Fun with Glitter

When it comes to style and design, Jeremy and I pretty much agree on everything. The exception, is glitter. I think it's wonderful and can improve almost any project; he is very fond of calling it "the herpes of crafts". Since I adore him, I have conceded and glitter is very limited in our house. I however, couldn't resist breaking out our one bottle to try my hand at dressing up a pair of damaged shoes. 

I got these shoes at a street market in Florence and they were my favorites until I spilled peanut oil all over them - natural peanut butter is now and forever banned from our home! The smart thing to do would have been to take them to a shoe repair shop, but I tried to clean them up myself and made things worse instead of better. I was working up the strength to throw them out when I started seeing DIY glitter shoes on my Pinterest wall and decided it was worth a try since we had everything on hand. 

My supplies: old shoes, extra fine glitter (a cheap bottle from Michael's children's craft department), small paint brushes, disposable cup, mod podge, and a craft stick for stirring. 

Step 1: mix Mod Podge and glitter together. I made way too much of the mixture. I would estimate that  1/4C Mod Podge and 1T glitter is enough to cover a pair shoes.

Step 2: paint a thin coat of glitter mixture on shoes and let it dry completely

Step 3: continue to add coats until you have desired coverage. I applied three coats. 

finished shoes...i still need to buy some new laces

Because I made almost a cup of the mixture, and a lot was left over, I decided to use it up by adding sparkle to some other things around our house...Jeremy was a bit scared at first.

letters cut from a cardboard box for a (hopefully) soon to be finished,
valentine wreath

a little wood box that holds prayer cards

a headband - it came in a set and this one was a hideous brown cow
pattern 

a pair of the boys old shoes, made new for little lady

a binder 

I left all these to dry on the table overnight; when the kids woke up and found them they couldn't resist playing with everything. The glitter held up very well! We didn't have any flaking even with all the excited little fingers.