Bling Those Shoes - Part 2

In April I shared with you about the darling Anne Michelle shoes I scored for only $5.00, while I was on vacation in Pismo Beach, which I planned to cover with crystal gems (inspired by the blog New Dress A Day).  I worked on them right away but did not get very far, it takes a really, really long time to hand glue each stone on one by one, what was I thinking?!  After several attempts I put them aside frustrated because it was taking forever just to get a couple of rows done at a time.  I finally got tired of constantly dusting the shoes and moving them all around the studio to keep from damaging them so I picked them up, put the shoes on my work counter and started gluing on the stones.  The hardest part was trying to decide what pattern I was going to make, I originally wanted to cover the whole heel but got discouraged part way though so I switched it up and only covered the hefty part of the heel then I ran stones down the center with spaces between them. Once that was done I placed three of the smallest gems down the center of the bow on the front of the shoe giving it some bling, why should the heels get all the attention, very cute.  Here is my progress from start to finish.

I turned the shoe upside down so I would not get glue all over the outside as I handled it. I used Krazy Glue because I did not want the stones to fall off if the shoes ever got worn.  The smallest stones were hard to handle so I used bent nosed tweezers to pick them up and dip them into the glue then placed the gems onto the shoes.

I kept getting glue and finger prints all over the shoes so I pulled an old soft sock over the shoes which kept them clean and from moving around all over my work counter.

This photo shows my first finished shoes with tiny spaces between the gems running down the high heel of the shoe.  I was not completely happy with the look of the heels, I let them sit for a while trying to decide what to do next.  I love the three stones on the little bows, I could have gone crazy with the crystals and covered the whole thing which is what I intended to do originally, but I thought I should just keep it simple, at least for now.

After looking at the shoes for awhile the spaces kept bugging me, I finally decided to add the smallest crystal gems in the package to see if I would like that look any better.  It is somewhat more pleasing to the eye but I cannot say I am in love with the final product.  I think these shoes will remain a work in progress; I will probably end up covering the entire heel and bow with crystals on each shoe, which was my original plan for over the top bling, just like the designers are showing this season.

Thanks for letting me share my newest bling project with you; I hope to get back to a few more bling projects throughout the summer months, I miss all that sparkle.

See you soon.

Laurette

If you enjoyed reading this post you might also like:

Bling Those Shoes - Part 1

Black and White Bling - 2011

A Bit of Bling - 2011

Buttons Bows & Bling - 2011