This Instructable shows you how to decorate an old or plain shoe and make it light up. It is more open ended than a lot of other Instructables, since you probably won't have exactly the same parts as I do. A great addition to this project is the power generating shoe, if you search for power generating shoe in the Instructables search bar it should be the first thing to come up. I made it, except I used a battery charger and extension cord instead of a cell phone charger. If you follow that instructable, do it before you start this one.

Step 1: Materials

First, you need boots. I got Old Navy ones for 8.99 and so far they are working fine. You also need spray paint (one or two colors), I used silver and black, sharpies or some other kind of permanent marker (I used silver to contrast with the black boot), conductive paint (bareconductive.com), some LEDs and resistors (you can find them at radioshack), a 9v battery and battery snap, and some old appliances to take apart (I used an old GPS and 2 dynamo flashlights).

Step 2: Prepare the Boots

These boots had white fake fur on the top and sides, so the first thing I did was cut it off. This left the inside of the boots detached from the outside so I stuck duct tape around the top to stick them together. If possible, use duct tape that is the same color as you will be painting the boots, since the spray paint doesn't stick to the duct tape as well as the actual boot. I used black duct tape for one boot, but I couldn't find silver so I had to use red duct tape and silver sharpie to cover the areas that stayed red.

Step 3: Spray Paint

Before you paint, stuff the inside of the boots with paper. If you have made them power generating, make sure the dynamo mechanism doesn't get painted as it could jam. Follow the directions on the spray paint and spray the whole boot except for the inside and the sole. Leave them to dry for a few hours.

Step 4: The Circuit

Once they are both dry, you can make the light up circuit. I did this on the boot that was power generating. Before you glue anything on, lay out the circuit on the boot. I used 4 LEDs, 4 resistors, a 9v battery, and a battery snap.
Once you have done that, you can hot glue all the components on. I recommend using a hi-temp glue gun for the battery, if not it may fall off. After the glue is dry, paint the connections between the components with conductive paint. You need to use big globs of it otherwise it won't conduct very well and the LEDs will be dim. When you aren't wearing the boot, just unsnap the battery snap and resnap it the next time you wear them.

Step 5: Decorate

This part will probably be very different depending on who makes it, as everyone has different parts. If you have any old appliances that you don't need, take them apart and use their circuit boards and any other interesting looking parts. Certain appliances can be dangerous to take apart, so it's a good idea to google whether yours is/are before you take them apart. Once you have enough parts you can lay out your design and hot glue it on. I did this on the power generating boot too, and I glued the battery charger onto one side. If you were using it to charge a cell phone like the Instructable suggests, you could make some kind of holder for it that attaches to the boot.

Step 6: The Other Boot

I kept the other boot fairly simple to make the first boot stand out more. I used silver sharpie to draw gears and binary on different sections of the boot. Then I drew a circuit board design on a flexible piece of metal (I think you can buy them at most hardware stores) using black sharpie. Thank you for reading my Instructable, and if you liked it, please vote for it in the Full Spectrum Laser Contest.