Paper Shoe Addiction

 When I was young and wore 5 inch heels, I had a shoe addiction.  I had a pair in every color and wore them all the time.  After having my 2nd child, I put them away and never really went back.  I have a few pair of heels, for various dress up purposes, ( that don't happen too often anyway...) all in black... A pair for business, a pair for formal occasions, a sexy strappy sandal, and leather flats.  That is it on the shoe front these days... I am usually in tennies or flip flops...  BUT... I have not outgrown my shoe addiction... Now I just make them out of paper.

I went to meet up with my art pals in San Francisco last Sunday and my friend Michele brought a die cut machine that had the Brenda Walton shoe die in it...  We cut a bunch, and decorated some.  I came home and immediately dug into my paper stash to find all those gorgeous papers I bought at Stampers Warehouse a bazillion years ago in my scrapbooking days.  I managed to unearth a few ribbon and tulle trims from my black hole of a garage,  and made these little shoes...  Let me warn you it is addictive...  You can get the die here, or at you local scrapbook store.  I made all of these shoes with the one die. I thought of keeping one of the punched sheets to use at home as a template (since I don't have the die) but  forgot and threw them away.  So I traced the pieces onto cardboard and made a pattern.  Then I set down and cut them all out.

You need 2 sided paper if you want a print on the inside of the shoe.  I made my own 2 sided paper.  I took cardstock and put spray adhesive on the back and smoothed gift wrap and tissue on the glue.  Sometimes, I used a patterned paper and adhered it to plain cardstock and then used a thin paper on the back.  the dimensions of the die are 6x8 inches if you want to cut it down.  You can get 2 pairs of shoes out of a 12x12 cardstock when cut by hand.  When you use the diecut machine and cut the paper down, you get one pair per sheet. I am finding that giftwrap peels away with spray adhesive.  So I have been gluing it down with matte mod podge and it is working perfectly.  Just place it under something heavy to keep it from curling.  I have also glued brocade fabrics on to the cardstock.  You may need to pass it through the die cut machine twice to get a clean cut, I did have parts where the fabric wasn't cut by the die.  These turn out beautifully.  The fabric gives it a richness and depth that you can't always get with paper.  I did use some flocked and textured papers as well.  The textured papers don't adhere with the spray glue I used, so I did the Mod Podge thing again.  A Xyron machine would be perfect for this as well.

I Modified the top of the shoe by changing the vamp and toe box a little.  I wanted very old fashioned looking shoes, so I used the high vamp, a cutaway style, a square and rounded toe.  I will post the modified patterns next week so you can download them.  I won't be posting the actual die pattern for copyright reasons.

So next I will be making strappy sandals, ballet shoes, and peep toes...  I will try different heel ideas too.  The possibilities are endless.

Check back next week when I break down how to construct the shoes, and how I made the modifications to get different looks.  I will attempt to make a video tutorial and post it in the next couple of weeks. I've never done it before, but I am going to give it a shot...

These shoes will be going up for sale in my ETSY shop soon.  They will come packaged in a custom made box, and make a great gift for any female with a shoe fettish.  I will be using my favorites as Christmas Ornaments this year.