EASY DIY Pencil Shoes

Summer = Craft Time. It is the wonderful season where you can visit Hobby Lobby and take a stab at a few of those fun Pinterest crafts you’ve put off because of

• paperwork
• meetings
• caseload
• evaluations
• IEPs

that unfortunately consume our life during the other 10 months of the year.  These shoes have definitely been  on my list not only because they are adorable for wearing to school but they also are something even non-crafty me can do! When I say anyone can make them, I mean anyone. Acrylic paint is very forgiving. Even if you make a mistake, you can fix it.

All in all, they took me a little over an hour to make, but I also made a pair for my two year daughter Aislyn. If you’re just making a pair for yourself, you’ll be done in less than an hour!

*Side note, Aislyn LOVES these shoes. There’s just something about matching with mommy that makes her want to wear them to every occasion, whether to church or to the park. Getting a non-blurry, non-moving picture of a toddler’s feet is not an easy feat though (no pun intended).

Start with your materials:

You’ll need:

• Cheap canvas shoes. You can find these at most craft stores. At Hobby Lobby, mine were $9.99 with no coupon.
• Flat top paint brushes (I ended up only using 2 brushes, the big one and a smaller sized one but the flat top makes it easy to paint those lines)
• 5 Acrylic paints (black, off-white, yellow, sparkly silver, pink). I got mine for $0.50 per paint at Hobby Lobby.
• Painting tape

Starting from the top and making your way down, use the tape to draw out your lines. Press hard to smooth the tape so that the paint doesn’t bleed through any bubbles. If it does though (mine did a little), don’t worry, you’ll be able to fix it after it dries.

You’ll want to continue your way down the shoe taping and painting. To make sure the shoes are EXACTLY the same, you could measure I suppose, but I’m not that much of a perfectionist and just used the seams on the shoes as guiding points.

You could also choose a plain or metallic silver for the metal but the sparkly glitter looks soooo good (and who doesn’t love glitter?)

 

Let them dry and then show them off! I’ve worn them quite a few times the paint holds up really well. They’ll feel a little stiff the first time you try them off but as you wear them, they’ll begin to become more flexible.

Now, remember how I said not to worry if you mess up or the paint seeps through the tape?

Just wait until it dries and paint over it. Remember, acrylic paint is VERY forgiving-even non-crafty people can do this!

If you’re really not convinced or just don’t like crafts but want the shoes, I found some on Etsy from Ms. Head of the Class that I really like (I have a pair of the flats). They’re not AS comfy but they sure are cute!

What do you think? Feel free to pin the image below and let me know!