Monday, November 7, 2011

Glitter Pumps How-To

          Most all of us have seen those wonderful, sparkly Louboutins. Maybe even slightly drooled over them a bit. And like most of us, there is probably absolutely no way we could afford them realistically - or even want to spend thousands of dollars on shoes. If you have, congratulations, I just can't justify spending that much money on shoes, regardless of how much my fiance & I make. This, along with the fact that I could NOT find ONE SINGLE pair of CHARCOAL glittery shoes :-D, led me to create my own sparkly shoes!!
Louboutins I found on this website here - gorgeous right?

Mine are not Louboutins, but they are quite fabulous if I say so myself. :-)

Materials:


Patent heels
Martha Stewart Ultra Fine Glitter
Mod Podge
Bowl
Foil
Paintbrush

One pair of black patent heels that I used - keep your eye out for shoes at thrift stores that could use a little tender loving care

I used 3 shades of pink & 3 shades of black/charcoal/silver to add a different dimension to the sparkle!
        Make sure your heels are nice & clean to ensure the mod podge sticks. I chose to use an extra pair of black patent Gianni Bini & Jessica Simpson shoes. Use shoes you have, or check out Platos, Goodwill, etc. to find a cheap pair that could use a make-over. Take a plastic bowl & line with foil - I did this to preserve my bowl. I chose to do 2 different pairs of shoes, pink glitter shoes & black glitter shoes. I mixed black, charcoal & silver glitter in with the mod podge. For pink I mixed 3 different pinks in with the mod podge. There is no exact proportion, just make sure there is plenty of glitter in the glue. You can always make more. I chose to do 3 shades of each color to add more dimension to my glittery shoes, but you can do just one. In seperate bowls I also made a mixture of the glitter colors without mod podge.
Glitter/Mod Podge mixture in my freezer paper lined bowl

       With a medium size paint brush begin painting on your glitter/mod podge mix. Do a single coat all over the shoe, avoid drips or excess glue, try to do a slightly thin, even coat to ensure it does not look lumpy once dry. Yes the glue is white, yes it doesn't look sparkly - it will dry clear & the glitter will sparkle! Trust me. :-)
One section of the shoe after the 1st coat
Black glitter mixture after 2nd coat

The heel end of the shoe getting it's first coat of glitter/mod podge, the toe end after sprinkling with dry glitter mixture

       Take your dry glitter mix and lightly sprinkle a coat of glitter on the wet glue. You can do this section by section with wet then dry, or all wet, then all dry depending on how fast you are. Try to do an even sprinkle, & again avoid clumps - it will help by doing a little at a time from a few inches above the shoe. Once the first coat dries - give it a good 30 min-1 hr, apply a 2nd coat of glitter/glue mix, repeat with the dry glitter sprinkle.
After 1st coat of glue & dry mixture

After 2nd coat of glue & dry glitter mixture! :-) Don't mind my hot chocolate mess in the background lol

       Pending on the extent of sparkle you want, you can apply a 3rd coat. I stopped at 2 coats of glitter mix & followed each with a sprinkle of dry glitter on the black. Because I did hot pink on top of black it required 4 coats to conceal the black underneath. Allow to dry a full 24 hours before wearing out. Then rock those heels!
Black glittery shoes

My Barbie Hot Pink Glittery heels all finished!

Black/Charcoal Glittery heels! I am in love!


XoXo