Monday, August 20, 2012

Glitter Shoes: A Tragedy

I have two weddings to attend in the upcoming months.  I own exactly one pair of fancy shoes and they're black pumps ideal for the one day a year I get to wear business casual to the office.

I saw a pair of sparkly shoes on Pinterest and fell in love only to find that sparkly shoes are generally in the price range of making my wallet weep.  So I said screw it: I'll make my own.


After perusing Pinterest, I settled on this seemingly simple method.  I found the shoes at Payless for $20 and procured the glue and glitter at Jo Ann's for under $10.  I choose the bright pink after almost settling for something more practical like silver or black.



I coated both shoes with clear coat of the Mod Podge and then added a layer of glitter mixed with the glue.  It then became apparent to me that covering the shoes by painting glitter on layer by layer would take forever so I then shook the glitter over the still wet shoes (cover floor well if using this method: we'll be finding glitter for years because I thought covering a small area would be sufficient).  After another layer of glitter/mix, I decided I'd achieved the desired glitter event horizon and applied another layer of just glue as a seal.  I was pretty pleased with myself.

And then two days later at a wedding reception, I realized that the glitter covering was cracking and as the night wore on chunks of glitter were falling off the shoes.  The husband thinks that I should have broken in the shoes before giving them their makeover, I'm wondering if a different glue would have been given me better results.  I have a few months until we have another wedding to attend so there's time to decide whether of not to make the necessary repairs.  I'm not sure if I should remove the glitter already on the shoes or just do a spot repair.  I'll report back later.





2 comments:

  1. The only suggestion I have is that it might be that the shoe surface is too slick to hold the glue properly... maybe scuff it a bit with fine sandpaper? Then, put a layer of just glue down as a sort of a base and let that dry before you add another layer of glitter. Hopefully you can just spot-fix these, they're really neat!

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  2. I used a spray glue when I made my glitter shoes and only had minimal glitter trails in my wake.

    Do your base coat of glue and glitter, then a coat of spray glue, another layer of glitter, then a good sealant.

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