These adorable shoes are designed with sharpies and alcohol. Back in the ’70s, tie-dye was all the rage. Yes, I did try my hand at it. My granddaughter, Sophie asked if we could make some tie-dyed shirts and, I have to admit, it made me smile. At the time, we were shopping at the craft store and we bought a Tulip tie-dye kit
, which we did not have back in the day! How convenient is this?
This kit includes 12 squeeze bottles containing powdered dye, 16 plastic gloves, 40 rubber bands, reusable plastic square cover for protecting your surface, and a sheet of instructions and project ideas.
Making the tie-dye shirts plan was halted by buckets and buckets of rain. Since doing this project outside is preferable, it had to be postponed. She was very disappointed.[ctt template=”8″ link=”s5mdD” via=”no” ]These DIY adorable shoes are designed by an 11-year old using sharpies and alcohol. Aren’t they adorable?[/ctt]
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Sharpies and Alcohol
However, we also bought canvas shoes for the project. It just so happens that I have colored Sharpie Markers
and remembered having seen pins on Pinterest of shoes decorated with sharpies and alcohol. I showed these to Sophie. Don’t you love creative kids?
Unintimidated, she began the project immediately. Remember that the markers you use have to be permanent markers.
In no time, she had completed these shoes for herself. She is completely happy with these. We picked up the canvas shoes at Target for about ten bucks.
We found the second pair of shoes at Hobby Lobby for almost ten bucks but we had a 40% off coupon and the pair for her cousin Memphis only ended up being $6.00.
You will be surprised to find out that shoes decorated like this on Etsy are selling for about $200.00.
Supplies Needed For Decorated Shoes
- Canvas shoes
- Sharpie Permanent Color Markers in a variety of colors
- Isopropyl Alcohol
The first step for this project is looking at some inspiration pins on Pinterest or in magazines. After Sophie had finished her first pair of shoes, I told her it would be neat to copy comic book drawings. There are so many options for you. Make up your own designs, draw Zentangles, or just add words. You are the creator here.
Next, you will want to color in the background with shapes and color blocks using colorful markers. If you start details with the black, the other colors on the canvas will be muddied and the black will also muddy the tip of your markers!
Sophie decided to completely cover the shoe in color. You might want to leave larger areas of white and that’s okay, too.
Even though there is white between some of the lines Sophie drew onto the shoe, which you can see in the picture, the alcohol blends this together. Use the alcohol sparingly until you get a feel for it.
After covering the canvas with colors, take a paintbrush, dip it into the isopropyl alcohol, brush on the edge of one of the colors, and blend the colors together. Try to keep the alcohol on one of the colors at a time if you want to keep the two colors separate and not blend them together.
Then, allow the alcohol to completely dry. This won’t take long.
Details
When you have completed using the alcohol to blend and give a tie-dye look and allowed the shoes to dry, prepare to detail with a black Ultrathin Flair marker.
Next, detail the shoes, with an Ultrathin black Flair marker, which works best since some of the shapes are quite small. It seemed like the fine point markers bled too much and we can’t get the sharp line we want.
My gosh! How cute are these?
This is such a creative little project for young girls! We can’t wait to give these to Sophie’s little cousin Memphis. Do you know a little girl who would love to create her own designer shoes? You only need canvas shoes, Flairs, and isopropyl alcohol.
Notice that the edging tape along the top of the shoe is also colored with the black marker. It really seems to set off the shoes.
Wait until you see what we did with the tie-dye! The shoes are perfect with them! That’s coming up in one of the next posts!
