Hello my lovelies! Hope you all had a wonderful week whatever you found yourselves up to! With moving back home to Ireland, getting settled and generally getting back into a comfortable routine, I’ve been buzzing around like a busy bee, admittedly watching my poor little blog gather dust in a corner. But fear not dear readers as I’ve a very special post scheduled for you today! It’s been a while since I tackled a decent DIY and to be completely honest, I’ve been biding my time until arriving home where I can channel my creativity in my comfort zone, with endless crafty supplies at my disposal! When arriving home, I had a peek into my closet to see if anything could use a bit of revitalising and I don’t know about you dear readers, but I have so many old pumps stuffed away in my closet, begging for a bitta revamping! This little tutorial is great if you’re finding money a tad tight and you’re sick of seeing the same shoes gathering dust in your cupboard, yet you’re reluctant to bid them farewell. It’s really a wonderful way of reviving an old pair of beloved pumps.
Step 1/ Apart from the obvious pair of shoes that require brightening up, you’ll also need a sponge brush, some masking tape, a tube of acrylic paint (in your preferred colour) a small or thin bristled painting brush and a white marker. All of these essentials can be bought from the likes of Hobbycraft, Rymans or WHSmith.
Step 2/ In order to avoid any unwanted smudges and to achieve a straightened “toe-cap” effect with your paint, it’s best to apply a few layers of the masking tape to avert any mistakes or messes.
Step 3/ I personally prefer using a sponge brush as opposed to a regular bristled brush as the paint glides on smoother with the sponge, leaving no pesky little bristles behind in the paint either!
Step 4/ I gave my shoes about 3 coats of acrylic paint as my pump are quite a pale nude to begin with. Another useful tip would be to dry the paint off using a hairdryer, if you’re inpatient like me!
Step 5/ If you’re feeling confidant, you could generally skip this step and just go freehand with your painting. However, just to be safe, I drew on some little cat ears as guidelines with a pencil. And don’t worry if your ears appear wonky or disproportionate, I just used some cotton buds to pat away the pencil marks and simply start again.
Step 6/ Once you’re finally happy with the symmetry/positioning/size of your cat ears, you can then use your little paintbrush to paint away to your heart’s content!
Step 7/ When you’ve successfully completed your cat ears, you can use your trusty hairdryer to speed up the drying process, looking good, right?
Step 8/ This is probably the easiest part of the process – drawing your kitty’s wee face! The white pen I’m using was purchased in Hobbycraft and the ink is lovely and opaque; perfect for designing over the matte black. Additionally, the best bit about this step is even if you feel you’ve messed up your kitty’s face (which I did… A LOT) you can simply paint over the pump and start again 🙂
And there you have it! Easy peasy kitty pumps!
