create: graffiti shoes

my little sister just turned 9-years-old....what a fun age :-) so for her birthday, in lieu of buying her a lame gift, or giving her money (both of which, experience tells me, she would probably lose or break :-) ) I decided to craft something together.....

...every time i visit, she BEGS me to do this super intense paint by number activity with her.....and by intense I mean there are like 100 different numbers....and you have to mix custom paint tints and stuff...ugh....and every time she asks, i become suddenly too busy, or i hear my husband calling me, or I have to run and check on something....and never come back. shameless, i know. but the kid is tough and she can handle the "no" every once in a while...especially when it comes to paint-by-numbers...

so to avoid painting by numbers, I thought we would copy-cat this tutorial from Lil Blue Boo for fun Graffiti Shoes...so i found a pair of black converse-style sneakers on clearance at Rue 21 (teen store, i know, but super cheap sales!), picked up some brightly colored acrylic paint, sharpies (be sure to get a silver one!), fabric markers, spray glitter, and we set to work...

here was our work station...the dining room table....we had Lil Blue Boo's blog post up on my mom's laptop, a towel spread to catch our inevitable paint drips, and all our painting supplies....

the first step was to use painters tape to cover the rubber edges of the soles of the shoes...that way, we could get sloppy and not have to worry :-) then we covered the entire shoe in a messy, intentionally uneven layer of white acrylic paint....

once the white was done and slightly dry, we followed with random blotches of other colors....at this point, we each worked on one shoe, switching every few minutes to insure that each shoe had a little bit of her and a little bit of me

then when all our splotches were finished to our liking, we added our graffiti words....you can see her "word bank" next to her....i had called earlier in the week and asked her to brainstorm words....i was thinking things like "love" "friends" "faith"...you know, statements about the important things in life.....she was thinking more along the lines of "my foot"...."ice cream"...and "beans"......on, to be nine again.... :-)

so basically the word-writing process goes like this: we write the word with a fabric marker/sharpie...then we go around the outside with a coordinating color...then go around a third time with the silver....this really makes the word pop from the shoe....

we also drew on some peace signs (those are still cool?), hearts, stars, butterflies, etc....(and yes, i did get to sneak a few of my words on there....notice we "accidentally" left off the word "beans".....so sad.... :-) and heres another close up of the heals....once we were done with the letters, we let everything dry, touched up some paint spots, then covered the whole shoe in this fabric glitter spray stuff....so fun! and the best part is, my little sister LOVED them! all afternoon she kept saying, "my friends are all going to think these are from a store up in Chicago...but i will tell them that i painted them myself!".....

*note: after wearing the shoes to school, recess, etc. for a week, they became really dull looking.....so in hindsight, I would finish them off with a coat of clear acrylic sealer spray...the "triple thick" kind....that way they can be scrubbed with soap and water and the paint colors will stay vibrant.