DIY Shoe Makeover: Galaxy Painted Sneakers
My sister and I are hard on shoes. I guess we’re almost as hard on shoes as children are! We buy white or light-colored sneakers with the best of intentions and sometimes that first wear they are already jacked up.
In order to save my shoes that are still totally wearable just a bit uglier than before, I often take to paint or markers or dye.
For this project you will need:
- Sneakers
- Fabric paints in a variety of colors.
- Glossy Mod Podge
- Brushes, rags, sponges, etc.
For my tutorials, I most often start with a new pair of shoes, mostly because I don’t have any desire to show off the dirty things. I mean, who does, really? So in order to keep these guys good for a while, I went ahead and gave them a topcoat. Because I have so many shoes I give a lot of what I make to my sister and she probably wears more than I make in all honesty. When I was just visiting I saw these shoes and some that I painted to look like fireworks. These still looked brand spanking new. That topcoat really worked! And I know they’ve been worn a lot because they showed the signs with the heels pushed down (better to slip on) and there was dirty inside of them. But still… pristine!
For the base coat on these sneakers, I didn’t want straight-up black for the sky so I mixed in some silver. The little bitty glitter flecks in the silver paint really helped to give the black paint a bit of pop. It’s not necessary but very pretty!
Apply your black base coat to the shoes. You can tape off the soles but I got all excited and went nuts. In the end, I had paint on the soles that did NOT want to come off so be warned on that account.
To start a galaxy start with teal or blue paint. Use a rag, sponge, sponge brush, or even a good-quality paper towel to dab the paint on in a random fashion. You want a big area covered here that isn’t a uniform shape.
Next, go over the blue with purple in the same manner but make it smaller than the blue blob.
Now paint a pink blob on top of the pink. It can be a totally random shape and totally randomly placed. It can even run over the edge of the purple onto the blue and beyond.
Gold fabric paint lightly dabbed on sporadically and totally randomly on top of the colorful blobs is the next step. I use a sponge brush, hardly dip it in any paint, and then daub most of it off on a piece of scrap before getting after the shoe with it.
Repeat for the other shoe and any other areas you would like galaxies.
Now I used these awesome new Tulip fabric crayons to add some black on top of my galaxies.
You can totally do the same thing with black paint but I wanted to try these babies out!
The black on top gives some dimension to the galaxies and really shouldn’t be skipped.
Thin out some white paint with water and flick onto the shoe from a distance with a stiff brush. A toothbrush works well, too. Practice this method before taking after your shoe because you can get completely different results depending on the amount of paint, distance from the shoe, etc.
Allow to dry and complete for the other side.
Next, seal your kicks with some glossy Mod Podge for a spectacularly bright look!
So what do you think? Love ’em? I have to tell you that out of all of my shoes here lately, these have gotten a ton of compliments! I guess the galaxy trend is still alive and kicking!
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.