DIY High Heel Cheetah Print Glittered Soles

I’ve been told that every newly single gal needs a pair of “sexy heels”. As I only had two pairs at the time including a pair for work (i.e. when sweatpants just won’t cut it) and another pair for funerals. Sexy!

And to be honest, I think my first attempt out of the gate was, well, a bit too sexy for me. Unless a sprained ankle is sexy in which case I’ll be all over it! At any rate, I LOVE the way the soles on my heels turned out even if I can only totter around on them up and down my hallway before my shins started screaming at me. My sister has already laid claim on this pair of fancy footwear so I’ll have to find something a bit more modestly sexy to add to glitter up and add to my wardrobe!

For this project you will need:

• Heels – these are black velvet, platform pumps with 5-inch heels (seems so silly that I would buy this considering I’ve been rocking 2-inch heels at most for the past decade… go big or go home, I guess!)
• Glitter in 3 colors, one complementing the shoe color
• Aleene’s Brush on Tacky Glue
• Aleene’s Acrylic Sealer
• Chip brush
• Sharpie

First, find a picture of leopard/cheetah print online that you like the look of. You can print it or look at it on your screen or whatever floats your boat. Draw the shapes onto the sole of your shoe making them fairly large in scale. The bigger they are the easier they will be to fill in with glitter AND have them be recognizable at the end of all of this. I tried to make mine nickel to quarter-sized for the most part with a few smaller to even things out.

Oh, and if you have rubber soles as I did, the marker will react strangely. I used a navy marker and it turned out kind of red.

Take some of your glue and place a dob on a piece of scrap paper. Since glitter is going to be getting EVERYWHERE (not even going to try like it isn’t, we’ve all touched glitter before and know how it goes) by only taking out a small bit at a time, and not working directly from the jar we’re not screwing up all of the glue!

Apply your glue moderately heavy. It’s okay if the edges are weird or if you don’t completely fill in your shape. Use the darker of your two colors for the “outer” leopard print spots.

Glitter as you go so that your glue doesn’t dry out on you. If you glitter over a box or a tub, you can pour it right back into the bottle for a lot less waste!

Lightly blow away the extra glitter and set it aside to dry. Repeat for the other sole.

Once dry use a soft-bristled brush, like a chip brush, to remove the glitter that isn’t glued down. But know that anywhere that a sticker was on the sole is going to take on a bit of glitter. It’s no problem and it’ll be covered up in the next steps so no stress!

Oh, and now would be a great time to clean out your box so you don’t mix your glitter colors!

Fill in your leopard spots with glue (if your first pile got really glittery, make a new puddle of glue to work from) and glitter these spots with the interior color.

Blow away the excess glitter, and set it to the side to dry while working on the next shoe. Use your chip brush to remove the excess.

Last, of all, fill in all of the unused areas with your background-colored glitter. I went with black for black shoes and I highly recommend the look, but you can also go wild for a super bright pop of color, like red!

Use masking tape to remove the excess glitter from the shoe if it is velvet or fabric.

Tape off the shoe upper and finish the soles with a spray sealer to keep the glitter in place and not all over everyone you’ve ever met and every place you’ve ever been.

These shoes are super sexy and fun and I love them. I just can’t walk in them! So be sure to keep your head out of the clouds and buy heels that will actually work for you! Oh, and if you’re not down with leopard spots, you can work out any sort of pattern you please!

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.