Red/Copper belt redo

Back last year, I bought this pink belt for about $5 from Charming Charlie.  

I loved the shape & texture, but the color was a bit soft & light for me.  I decided to get my paint on with it.

I painted the elastic band with fabric paint & a sponge while pounding the paint in as deep as I could, doing my best to get it as even as I could.  After painting the band with Brick fabric paint, I then took My Angelus Brick leather paint to the vinyl (after rubbing it with Acetone).  After that dried, I took my cotton rag with so e water & rubbed the whole vinyl down with Copper leather paint in order to give it a metallic iridescent sheen to it & to enhance the texture.  Painted the buckle rid with Gold nail polish & let it all dry.

The color & look are gorgeous!  Now that I have worn it a few times, I think I will paint the whole thing with Pod Modge to help seal it as the buckle has been digging in on the sides & ruining the belt. I think the Mod Podge would help protect it like it did in my Tissue Paper shoe post.

Here is the outfit I put together with the belt.  This is one of those outfits that I put together for the first time and felt AMAZING in!  My favorite shoes & skirt combined with a ruffled front button up shirt with a gold metallic cardigan & my painted belt.  I loved the whole outfit & how I felt in it and the belt was a great color for the combo.  Expand your vision & possibilities & see what you can come up with!

Marbleizing Dye Technique

This shirt is going to be the shirt that goes down in history for having the most refashions done to it!  It started out like this....

 GORGEOUS, teal black that I really did love, but every time I wore it, it felt way too black for me and I didn't feel quite right... but that teal color is my FAVORITE!  I thought I could bleach it and just turn it back solid teal.....

 So, I bleached it.  It turned tan.

 Attempted to bleach it teal with a Kelly Green and Royal Blue mixture and it turned out this color.  VERY muted and I was not loving....

 So in a very short period of time, it visited all 3 of these.  I left it that muted green for a while, but never wore it because I really didn't like the color for me.... so why not bleach it again and try something different.

(picture forgotten here)- but I took it in it's bleached tan state and wrapped rubber-bands all over it.  I tried to do it at angles so that there wouldn't be stripes straight across, I wanted lots of texture and movement, not stripes.  I then stuck it in a seriously concentrated mixture of Scarlet Red dye.

 This is what it looked like when all soaked in and wrapped up still.  I undid all of the rubber-bands and this is what I had.

 A really great rich red and tan, but it still needed to be washed at this point (yes it did fade and bleed, but whatever at this point ;-) )

 The next matter of business was the black rhinestones.  I couldn't stand them anymore and decided to take my brown finger nail polish and quickly coat each one with the brown.  You can see that the left upper section has brown and the right is black still.  It was just that bit of change to tone it down and not be so stark.

 Here is it outfitted.  You can see that it did fade and I have to admit I was bummed about how much it faded.... I LOVED the deep rich red it started out to be, but sometimes it is just really hard to get the really deep coloring with dyeing.  At least it is to a point that I will for sure wear it often.  This shirt is so blasted soft and comfortable, that I wasn't willing to give it up.

I paired it with this fabulous belt that my neighbor picked up at the thrift store and gave to me.  I didn't have to do a thing to it, it was perfect as is.... it's amazing how someone considered this trash I consider a serious SCORE!  I would have paid decent money for a belt like this because it would be a staple!  The boots were a great find for about $6 at a Yard Sale.... The shirt itself was a thrifted find also, originally from the Buckle I believe.  A store I love but never willing to pay their prices.

So I am calling it quits for this shirt.  I think 5 refashions is enough for 1 shirt.  Aren't you glad you have me to make mistakes and test things out for all of you so you know what to do and what not to do..... ;-)

Leopard Tissue Paper Shoes Refashion

This is a project I started on a few weeks ago, but just didn't have the time to finish it up until this past weekend.  I have had people waiting to see how this one turned out.... I think they were doubtful that it would turn out, but it turned out AWESOME!!!

 I started off with these pink shoes that my dad gave to my girls for dress ups from the thrift store (they have lots of dress up shoes, so they did not need another pair.... so naturally, I took them ;-) )

I had these leopard tissue paper sheets that came in some packages I had ordered and desperately wanted to think of something to use them for.... so of course, why not SHOES!

I started this process by painting sections of the shoe with some Mod Podge and tearing fairly small pieces of the tissue paper and sticking it on.  I was careful not to get Mod Podge on the sole of the shoe so that when it came time to cut it with an exacto knife, it wouldn't be glued on the sole and would give me a clean edge.  Up at the top area, I wrapped the tissue paper to the inside and glued it down with the Mod Podge.

After everything is glued down,  take your Mod Podge and coat the entire top of the tissue paper making sure to completely seal the whole thing.  Let it dry and exacto knife the edges off very carefully.  Next, paint the heel and the straps with Cognac leather paint.  it takes a couple of coats to really get a nice look, then paint the buckle with gold fingernail polish.  As you can see above, I undid the buckle to get everything painted.  One thing I have noticed from projects, leather paint doesn't hold up under any buckles, it rips it off and ruins the whole thing, so this time I decided to cover the whole strap with Mod Podge to protect it and it is working out great

I am super excited with how they turned out!

Definitely one-of-a-kind shoes that will be great for dressing up or pairing with jeans like I did here.

The jeans, jacket & brown cuff here are thrifted from friends or my local FB Yard Sale page, scarf was a cheap find at Walmart.  Super inexpensive, yet fun and colorful outfit for the fall approaching..... and I am LOVING these shoes!  So fun to see people's reactions when I tell them I refashioned them with tissue paper!

Belt and shoes painted to Mustard Yellow

 Now, I have said this before, but I will say again.  Some of the things I go to refashion, people are going to think "Why would you change that?".  But some of the things I own, just aren't right for ME, so I do what I need to to make them right for me.

This rockin belt I bought at Charming Charlie back a year a half ago for a whole $3 (SCORE).  I loved it, but the grey-blue color just wasn't right for me.  I decided to do something crazy & decide to paint the entire thing, detail and all.

I got out my little tiny detail brush and spent an hour or 2 painting over the tiny detail weave from blue to brown. 

You can see the before and after here with one side done.

Then after all of that, I got out the Acetone (not fingernail polish remover) and rubbed down the leather/vinyl section.  I chose to paint the belt Mustard Yellow and give it a bit of a vintage look.

 The metal was originally a silverish color, so I took my gold fingernail polish and carefully painted the metal all gold on the hook.

Now, I forgot to take pictures of this part on this belt, but I do have this one from another belt I redid.  This is how I change the color of the elastic backing of the belt.  Tape off around the side where the leather touches the elastic.  Next take a sponge and dip it in your matching fabric paint to the leather paint just used.  Take the sponge and literally pound/stipple the paint into the elastic. This definitely works best if you choose a color fairly close to the original color and it would be best to get an Opaque Fabric Paint instead of a sheer Fabric Paint.  If you would like, you can set the fabric paint with heat under an iron (probably place the item between 2 old towels to be safe.

I also had these hot pink shoes that my mom gave me.  I liked the idea of the shoes, but I am not much of a pink girl, especially hot pink.  I stripped them as usual with my Acetone really good and just painted them over with the Mustard Leather Paint.

 As of now, these shoes stripped the very best which means that the leather paint is very securely on there.

 I chose to show this belt and shoes paired with rich primary colors.

 A close up of the belt while on.

Or in a more casual way paired with my rockin hand painted leopard shoes.
Random note, the rich brown tank I am wearing underneath used to be black.  I bleached it and it turned this yummy brown.

After doing all of this painting, I did get the idea that the detail on the belt would look really awesome in Purple as a contrast to the yellow.... maybe one day I will break down and do that, but it will limit my color combinations if I do that..... My brain is always working on how to change things up ;-)  For now, I will leave it and put my efforts into other projects to share with all of you UBs!  (Unique Beauties!)