I am desperate to get back to glittering. Alas setting up my new workspace is somewhat low priority at the moment, but I have a ton of ideas swirling around in my brain and I can't wait to get them into actual 3D shoe form!! I have high hopes for a smidge of sparkle time this weekend. And of course I need to start planning more workshops in the fall when it cools off a bit.
Until I get back up and running, here are a few shots of shoes I was working on before the move that are in varying stages of completeness. If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen these, but I know different people prefer different platforms (I met one fellow glitter addict at a workshop who only follows me on Pinterest and she must think I was hit by a bus or something...)
First up - my first "official" 2017 shoe - Rhinestone Cowgirl! A friend of a friend gifted me a bunch of awesome Cowgirl boots to glitterify, and I've been loving working with a slightly different shoe shape. I did a vintage Mardi Grad color scheme on this first one. The boot had elaborate stitching that I didn't want to lose, so first step I covered the boot with translucent white sheer glitter (Gary's glitter by the pound, HOLLA). Then I did the other areas of the boots (heel, trim, sole, toe, etc.) in solid opaque glitter (all Martha Stewart, but I'd have to double check the exact colors). Then I traced the stitched in design with crystal puff paint and added a gradient of gold to green to purple. The gradient is essentially five colors of glitter: gold, then 50-50 gold and green, then green, then 50-50 green and purple and finally purple. I just shook stripes over the wet puff paint and voila - Carnival fabulousness!! I added some white feathers with gold tinsel up top, and some aurora borealis rhinestones which were added post-pictures.
Y'all know I love a shoe with a Snoball heel (after all, I've made four so far). After drooling over images of the bananas foster topping available as a special Wednesday-only at Hansen's I just had to exorcise my food-lust demons with another shoe. Here she is so far:
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| Ooooh sexy Instagram filter on this shot |
The bananas are baked and painted polymer clay and the snoball itself is a foam ball glittered with Martha Stewart "lemondrop." The gooey caramel loveliness is represented by tons of drippy gold glitter paint (Tulips 3D Scribbles, my go-to for glettering transfers). The cup is a plastic Mardi Gras cup covered first with a layer of opaque teal (I want to say Gary's glitter by the pound), then followed up with a layer of iridescent sheer (Martha Stewart "blueberry slush"). Sidebar: I picked up a bunch of sale Martha Stewart glitter at Michael's a while back and now it seems it's been discontinued there...anyone know what's up? Are they no-longer carrying it, or revamping the line or what? I love the effect of layering iridescent over opaque like this - such a rich depth of color! The interior is the same effect: opaque magenta with iridescent sheer hot pink over it, this time Recollections. Gold trim from Joann's around the edges and criss-crossed "straps" made from faux little white spoons (actually craft foam stiffened with plastic sheets, then glittered with sheer white glitter from Gary's). I will have to blog about using plastic in combination with craft foam another time, but it has been a game changer for me in terms of allowing my to just build whatever I want from scratch.
As usual, there are things I'd do differently on it if I had a time machine, but overall I love how this shoe is turning out. The cup needs a lot of embellishment since I love that color blue but it's pretty plain at the moment - I'm leaning towards a riff on the 75th Anniversary cup design, but replacing the numbers with 17th or 18th because it'll be thrown in 2017 or 2018, Muses 17th or 18th year of rolling.
What else? Experimenting with some fish shoes:
Lots more to come on those, including detailed instructions for making them yourself (it's super easy, you just need the right supplies).
Lastly (for now), I made a Jefferson City Buzzards themed shoe as a gift for the Flamingos (who my sister and I ride with as subs) to present them:
More soon - Happy Glittering!
Welcome home!!! We can always use a little more sparkle in the city :) I just love the fish shoes. After you posted the first pics, they've been on my list of things to try. Everything is Finding Dory now so that's kind of what I've settled on. Technical question: Do you cut the foam to the shape of the shoe after you've glued it on? Seems like that would be easier than trying to measure it out....
ReplyDeleteThank you, it's so good to finally be back home! Finding Dory is a brilliant idea. I do a mix of both - I make myself a template out of stiff paper (usually a cut up manila folder) so I can make sure everything is in approximately the right place and the shape of the tail is how I want it, adjust it to fit the shoe, then when I'm happy with that I trace it onto the foam and cut it out with a lot of excess around the edges. Then I glue to the shoe and trim down precisely to the shape of the shoe. Does that make sense?
DeleteYep. My templates are always way off. Excuse I'm constantly misjudging the shape of the shoe. LOL But this makes sense. I'm thinking the tail would be easier as a template and it would look a lot neater on the sides to cut it down after gluing. So you do a little of both :) Thanks!
DeleteOh.. And I talked to someone at Michael's a while back and they told me they won't be carrying the Martha Stewart glitter anymore. I haven't checked to see if you can still buy it online but Joanne's down here is carrying a few colors I haven't seen before.
ReplyDeleteWhich Joann's? I haven't seen Martha Stewart glitter at the one closest to me (the one on Veteran's right by Martin's Wine Cellar), but will make the trip to a different one if there's a good reason (like glitter).
DeleteI haven't seen Martha Stewart glitter at Joann's but they have a different brand that comes in some cool colors. I know Prime Day is over but the Martha Stewart little bottle set was a Prime Day deal. It was still 20$ though... 😏 You might be able to catch it on sale closer to Christmas.
DeleteSo looking forward to workshops in the fall. I have ideas, just not the execution knowledge. I also spoke with someone at Michael's and she said the Martha Stewart line just wasn't a good seller for them. She told me to check Amazon and Joanne's, and I told her "but I can't use my 40% off coupon there!"
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY. The 40% off coupons are key!! You actually can sign up for Joann's coupons and I'm pretty sure they accept competitor coupons (i.e. Michael's). But that doesn't help on Amazon. I was always careful with it because it's the most expensive even with the coupons, but now my Martha Stewart stash is going to be so precious.
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DeleteCompletely agree about the coupons especially when it comes to glitter. Although Gary's has been a GAME-CHANGER. LOL. "NO! Don't touch the Martha Stewart!!!" 😂😂😂
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