Easy Custom Rose Painted Shoes

Did you know that you don’t have to necessarily accept what your shoes look like?! You know me; there’s nothing I won’t try! I’m quite excited with how these Easy Custom Rose Painted shoes turned out!

Upcycle those sneakers:

When you are stuck in the house you tend to look into your closet and wonder why you have so many things. Before you know it you’ve made a pile of ‘stuff’ t donate. Haha, there’s opportunity in that pile, so many blank canvases. These are some Boemos leather sneakers that didn’t excite me much anymore.

The leather usually has a coated finish that will need to be taken off a bit to allow any new finish to adhere. The surface is rubbed with a soft cloth and some acetone. It will take a bit of the existing paint off the shoe and it will become dull. Be careful not to take all the colour off as I did still want the white as a base. To make the entire shoe white I painted the grey bands white first.

When searching for fabric paint I discovered that there is an acrylic paint that works really well to customize leather shoes called Angelus. I have painted with many paints over my career as an illustrator so discovering a new way to paint more surfaces really excites me!

The Designs for Rose Shoes:

I was looking and thinking and looking some more to decide what design I was going to use. Some ‘shoe artists’ paint super heros and characters on Nike brand shoes. I decided I wanted a bit more eloquent and not as obvious so I chose an easy pattern of Roses. Nowadays there is so much reference at your fingertips but you should not get obsessed with being too perfect…

Another reason I chose roses (other than a few special people called Rose) is that they are really quite simple to draw/paint. I practiced a bit with my Ipad and tried to break it down to just a few colours.

Amazing Leather Angelus Paint:

The set of Angelus paint I bought is only the primary colours so that I can mix what I need. I plan to be in denim a lot so I am aiming for a denim type of blue. The Angelus paint does go quite a long way so I would mix small amounts at a time. I have a few ‘swatches’ I kept to refer back to.

I am not trying to make a perfect mirror image so It is quite forgiving. Just place random sizes and around the shoe. The mid-tone colour is what I started with. I know I will be adding light er and darker tones so I am not that fussy yet.

The paint covers really well compared to other acrylic paints I’ve used. It is quite opaque but may need another layer if desired. The Angelus company suggests that you apply multiple thin layers rather than thick single layers. This paint does not create very thick layers so that the texture of the leather still shows through, very impressive. The grey textured section did get a couple layers of the white paint first to make them an all-white base.

The paint dries quite quickly with a slight sheen. The biggest issue I had was deciding on what to paint! There’s a pile of shoes now sitting in the ‘waiting-to-become-something-new’ pile!

Simple Design buildup

After the Mid-tone I added the darker ‘squiggles’ where the roses would have the deeper crevices. The could almost be finished just as they are… But you know me.

Decisions, decisions, do I add leaves? do I paint a background? I decided to just add some lighter ‘high-lights’ to the edges of the rose petals and around the roses to make a full pattern. You can mask the rubber sole with masking tape but I found it was easy to just carefully paint up to the edge.

This paint is quite amazing to work with so do not be surprised about what other projects will likely happen… It even paints on fabric… I am happy with the finished product. As a final layer Angelus also sells finishes, but I could not get any so I relied on my Liquitex Acrylic Matte Medium. That is a risk I am taking as they suggest to use their own finish. Fingers crossed.

Happy blooming feet!

There’s no spring flowers here quite yet so these will give me some delight.

What do you think? Are they too crazy or not crazy enough?! Now, if I only had some place to go… But I trust that will be happening soon.

Nows the time to spruce up drab with fab! Give those precious tootsies some special attention. Yes, art does not just belong on the walls! Imagine all kinds of designs on ‘your’ feet! How exciting as then you can take these easy custom rose painted shoes with you wherever you go…