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!)

Hand-painted Leopard Shoes

          Do you love leopard as much as I do?  Leopard is my POWER pattern!  I feel very powerful and confident when I am in leopard, so that was of course my inspiration for these shoes.

          I purchased these little red beauties for a whole $2 from my local Facebook yard sale page. 

         Some people would think that there is nothing wrong with them, but they are just too bold for my style and coloring.  After buying them I thought "why did I even buy these?  I don't care for this color for me...."  But then I had a thought and I was bound to do it.....Hand painted leopard shoes!

       #1- The first step to creating this was to rub my shoes down with pure ACETONE.  NOT fingernail polish remover.  With a cotton rag, rub and rub to see if you can get the glossy finish off (sometimes it all comes off and sometimes you just can't get it off).  *please use rubber or latex gloves during this process and do it outside where it is ventilated.

       #2- The second step is to get your colors figured out.  I use Angelus leather paints that have to be ordered online.  The base color I chose to be Mustard and the spots are Cognac.

     The base I used a larger art brush & gave it a good 2-3 coats.  After letting that dry, I used the little paint brush in the paint and free handed some spots.  I created a free pattern as I wanted them to be a bit unique.

      After getting all of the spots on and letting it dry, I took the Light-brown paint and drew random borders around the spots.

     With this picture, you can see the random pattern.  It is really cool around the heel and didn't take it all around the shoe.

     My original plan was to just stop at this point, but as you can see, it was a bit bright and animated for my taste and I desperately needed to find a way that I could tone down the look.  Now, with part of my background being in mural painting and wall staining, I took some techniques from that and created an over color that would tone down the yellow and make it look aged.  Here is what I did.  In an old plastic bowl, I dabbed a little bit of the dark brown paint and a pinch of water.  I took a cotton rag and dabbed it both in the brown paint and water and created a wash out of it.  I swirled that all around the the shoes and created some spots darker and some lighter so get the aged/worn affect I wanted.

       You can see here in the picture that it created a very beautiful, yet fun look that I absolutely love and adore!

     I even wore them in a photoshoot I had back a few months ago.  So, for a few bucks for some shoes and some paints (that of course stretch into many more projects), I now have a FABULOUS pair of shoes that I get compliments on ALL THE TIME!  So try it!  Don't be afraid because you say you aren't an artist.  This is not difficult and the end result is well worth the bit of time put in.