Galaxy Shoes!

Oh yeah, I have a blog! Man, I am horrible at this blogging stuff. I've done several crafty projects I could have blogged about, and even took pictures to do just that, but for some reason I never got around to actually blogging.

Today I painted my shoes. Doesn't everyone? Oh...well, I did. Anyway, I love the starry skies. The background of this blog is even galaxy looking.  I don't study galaxies or constellations and still consider Pluto a planet, but I love gazing into the night sky. I try to catch meteor showers and other celestial events except when these things happen it's usually cloudy here. I love the stars so much that my husband, the one who makes them shine for me, named one after me for our anniversary one year. Awww, I know, he's a keeper.

I've done my nails to look like a galaxy far far away before with nail polish and was happy with the results so I figured if I can make my nails look cool, why not my shoes? There is a connection there somewhere between fingernails and shoes. HA! I have it, they can both be painted! You didn't think I could come up with a connection did ya? Showed you.. and I'll show you how I made my shoes look like this:

Here is what you will need. 

• Shoes! This is pretty much the most important part. If you don't have the shoes I'm not sure you will be able to complete this project. I bought a cheap pair of black canvass shoes for $10. 
• Fabric paint in various colors. I chose shades of blues, pink, purple and white. You can use any colors you wish. Google "galaxy pictures" and it will give you some ideas on the different colors you can use. Reds, orange and yellow also look great. It's up to you. I also got some silver glitter paint as well, because everything is better with glitter.
• Painters tape or similar.
• Paint brushes or sponges. I used the sponges. 
• Old toothbrush, or a new one, but you wont be brushing your teeth with it after this. 
• Paper plate or something to mix paint on.
• Paper towels and some newspaper to protect the poor living room coffee table you keep doing these messy projects on. 

Next take your tape and tape around the bottom rubber edge on the shoes. Depending on your shoes you may not have to do this. Some don't have that rubber edge or maybe you want to paint that as well. Again, it's up to you.

 Next put some of your selected paint colors on your paper plate (or whatever you are using to put paint on) and dip your sponge or brush into the paint and then dab it on a paper towel. You're not really looking to put a ton of paint on the shoes or make them 3D. Or maybe you are, I don't know, I just know I wasn't so I dabbed.

 Now start painting your shoes. You can dab (I've never used that word so much before) your brush or sponge on the shoe or use a painting motion. This does not have to be perfect! Layer your colors and feel free to make some swirls and stuff in the paint. Space, the final frontier, is wild and unpredictable. No need to try and draw something perfect. I started with darker colors on the bottom and used lighter over them. I did not wait for each color to dry first so that they blended together even more on the shoes.

 Of course, we need stars. Once you have your colors on take your toothbrush and dip it in some white paint. Then you are going to use your thumb and "flick" the paint onto the shoes. This gives a very scattered effect. I also took a small brush and painted a few larger star bursts and larger dots in a few places.

This is like, the worst picture ever, but I'm flicking in it.  

After this I rubbed my finger in some of the silver glitter paint and just rubbed in on the shoes in a few places. This gave me more stars that were SHINY! OOOOOO SHINY!! I couldn't get a good picture of the glitter to show you, but after looking at my other pictures are you really surprised I didn't get a good one? I have to be the worst blog picture taker there is...

I don't really have a lot of (read: any) experience with fabric paint so I have no idea how well or if it stands up to water. I don't go around jumping in puddles but there are those times we simply can't avoid walking through one. I don't want my galaxy to turn into a black hole if that happens so I sprayed them with some acrylic sealer. I don't even know if it will work, and there is probably some sort of better sealer, but it's what I used. Will it work? Yo, I don't know, but spray those shoes and let's go! *groan*

I also plan on getting some purple shoe laces because I think they will go better than the white ones they came with. Maybe I will just paint the white shoe laces.. Hmmmmmmm...