How to Paint Converse & Our Nintendo Converse Shoes

How To Create & Paint Custom Coverse -- It's so much easier than you think!  Seriously ANYONE can do this!!!

In a few days my baby boy will be turning 11. I really have to keep saying it over and over again, because I honestly just don’t believe it. Gone are the days of asking for a new toy for his birthday. This year it was drum lessons, video games and high tops. But not just any high tops. He wanted custom high tops. I’ve realized that I am the most un-hip person on the face of the planet. When I went shopping I didn’t even know where to begin. (I think there should be a place where you can rent a hipster – someone that can go with moms like me who are obviously not cool anymore and show them where to shop and what to buy. And of course they would need a catchy phone number – 1-800-GET-COOL or something.) Anyways. I came up with NOTHING. inspiration2

(Image was found here)

So I did the next logical thing and Googled. I saw tons of cool things that were way out of my artistic abilities ( and trust me, there isn’t a ton of artistic ability in me!) But when I saw these I thought, I can do that! Just rectangles right?

How To Paint Converse

Well, we are happy! I was happy that it wasn’t too hard and Josh is happy because, well they are awesome! 🙂 (Drummers need cool shoes you know!)

You will need:

A pair of Converse shoes! (We have plans to paint some slip on shoes too this summer!)

Paint Brushes (This is not a pull out your kid’s watercolor paint brush project. You don’t need the most expensive brushes but some good ones! Here are the ones I used: Spotter, Blender, Shader, & Blender. For the price, I wish I would have also picked up the Wash/Shade Brush set! A slightly bigger brush would have saved time on the bigger areas!)

Since I had the two buttons I also picked up a pack of stencil sponges. (These were only about $3 or $4 at the store I picked them up at!)

Paint for DIY Sneakers

Acrylic paint (I used Apple Barrel by Plaid) Make sure you get acrylic paint!

Want to make your own? Here area few things I learned along the way!

– Go ahead and sketch out a rough design on the shoes in pencil.

How To Paint Converse Sneakers

– Work one shoe at a time! It’s easier!

How to Paint Converse Shoes

-Most of the time I was painting I had one hand inside the shoe! It helps to give you some stability.

How to Paint Converse

-Do your outlines first and then shade them in. If at first when you are painting, the color isn’t exactly what you were thinking, let it dry and give it another coat! Especially if you are using black shoes! 🙂

How to Paint Converse

-The shoes are really forgiving! While I did have a light sketch on the I honestly did it mostly free handed. As you can tell above there were some blemishes. But you can always paint over a mistake! (Even on the black where I wasn’t painting anything – a small mistake just took a little black paint and you can’t even tell!) The style we did was a lot of squares and rectangles. This is why having good brushes will come in handy! They make it much, much, much easier to paint a straight line. And if there is a little curve in it – that’s ok! Honestly, no one will notice! Plus, they are hand painted! You will have a little quirk here or there!

How to Paint Converse

-See? That light grey box with the two black buttons? If you look close you can see where I touched up my mistake with a little black paint to make it look even? See! What mistake? 🙂 Work in layers! The paint will dry pretty quickly! Layering details on top will save you lots of headaches as opposed to tying to work around them!

How to Paint Your Converse --- SOOO Much easier than you think!

– Add your own touch! We wrote Josh’s name down the backs of his shoes. Not that he would get them mixed up with anyone elses! 😉

How to Paint Your Own Converse Shoes

-Know that even though they aren’t perfect – they are still 100% cool.

And so I give you our Nintendo Converse shoes: How to Paint Converse Sneakers - Nintendo Converse

And yes, we did one side the controller side and one side the console side. Yep. We are kind of Old School.

How to Paint Converse  - Nintendo Converse

How to paint Converse - Nintendo Converse

how to paint and create custom Converse sneakers

If you make a pair please let me know!! I would love to see them!!

how to create and paint custom converse

And don’t forget to pin! 🙂

Linking up here.

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DIY Non-Slip Headbands Craft

The Easy DIY non slip headbands project

If you are looking for a fun, quick, easy and practical DIY project then you have found it! Non-Slip Headbands are all of those and super cute! I see them at all the stores, craft shows and online and it’s easy to see why!

Easy DIY nonslip headbands

I love them because they won’t budge, which means they are great for workouts! The colors and designs are just about endless. Plus you can make them in a variety of widths! Plus, they take about 5 minutes to whip up!

DIY NON-SLIP HEADBANDS

What you need:

Ribbon – Grosgain works better than Satin. We also really like to use the sparkly ‘ribbon’

Velvet Ribbon – Choose a size that corresponds with your ribbon width.

Elastic – I use 1/2 inch

Corresponding thread

DIY Non-Slip Headbands

The first thing you will want to do is measure. I like to create a ‘template’ if you will. I make my headbands 16 1/2 inches long. So I don’t have to get my measuring tape out for each ribbon I just drew a line on a piece of paper that was 16 1/2 inches long and just use it to measure. (Please note that this size is for an adult/teen/tween. If you are making a child’s size you will need to shorten it)

DIY Non-Slip Headbands

Cut both a piece of ribbon and the velvet to 16 1/2 inches. Then cut your elastic to 6 1/2 inches long.

DIY Non-Slip Headband

Then, lay your ribbon on top of the velvet so that you have the velvet showing on one side and the pattern of your ribbon showing on the other. Pin the ribbons together.

how to make a nonslip headband

This is the hardest part! So you don’t have any rough edges or unraveling we are going to fold the edges. I fold mine in about 1/2 inch.

DIY Non-Slip Headbands

Just make sure you have both of the ribbons about equal! When you have them folded in stick one edge of the elastic in between the layers. Again, I sandwich the elastic about 1/2 inch in!

DIY Non-slip Headbands

Sew a straight line just straight down to keep everything in place. I don’t worry about back stitching on this part because we are going to sew all the way around it in just a minute!

DIY Non-Slip Headband

Repeat on the other side.

DIY Non-Slip Headband

It should look like a headband now!

DIY Non-Slip Headbands

Sew around the edges. Make sure you back stitch!

DIY Non-Slip Headbands

Soon you will have a whole bunch of non-slip headbands! Play with the widths and patterns! These are perfect to make for gifts and craft shows too!

DIY non slip headbands

Ta da!

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