Custom Painted Canvas Shoes

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Intro: Custom Painted Canvas Shoes

If you own a pair of old shoes that you're bored with, or you just want your own custom shoes, here's what you should do!

Making them is super easy. The detail depends on your artistic skill. 

Here are the steps:

1. Find inspiration - I checked out custom painted shoes here for some cool ideas. 

2. Design - Design your shoes. You can draw out the shape of the shoes and plan out your design. If it's more complicated, you can take a picture and use a photo editor (pixlr or photoshop) to create the design. 

3. Figure out what materials you will need and if you have them at home, gather them, or if needed, go to your local art store and buy them.

I used:

- Various sizes of paintbrushes that I had at home.
- Acrylic paint, but added a fabric medium to thin the paint.
- A thin sharpie
- A pair of shoes!

4. Get out your shoes - if the shoes are old, take your detergent and wash the shoes. This is done by simply wetting a cloth and adding a drop of detergent, then washing with small circles. If they are new, you can skip this step. Also, if they have shoelaces, take them out.

5. Stuff you shoes - Take paper towel and tissue paper to stuff your shoes and make sure you are working on a smooth surface. 

6. Draw design on shoes - Use a thin marker or sharpie to draw out your design on both shoes. Don't worry if you make a mistake, the paint will cover it. 

7. Paint away - paint with a steady hand and take your time. Make sure you have paper towel on hand to prevent drips and mess!

8. Let them dry - Leave your shoes to dry. While it's drying, clean up!

9. Finish up - It's up to you if you want to put the shoelaces back in. I chose not to because I thought it distracted from the design. 

10. Wear - Now you can wear them around! So many people will be asking you about your awesome shoes! 

5 Comments

Won't the paint wash off if they get wet?
More than likely not on the fabric part since they added fabric medium. That essentially makes the acrylic into something similar to the store bought fabric paint (If I recall correctly).
Has anyone ever painted the rubber either at the toe or around the bottom of the shoes? I know it would easily rub off without sanding/priming but obviously I don't think that would work. Is there a good sealer for this especially since it's so low to the ground?
Oooh, I love it! Grey, black and white look awesome together!