BabyPunk Shoes???

Hi Crafty People!!! Hope everyone is well out there. 

First, I'd like to say a big "Thank you!" to those of you who have sent me some happy mail recently...you know who you are! I am deeply grateful and humbled you would think of me. I LOVE blogland for many reasons, but the biggest one being that I have met so many people that I call friends! You all mean so much, despite never having seen your face. I treasure you!!!

Now back to business. When I went to the Create n Connect Summer CHA in July, I was so fortunate to meet many new and talented people. Eileen Hull, who designs her own Dies for Sizzix...check them all out here...was one of the people I met through my buddy Amy Bowerman, who was helping Eileen demo some of her new Dies for her Cherished Series, which is all about the little ones in our lives.

I was lucky to be given some of the precut Dies of the new goods...thanks Ladies! One of those was the new Baby Shoe Booty, and I just fell in love with it. I instantly had tons of ideas to bring these "Booties" to life, like maybe making ice skates, or high heeled shoes, or golf, football, and baseball shoes, or shoes for every holiday, or even roller skates!
(*Note - The Die is not up for sale yet, so I do not have a thumb to link it too, but you can see all information on it by clicking the above link. I think it will be out in February, 2014.)

So I went with roller skates and was debating on whether or not they would be the traditional pink or blue...for baby you know...except they quickly morphed into an industrial flying steampunk'd out pair, and I had to go with it. These are certainly not your typical gift for a cute, little, precious bundle of joy, so I'm very sorry if my project offends anyone. However if it doesn't, then grab a cuppa as there are many photos.

Eileen is well known for using Mat Board with her Scoreboards 3D dies, and I can totally see why. It is extremely durable and holds shapes and folds so well...no tearing here. I began by covered the pieces with Ranger's Foil Tape Sheets.

I ran all the pieces through Tim's Riveted Texture Fade from Sizzix.

Everything received a little coating of Pitch Black Paint Dabber, and after it dried I sanded some of it off the raised parts to reveal the foil underneath.

I traced half circles onto some scrap manila using various jars I had laying around, and after cutting them out I sprayed them with Ink Refresher on both sides, and began to crumple them up a bit. Yes...here comes Tim's Faux Leather Technique (Remember my video?)!

Perfect Pearls came next, along with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I used Glue N Seal to adhere the leather like pieces on.

Lots of brads, er rivets, came next.

It was pure joy to go crazy adding lots of Idea-ology and other metal pieces. I had a hard time stopping myself from adding more!

Finally it was time to attach all of the pieces together, and affix the wheels on, courtesy of some Match Box toy cars. I used a piece of soft balsa wood to hold the wheels by drilling a tiny hole on each side to allow for the axles.

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!