for a dollar at JCPenney, and immediately regretted the purchase. Because not every deal is a good deal.

They sat in the donate box for a week, before inspiration struck and I decided to give them a face lift.  I pulled out a couple of bottles of fabric paint, and mixed together a bright watermelon color.  They are a bit bold, and I'm just now trying to wrap my mind around wearing neons for a second time.  I used to layer my electric green, and hot pink socks, only to cuff them and expose the first layer (anyone else?).

Anyway, back to the shoes. After a couple of layers of paint they were still asking for a little something more.  I decided to join the glitter shoes band wagon, and add a glitter toe cap.  I first painted on a thin layer of mod podge, and then glittered like crazy.  Doing it this way created a nice solid glitter base.  After the first layer had dried, I mixed some mod podge with the glitter, and added two top coats to seal in all the glitter goodness.

As you can see I ditched the little shoe ties.  They were unnecessary and distracting.  I now have a bit of a funky toe, but I can deal with it. The glitter and neon are a bit bold for my wardrobe, but I am liking the neutral+neon trend.  The golden glitter might not be neutral, but leans that way.

There you have it, my first shoe refashion...more of that to come.

Painted Pattern Fabric Border

I've been in love with all of the stamped and painted fabrics that I've seen around blog-land lately.  Isn't the idea of creating your own custom fabrics fun?

I recently picked up four turtlenecks at Wal-mart for a dollar a piece.  There was a woman there stocking the shelves, she told me "This is a great deal if you're into turtlenecks".  Well, I'm not really into turtlenecks, but I am into inexpensive fabric. I've been wanting to make some more Sweet Pea Dresses, and I thought that these would be perfect. They did need a little dressing up though.

I didn't have all of the supplies on hand to create my own fabric stamps, but I did have some freezer paper handy.  I decided that I could create a fun little  print for the fabric border using my freezer paper and fabric paint.

To start with, I cut a piece of freezer paper that was as long as my t-shirt was wide.  I needed to create two stencils, so I folded the freezer paper in half width wise (shiny sides together). Next I folded the paper in half two more times length wise, dividing my paper into eight sections. Folding the paper would allow me to create a repeating pattern; and eliminate a lot of cutting, as I could cut multiple sections (layers) at once.

Top-Toberfest: A Shirt for Thunder by guest contributor Janine

 A Shirt For Thunder

Today I'm thrilled to have a guest contributor for Top-toberfest: Janine.  Janine is a work at home mom that loves to craft.  I'm so appreciative that she was willing to share her talents, and these great boys tops with us today.  She uses a variety of techniques, including: freezer paper stenciling, hand stitching, bleach, hand painting, and bubble wrap, to create some custom tops for her son Thunder.

My son’s name is Thunder Jason and I thought it would be neat to have fun with it and make him an original shirt. I find that boy’s clothing seems to be all the same and if you find something with words, pictures, etc it’s usually too over-the-top for me. I’m not a huge fan of  all the cartoony pictures and cheesy sayings.

I bought a plain, grey shirt from WalMart. First I washed it in case of shrinkage, then I sprayed some bleach on it. I would have used a bleach pen and done a more ’tatoo’ looking design, but I couldn’t find bleach pens anywhere in my town. After washing the bleach out and drying it I made a freezer paper stencil like this. I followed Cheri’s instructions and used red Tulip fabric paint as recommended by her, painting in the stencil with a small paintbrush. I made a large "T" lightning bolt and the small letters spell 'Thunder J.' When the paint dried I painted some bubble wrap and stamped it randomly on the shirt.

 And finally I did some embroidery. I made some tiny lightning bolts, ‘x’s on the wrist, collar, and bottom hemlines and embroidered “Made By Mama” on the shoulder.

   I’m SO happy with how it turned out! I‘ve also included pictures of 2 other shirts I made.

 The red shirt says, “You’ve been…Thunderstruck” and was made using the same freezer paper stencilling and bubble wrap technique.

   The blue one says, “THUNDERIFIC SO TERRIFIC!” and was made by hand painting with fabric paint and a paint brush. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Be careful, freezer paper stencilling is very addictive :)

Thanks so much Janine.  The tops turned out great, and I'm sure that your son loves them. I especially love the hand stitched details that you added, they really add something special.


  Want to share your custom tees or tops with us?  Link up all of your shirt related projects in our Top-toberfest link party. I'll be featuring some of my favorites from the party come November.

Versions 1.0 and 2.0- New Baby Sibling Shirts Template and Tutorial

Having just added another child to our family, I felt that it would only be appropriate to share some sibling shirts that I made for the boys. Waiting for any baby to arrive you wonder what they will be like.  Having a son already caused us to wonder if he'd be like Clark, or be cut from a completely different cookie cutter. Hence the version 1.0 and 2.0. Don't worry we still love our version 1.0, and 2.0 is just as lovable.

You can find the version 1.0 and 2.0 template here.

 Using a basic tee, a onesie, some pattern tracing paper, and some dimensional fabric paint, I created these simple but fun tops.