DIY Decorated Canvas Shoes {Kid-Friendly Project}

Emma loves crafty projects. She’s usually the one to whip up a birthday card for us when we need one, and she likes to make gifts for people. This time we thought we’d try our hand at creating something just for her. We wanted to customize some plain white canvas shoes. You know… make them girlie!

We picked up a plain pair of white canvas shoes at Walmart.

Then we headed to the craft department to see what we could find. We ended up picking up some Elmer’s Painters Paint Pens. They had some in sets, but Emma wanted to choose her own colors. This was HER project, so I let her pick.

She originally wanted the fluorescent-colored set, but then she saw the more traditional pink color and was hooked on the singles. The singles are new at Walmart and priced at $1.97 each. That made it super-affordable to let Emma choose her own color scheme. I’m just thankful that her shoes won’t be glow-in-the-dark bright since she doesn’t have many clothes that would match that.

I tried to talk her into more colors – a blue? a yellow? a green? – but she was adamant that these were her favorite colors. The good news is that these colors match 95% of the clothes that she wears in the summer. So the finished shoes should fit in well with her wardrobe.

Before we started creating, we covered Emma’s workspace with newspaper and took the laces out of the shoes. I stuffed some paper towels into the toes of the shoes so that they didn’t collapse when we pushed down a little with the Painters.

To get the Painters started, you just press the tip down gently on some paper until the paint flows. They started quickly, and the paint kept flowing while we worked.

Emma is still a little unsure of her own drawing ability, and I was afraid I’d lose her interest if she got frustrated with what she was drawing. So I listened to what she wanted on the shoes, and I drew the design on the shoes with a pencil. I don’t think you would need to do this for older kids, but the younger ones might be more willing to dive in with the little bit of extra guidance. (The paint totally covered the pencil marks.)

The Painter pens were easy for Emma to handle. They didn’t drip or run. She was able to pretty accurately get the paint where she wanted it. There was no way we could’ve done this project with traditional paints and brushes.

After she finished all of her flowers, we added some polka dots all over the shoes and on the laces. The dots were extremely easy to make because of the shape of the Painters Paint Pen tips. We just pushed down a little and rocked the pen around. Voila! Perfect polka dots! The laces were fun because the paint soaked through them, making the dots show up on both sides! We didn’t plan it that way, but it worked out perfectly!

Check out the finished product!

She’s already asking me where all she can wear them, so I’m guessing these will get lots of foot time this summer.

For more great Elmer’s Painters Paint Pens projects, check out the Elmer’s website, Facebook page, and Twitter page. I’m amazed at all the creative ideas that people share there.

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