Saturday, July 14, 2012

Button Shoe Craft Night

Button Shoe Craft Night

 Earlier this week a friend decided we needed to make these shoes she found on Pinterest.



She gathered all of us girls and we set a night to create our shoes. 

Supplies Needed 

 Plain Flats (new or used)

Variety of Buttons (lots or just a few depending on your style)

Glue -E6000 or Aleene's Original Tacky Glue

IF YOU ARE CHANGING THE COLOR OF THE SHOE:

FolkArt Acrylic Paint

Sponge

 


We first went to Walmart in hopes of finding inexpensive yet wearable flats that we could decorate. 


These flat were about $5 but as a Type 3 and Type 1 we were disappointed they only had black.  It was decided that since we were going to glue buttons on them anyway we would paint them a different color!


 

We used FolkArt Acrylic Paint.  The color I got was FolkArt Metallic 666 Antique Copper.  We purchased the paint at Walmart, but you can get it at any craft store.  I also purchased a $2 bath sponge to get a textured look when I painted the shoe.



To "paint" the shoe I dipped the sponge in the paint and blotted it around on the plastic bag a little bit so there wouldn't be globs of paint on the sponge.  Then I lightly and quickly blotted the shoe with the sponge until I got my desired look. 


The two Type 1's wanted more color on their shoes so when they sponged they used a thicker layer of paint on the sponge to get more paint on the shoe.



We ended up buying a few packets of buttons, but my seamstress step-mom had loads of buttons that she let us use for this project.  Most of the buttons I used were from her stash and the really colorful buttons the other girls used were purchased at Walmart.



Two types of glue were used for this project.  Rachel and Corinne found that the E-6000 Clear Transparent glue worked the best.  It would hold the buttons on fairly quickly after gluing on the shoe.  Since I am pregnant the smell really bothered me so Malorie and I used Aleene's Original Tacky Glue.  We had to hold the buttons on the shoe for a few minutes before the glue got tacky enough to hold the button itself.  This glue has a very light smell and didn't bother me.

Basically you find buttons you like, get a pair of plain shoes to glue them to, and have fun designing your shoe!  You can use as many or as few buttons as you like. 






Here are all of our shoes together!

From left to right: 
Malorie (Type 1\4), Corinne (Type 4/1), Lindsay (Type 3/2), and Rachel (Type 1/3)