Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't do conventional. So when there's something I want that I can't find in a store, or is going to blow my budget, I make it! The last couple of months have produced a purple zebra print maxi dress, a full circle skirt, multitudes of hair corsages and bows, an oversized jersey cowl dress, and most recently glitter encrusted mary-jane shoes. So, armed with glitter, mod podge, and this fantastic tutorial from Annie Spandex, I set to work.
I bought a pair of gold mary-janes on eBay a few months back, and have worn them once as they turned out to be considerably lighter and brighter than they looked in the listing. They started out life as Steve Madden Deweys, they finished up looking like this...
Pretty, no?
It's also a really easy tranformation. Time consuming yes, but also kind of fun...
Because the shoes were kind of shiny I attacked them with fine sandpaper first to make it easier for the mod podge/glitter mix to adhere.
In a small airtight container (I wanted an old film cannister, but these are rare and endangered beasts so ended up with an old baby food jar which was previously home to some buttons) mix Mod Podge with glitter. You want it to still be runny-ish and not peanut buttery, but it should be loaded with spangles. Then, taking a smallish paintbrush paint the glittery goop all over the shoes.
I put three layers of sparkles on my shoes, and then finished them with a layer of clear Mod Podge to seal in the spangles. Make sure the previous layer is dry before applying the next, and after the first layer you need to stipple the glitter on rather than paint it on in strokes, otherwise the glitter on the brush catches and clumps on the glitter already on the shoes.
The glitter is stuck fast and not going anywhere. The Mod Podge claims to be a sealer, but I doubt how waterproof it really is given how easy it is to clean off brushes with warm soapy water.
Because the shoes were kind of shiny I attacked them with fine sandpaper first to make it easier for the mod podge/glitter mix to adhere.
In a small airtight container (I wanted an old film cannister, but these are rare and endangered beasts so ended up with an old baby food jar which was previously home to some buttons) mix Mod Podge with glitter. You want it to still be runny-ish and not peanut buttery, but it should be loaded with spangles. Then, taking a smallish paintbrush paint the glittery goop all over the shoes.
I put three layers of sparkles on my shoes, and then finished them with a layer of clear Mod Podge to seal in the spangles. Make sure the previous layer is dry before applying the next, and after the first layer you need to stipple the glitter on rather than paint it on in strokes, otherwise the glitter on the brush catches and clumps on the glitter already on the shoes.
The glitter is stuck fast and not going anywhere. The Mod Podge claims to be a sealer, but I doubt how waterproof it really is given how easy it is to clean off brushes with warm soapy water.
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