"New" Shoes for Hannah (Update: FAIL)

Having three daughters, the youngest often only gets something new if the hand-me-downs are completely worn out. This pair of shoes are on girl #3 or #4. They came from my niece, but may have belonged to my eldest daughter before that. Since then, they have gone to my middle daughter and now to my youngest. They actually looked worse, however I already cleaned them with a Magic Eraser before taking this photo.

I

 gave them a fresh base coat of white acrylic craft paint to brighten them up and hide the scuff on the toe. In this photo the shoe on the right  has already been  done and looks much better than the one on the left. I even brushed lightly over the sparkly butterfly to hide some of the dirt. 

I let the paint dry 20 minutes or so and taped off the areas I didn't want to get glitter on. I used green painter's tape, but it's not sticking as well as I would like. I would use regular masking tape in the future. 

I applied the glitter glue with a paintbrush. I bought this crystal coloured glue at DeSerres (http://www.deserres.ca/en-ca/search/glitter-glue/S548/). Some blogs recommend using Modge Podge and mixing in your own glitter. I also wondered about using the Tulip Sparkle paint (especially for canvas shoes). Even after only one coat this is looking pretty, but I'm glad I used the acrylic paint first. I plan to add more coats and an accent colour for the eyelets and butterflies.

I have been letting the shoes dry for an hour between coats of glitter. I have been using a toothpick to open up all the little holes. At this point there are four coats of crystal glitter on the body of the shoes and one coat of pink glitter on the butterflies. I used the bottle to squirt the pink glitter directly into the large eyelets and for the body of the butterflies. 

I used the tip of a sharp along  the edge of the shoe to break the seal that the glue made before removing the tape. I touched up the crystal glitter where necessary and did a second coat of pink glitter on the butterfly wings. 

I am really pleased with the results. They look like new pair of shoes! The crystal glitter did not give complete coverage, but it is hard to tell on white shoes. 

FAIL Update: She wore these on Saturday morning for about an hour and the glue began peeling where the shoes creased. I'm going to see if there is a way I can fix this. 

2013/03/07 -- Ok, i didn't get these fixed up, and she's probably outgrown them.  Here is a link to the original instructions I looked at. This seems to be the way to go. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-glitterize-a-pair-of-shoes/#