Yesterday I showed you  the little co-ordinating outfits I made Edison and Vincent (also check out my girl Suzanne's post the other day about taking photos of your kids! She also talked about outfit co-ordination!). Today I'm going to show you how to handpaint some canvas shoes for your little man!


 One day I am determined to make rubber-soled shoes from scratch! However, until that day, let's just customise store-bought shoes! I got these for $10 at Big W and I picked up a tube of acrylic paint for around $1. I like to use Kaiser brand, but any acrylic paint will do!


I googled "Skeleton Foot Stencil" and found this great picture as a guide. At first I was scared about not having an actual stencil on the shoes, having to free-hand it. But you know what? Why couldn't I do it? I hadn't even tried! So I tried. And it's not perfect but they look amazing!

Grab some tailor's chalk and start drawing little toe bones. I started with the toes, then worked my way back up the rest of the foot. If you make a mistake, just lick your thumb and rub at the mistake to erase the mark and go again.


I had to do two full coats of paint on the bones, with another layer of just touch ups. You can do both shoes at once, or do one then the other. I didn't mind about them being perfectly symmetrical so I painted up one shoe before I did the markings on the second.


You could spray them with Scotchguard to make them waterproof, but I don't really think these are in danger of washing out. They're now Vinnie's favourite shoes!




 If you make a pair of skeleton shoes, please share them in the Flickr group! I would LOVE to see what you make!

Tomorrow I'm going to show you more of the shoes I made Eddie