Painted Baby Shoes

A Unique and Charming Christmas Craft Project

Don't you think these painted baby shoes are darling? Don't you think they would look terrific set out on the mantle or end table at Christmastime? I sure do!

Want to try this Christmas arts and crafts idea yourself? Here is how I painted my shoes. Feel free to express your own creative flair and substitute your own choice of colors and arrangement.

Materials

• I bought these shoes for 79 cents at a thrift store. These happen to have soft soles, but hard soled shoes would work too.

Paint brushes

• One brush needs to be very thin, for detail work.

Acrylic paints

Use whatever colors and brands you want to. I used paints I already had on hand for my painted baby shoes. Here are the ones I used:
• Deco Art™ Acrylic Paint Americana®: Lamp (Ebony) Black (for toe section and sides of shoe).
• Deco Art™ Acrylic Paint Americana®: Santa Red (for front panel, stripe around back of shoe, and holly berries).
• Gloss™ Outdoor Indoor Acrylic Enamel: Real Yellow (for stripes down sides and around back of shoe).
• Gloss™ Outdoor Indoor Acrylic Enamel: Real Green (for stripe around back of shoe and holly leaves).
• Gloss™ Outdoor Indoor Acrylic Enamel: White (for dots of snow).
• DecoArt Dazzling Metallics®: Crystal Green (for tongue and back).
• DecoArt Dazzling Metallics®: Emperor’s Gold (for seams).
• DecoArt Dazzling Metallics®: Shimmering Silver (for soles).
• Permapaque™ opaque paint marker by Sakura (fine point): Green (to draw on faux grommets).

Ribbon

• Two pieces, for shoe laces.
• Length depends on size of shoes and number of holes to lace. For my shoes, I cut two pieces of ribbon 26 inches each. Even though I cut each piece about three inches longer than the original shoe laces, it turned out they were a little short so I did not lace up the top holes.

Clear water-based varnish (optional)

• I did not varnish my painted baby shoes but it probably is a good idea to varnish all painted areas to help protect and maintain the beauty of the shoes over time. I do plan to unlace my shoes and varnish them one of these days in the near future.

Instructions

Clean the shoes and let them dry.

If your shoes have soft soles like mine, paint them first and set them upside down to dry, as shown in the photo to the right.

(Note: If your shoes have hard soles, wait until you have completed all the other painting, then paint just the sides of the soles with whatever color or colors you choose. You may want to paint them a solid color or perhaps add stripes or dots. There is no need to paint the bottoms.)


Paint the tongues.


Next, pull the tongues away from the shoes as much as you can and paint them whatever color you choose. (I chose metallic green.)

As you can see in the photo to the left, I got some splotches of green metallic paint in the surrounding areas. I also got smears of green paint on the inside of the shoes near the top where they would be visible. It took extra effort later to cover these green splotches.

To avoid this, I recommend taking these steps before you start painting the tongues: Place tape on the surrounding leather areas and stuff paper inside the shoes. When the tongues are dry, remove the tape and paper. (Also remove any sticky residue that may have been left from the tape.) This is what I am going to do next time.


Paint the shoes by section.

The shoes have seams that divide them into sections.


Paint each section a solid color, as shown in these two photos. Let one color dry before starting the next color.

(It is perfectly all right to paint the entire shoe one solid color if you want to.)

You almost certainly will need more than one coat, except perhaps the for black areas.


Paint the holly and berries.

I also added some white "snow" dots just because I thought they would look nice and I wanted to brighten up that area a bit.

Feel free to paint another design if you want to!


Paint the seams.

Paint the seams, using a fine pointed brush. (I used metallic gold paint.) To avoid smearing, paint the seams in one area and let the paint dry before starting another area.

I painted all the seams (except the seam between the shoe and the sole). You may prefer to paint just some of the seams -- or none of them!

Below are pictures of the painted baby shoes from several angles to show you the painted seams.

I used a green opaque paint marker for this purpose, but a fine pointed brush will do the job too.

You can paint the grommets all the same color or use different colors, as you prefer.



Varnish the painted areas. (Optional)

To protect your project, you may want to apply a coat of clear water-based varnish to your painted baby shoes. Allow varnish to dry completely before you lace the shoes.


Lace up your painted baby shoes.


Lace the shoes with ribbons of your choice. I used gold wired ribbon.


You have now completed your painted baby shoes. Don't you feel great?



For more ideas on Christmas craft to make, with color photos and links to my pages showing you how to make them, please see the Christmas Arts and Crafts Idea page.


Please feel free to link to this page! Here is what your link will look like:

To make these charming Painted Baby Shoes, see the step-by-step tutorial and photos on the How To Arts and Crafts.com website.