altered baby shoes

Its official- Lucy can walk and that means its time to start wearing shoes (it has been bare feet, socks and booties up until now).. The only problem is that I seem to have hard time finding funky girl shoes- so I set out to alter a couple pairs of simple shoes with the hope to begin a fun little shoe collection for Lu.

I started with a pair of white shoes that had a bow. First I removed the bow and then using blue painters tape I blocked off to the surface to create a little triangle design. Next, using Tulip Soft Fabric Paint I painted the surface. Once the paint was dry I removed the tape to leave a fun geometric design.

I added a few tiny red embellishments with Tulip 3-d Fashion Paint.

Last, I altered the bow that I had removed by cutting it into more of a geometric shape and then painted it blue. Last I sewed it back onto the shoe

The result- a funky little pair of baby shoes- a little more our style!

For the second pair I once again removed the bows and then painted the entire surface of the shoes with Tulip Fashion 3-d Paint in metallic gold. While the paint was still dry, I used a crumbled up paper towel and dabbed the surface of the paint to create texture. Once the surface was dry I added tiny little metallic dots with 3-d paint.

Another cute pair of funky shoes!

Now lets see if we can keep shoes on this kid!

bleach painted shoes

I love using bleach to dye fabric (bleach discharge is the technical term) to create surfaces filled with pattern. Bleach chemically pulls pigment away from the surface of fabric, leaving everything that you bleach white or a lighter version of the fabric. You can use all kinds of fun techniques with bleach to transform fabric into something beautiful (I write all about it in my book Sew Wild). After finding some super cheap canvas shoes (fake Toms) from our local drug store, I couldn't resist altering them with bleach.

1. Any kind of fabric or canvas shoes will work but make sure to do a little test on the inside of the shoe to see how the fabric reacts- different colors and fabric will have different results. 

2. I used a brush and a little bowl of bleach. I dipped my brush and began covering the surface. TIP- Make sure to use a synthetic brush because the bleach will not eat away at the bristles.

3. I let the bleach react with the surface. TIP- Canvas or heavy/dark fabric can be slow to react with bleach, to speed up the process I like to use a little heat (hair dryer or heat tool).

4. I covered the entire surface of the shoes with all kinds of marks and doodles. 

The result are two pairs of really funky and unique shoes- perfect shoes for summer walks on the beach!

fashion friday- tribal painted sandals

It's no secret that I love to paint shoes and lately I've had a hankering for some black and white tribal print sandals so I got busy making my own!

Just about any type of shoe can be painted. I started with a pair of faux suede sandals so I used Tulip Fabric Paint which works great on any fabric.

I painted directly over the straps- first a layer of black paint. 

Once the black paint was dry I used white to paint my designs.

Looking for more inspiration to alter your shoes? Check out more of my shoes tutorials-

bleach painted shoes
altered baby shoes
polka dot statement flats
thread wrapped sandals
altered flip flops
my painted wedge sandals

fashion friday- statement flats

I am loving the current trend of funky and colorful statement flats- I mean who doesn't want to make a statement with their shoes!? While I love to buy shoes (boy do I LOVE to buy them) I decided to transform a pair that I already had in the closet that could use a little update. I wanted something BR IGHT and funky- The look I was going for- Keith Haring meets polka dots!

1. I started with a pair of yellow flats that I purchased last year at Target. 2. I used Tulip Soft Fabric Paint and a couple of small brushes. 3. Next I went to town painting lots of circles on the shoes.

4.I covered the entire surface with lots of dots. 5. Once the black paint was dry I added a pop of color inside of the dots. 6. And added a few random pops of pink.

7. Last I added a few little details here and there.

a woodland picnic

Some of the fondest memories I have from childhood are ones that involve getting dressed up and hiking into the woods to celebrate holidays and events with my family. Our house sat on the edge of a forest that served as the backdrop for adventures, make believe, family gatherings and picnics. There was something about those woods, something that was magical and everything we did in them, even the simplest of things, felt a little more enchanted. These days, we live in a house that sits on the edge of our own forest and we have made it a priority to create similar experiences for Lucy. We want to show her that there is beauty and possibility in the simplicity of nature. That there is something quite marvelous about getting all dressed up to dine under a canopy of green trees, listening to a symphony of birds while soaking up the magic of the forest.

This post is a collaboration with the Creative Council by UGG Australia

Photos by Alisa Burke and Andy Gunthardt

My shoes- D'Alessio Lucy's shoes- Aubry Andy's Shoes- Chester

creating a kid- use those feet

As many of you know, we love making a creative mess around her and one our favorite things to do foot painting, yep you read that right...painting with our feet. It is a process that feels silly, messy and totally weird and Lucy has loved it since she was a toddler! It's also a process that is WAY more fun with friends so recently we invited some of our favorite kiddos over to experiment and stomp around in paint. And let me tell you it was a BLAST! Here are three of our favorite ways to use those feet to get creative-

A fun things to do is to use your shoes as a stamp! You could use an old pair of shoes with interesting texture on the bottom but I thought it would be fun to transform some cheap flip flops into stamps. I cut out shapes from craft foam and glued them to the bottom of the sandals. Then we dipped those shoes into paint and went WILD walking and stomping around on a big piece of butcher paper. The result is a surface filled with stamped pattern!

Wrapping those footies in bubble wrap is one of my personal favorite things to do- yes, I do this all the time! It's so much fun to walk around with that bubble wrap popping as you add colorful pattern and texture to a surface. Kids love this process because it's totally wacky, weird and tons of fun!

Using those toes to hold a brush is another really fun way to explore painting. This process actually takes a lot of focus so it's a great way to get kids to embrace abstraction and expression while having fun.

You can check out my entire series of "Creating With a Kid" HERE