For a while now Grace has been whinging that she wants some of those hideous Lelli Kelly shoes that look like a sequin monster has puked all over them. Needless to say, due to the fact that they are:

a) dreadful looking

b) massively over priced

c) come with inappropriate ‘free gifts’ for a 6 year old such as make up

there is no way in the world that I would ever buy her a pair! So, before my brain could think what my mouth was about to say, I offered to make some shoes for her. She has a sweet tooth like me and asked for some shoes with cupcakes on and maybe even some sequins if she’s lucky.

So after a quick hunt around town I managed to pick up a pair of canvas shoes for £4, some sequins for £1.99 and fabric paint pens for £1.99 – much better than the £40+ price tag for the alternatives. I wasn’t entirely sure at this point what I was going to do with them, but I’m all for giving it a go!

Firstly I put the shoes through the wash and left them to dry for a couple of days. I figured this would remove any treatment or coating that may be on the shoes and better prepare the surface for the paint.

Then I lightly drew on my cupcakes designs with a pencil. This was rather nerve-wracking as I am pretty hopeless when it comes to drawing! Then I painted each cupcake using the fabric paints and a very fine paint brush. This took me quite a while but was strangely therapeutic.

Now I just have to stick on the sequins, but I haven’t decided how to do that yet. I will have to do a little research into fabric glues and see which looks like it will do the job. Any ideas gratefully received.

And here they are! The (almost) finished shoes. Grace is very pleased with them – I still think they’re pretty hideous! Each to their own…