Painted Shoes- Summer Crafts!

Around here during the sumnmer, some of our favorte crafts are to decorate our T-shirts and canvas shoes.
The top shirt I made for Dyllan to wear on the 4th of July and the shoes below, I made for my self to wear anytime!

This Month the theme is Summer Crafts and below you can learn how I made both the shirt and the shoes.

To start, I used a plain white under shirt in Dyllan's size. Then I put a piece of wax paper inside the T-shirt. Next I put the bottom part of my largest loom inside the T-shirt, under the wax paper and attached the top part of the loom on the top of the T-shirt, tightning and stretching until I had a taut canvas.

Then I used the red and blue of Sharpie Stained Markers to make my design. What I love about these markers is their paint like fluid. Still I had to work slowly on the shirt as the fabric was thin and still stretched a bit as I worked. Putting a thin paper back book under the loom helped make a better work surface. I used a bit of Sharpie Turqouise to add some detail.

I can't wait to take photos of Dyllan wearing this on the 4th!

As you can see, the Sharpie Stained markers also come in a wide assortments of colors. But before I decorated the shoes I carefully untied the elastic holding the shoes together and discarded the the hanger. I cut the elastic cord in half and made two bracelets withese beads I found at a gargae sale for .50
They fit perfectly on Dyllan's hand for the 4th!

The only place you can find blank canvas shoes these days is Walmart and they usually are about $10.
But before you are ready to decorate your shoes, it's best to snip off with scissors any stray threads and maybe cover the white rubber around the base of the shoes with painters tape. The stained markers don't color it well. That way you'll have a clean finish to keep plain or decorate in design later with a standard sharpie.

If you have never done this before, draw up a mock shoe on paper and shetch out a design.
Or you can just go with the flow. Keep it simple and inbetween designs, do the same to the other shoe. This gives the paint a chance to dry. I found that if I did not let the Red dry completly, the black pen bled right into it.

For this shoe, I used a Red and Black Stained Sharpie and a Turquoise Sharpie.
In the inside of the shoe, the "tongue" I accented some of the stars with a Blue Sharpie.
You can find these markers just about any where. Target, Walmart, Office supply stores and Craft stores.
I like using the stained markers because you get a better flow of ink onto the canvas and right on the pen you can see the ink level.

Thanks for coming by, I hope you like my Summer Crafts creations! If you make any yourself...a T-shirt or shoes, please post here,  a link to your site so I can see your creativity! :)