Muses Shoevolution Shoe

Happy 12th Night to All!! 

With a mere 52 days standing between us and the 2014 Krewe of Muses parade, at long last we've reached the time of year where everyone else starts getting just as obsessed as I am year round. It's Carnival Time, Baby!!

If you visit the Krewe of Muses Facebook page regularly, you'll recognize this Shoevolution design from this awesome cover picture. 

I primed the shoe with white spray paint so the neon glitters would show. The yellow is Martha Stewart "lemon drop," the pink is Tree House Studio (color "pink ice"). The black on the interior, sole and lettering is Recollections.

Cinderella Muses Shoe

Continuing to do Muses Shoes inspired by famous shoes (see exhibit A - Ruby Slipper), this is my take on the Cinderella Slipper. It's a hybrid of a Muse-ified Louboutin Cinderella Slipper (complete with the red sole) and elements of the classic powder blue Cinderella get-up. My research and reference images are collected on this Pinterest board. The butterflies and red sole are an homage to the Louboutin Cinderella slippers, but the overall color scheme is more classic animated Disney Cinderella.

This one actually took more work than you might guess from looking at photos: first I primed the shoe with white spray paint, followed that with 2 coats of Recollections "frost" and touch-ups, then coated the whole thing (besides the sole) with a mix of powder blue and iridescent white glitter from Jefferson Variety. All that layering takes time, but the final effect is a really rich, shimmery iridescence.

I did the red sole in Recollections "cherry," finished the edges with gold sequin trim and glued some iridescent blue and gold butterflies around the edge. "Muses" and "2014" were added in Recollections gold, and then I added swirls of translucent iridescent blue-ish-pink sequins (those are really tough to see in the photos). 

With flash

Perched butterflies!

Soft Green and Gold Strappy Wedge

My sister picked out this base shoe at The Glitterage and asked me to glitter it soft green (evidently her favorite Muses Shoe glitter color). So never let it be said that I do not honor requests.

The soft green in question is a sort of iridescent pastel lime from Jefferson Variety, the wedge and sole are gold (that she left up to me), and it's ArtMinds stackable. I lined the edge between shoe and wedge with gold sequins. There's a zipper up the back of the shoe that was just too much fun not to play with, so I highlighted it with gold glitter. "MUSES" on one side of the wedge, "2014" on the other, following the wedge's awesome shape.

Gold zipper up the back

BOOT!

I may have fibbed a little when I said I was done posting shoes for a while, but guess who got her boot balls* this weekend? YOURS TRULY!!

*I'm not going to get the definition quite right, but "boot balls" is a term I learned when I visited The Glitterage and refers to the courage it takes to Muse-ify a boot. 

Boot balls are required because it's way more surface area so you're using more material, which makes the stakes higher. Also the scale is bigger than you're used to working with so you second guess the design choices a lot more (at least I sure did). It was indeed terrifying, especially the decision to put boa around the top. But no guts, no glory, right?

Anyways, the glitter on this boot (violet-blue on the sole and heel, red on the front of the boot, gold on the back) is all Jefferson Variety. I lined the edges with a silver braid and added a silver fleur de lis  (same fleur de lis as the one I used on this 2012 shoe) and finished the whole thing off with a ring of blue boa with gold tinsel. Finished except for lettering!

Roman Candy Wagon Shoe

This shoe was inspired by the beautiful little red and white Roman Candy Wagon. The white glitter is Jefferson Variety, the red glitter on the wheels is Recollections (also the sole, though that doesn't show in any of the pictures). The miniature wagon wheels are from Hobby Lobby. I did the lettering in two steps, yellow first (Martha Stewart "lemon drop"), then red slightly offset. One side says "Roman Chewing Candy" and the other side says "75 cents a stick," both of which are written on the wagon. It still needs "Muses" and "2014" added, of course. The edges are lined with red sequin trim to match the wheels.

Close-up of the lettering

With flash

 This is probably going to be one of the last shoes I post for the 2014 ride, I'm just about ready to switch to finishing up mode. From now until February, I'll mostly be adding last embellishments to shoes that need a little extra pizzazz and writing "Muses 2014" on shoes which are finished except for lettering.

Finished Voodoo Shoe

It was nearly done in this post, but I finished up the voodoo shoe. I made some tiles using the same method I used for the white and blue tiles on these shoes, but in gold and green. I made a set to say "MUSES" on one side, and "NOLA" on the other. It was already pretty embellished, but I figured it should be a shoe fit for a (voodoo) queen, so I also added "MUSES" in green along the back of the heel (using the tiles from a string of Muses beads):

Hot Pink and Lime Green Shoe

I spray painted a shoe lime green, then added two coats of translucent Martha Stewart lime green glitter. The heel and sole are hot pink glitter (ArtMinds). I added hot pink marabou across the front and hot pink lettering on the back of the shoe and inside.

A simple design, but I think the color scheme makes it work.