Maryland Shoe

Oh, how I have missed posting here! I have a ton of shoes in the work, so I'm going to start playing catch up again...

To prepare for my sister riding this year (!!!), I've been whipping up some special shoes for her. She lives in Baltimore and the inhabitants of her fair city possess absolutely epic levels of civic pride (sound familiar, New Orleanians?)

Starting with a white pump, I divided the shoe into four quadrants and applied several (~3-4) coats of white or yellow. The white glitter I used was ArtMinds (my new favorite white) and the yellow was Recollections with a little orange paint mixed in with the Mod Podge to increase the brightness and opacity. 

After I was happy with the yellow and white base coats, I printed the Maryland flag coloring page I bookmarked a while back, and traced in black or red glitter (both Recollections). I peeled the transfers, fitted them onto the shoe and trimmed where necessary:

After the transfers were glued and set, I lined the edges between quadrants in red sequin (I had a wee bit leftover from the Ruby Slipper) and lines the upper and lower edge with black sequins. I glittered the interior and heel in Tulip gold glitter and glittered the sole in dark red (ArtMinds)

Another thing Maryland has in common with Louisiana = crabs. After the whole shoe was glittered, I perched some little red crabs around the edge of the shoe using hot glue and, once they were dried, arranged a string of pearls in their little claws. The effect I'm going for is that a little band of crabs are scuttling around the shoe and working together to catch one single strand of beads together. The pearls came from my husband's modest 2013 stash...he's a non-native and this past year somewhat adorably discovered how fun it is to pass everything he catches along to kids around him (and yes, I can totally tolerate the hit my craft supply took as a result).

Still needs lettering and the year, probably on the inside?