DIY Project // Glitter Shoes

I'd be lying if I said that I'm not totally obsessed with glitter shoes — especially loafers and oxfords. There are a few that I've been admiring from afar via Aldo. Not to mention that my friend Daina has the most gorgeous gunmetal glitter loafers that she picked up at Nordstrom Rack. If you've been following for a bit, you may have noticed my gold glitter oxfords that I busted out for our city's Fourth of July celebration. And now, I have made my own custom pair and want to share the steps with you! See the full how-to after the jump.



This is one of the easiest projects to do. The steps are really, really simple! I have this great cream oxfords that I picked up at Urban Outfitters last fall for $6. They were some of my favorites and it shows — they've had beer spilled on them, tramped through mud, and more. I was looking at them the other day and almost threw them out. Geoff encouraged me (I don't blame him... they were pretty gross). But then I thought back to all those sparkly shoes of my dreams.

Here's what you'll need:
▲ Shoes (duh!)
▲ Sponge brush - This makes it easy to avoid brush strokes
▲ Glitter paint - I had a 50% off coupon, so this was under $4
▲ Base coat color (not pictured)

The reason I recommend a base coat is because, well, I expected this glitter paint to be thick like many of the others I had been looking at in the craft store. Turns out it's more of a glitter top coat. While the flake is really prevalent, it would have taken a million coats to make it pure glitter. I used a neutral purple shade since it matches the holographic glitter I chose!

First I took out the laces and cleaned off the shoes as much as possible. From there I used the sponge brush to apply the base coat. It doesn't have to be perfect since you're going to be covering it with multiple coats of the glitter paint. Make sure you let it dry all the way!


This is what mine looked like after the light base coat. I only did one layer. The shoes soaked up the color well, so I didn't have to worry about stiffness. The great thing about this color, too, is that it totally hides all of the water stains and other marks from all of the miles these shoes walked!

Next I used the sponge brush to coat the shoes heavily with glitter paint. I ended up slapping on four coats of the stuff to get the extreme glitter shimmer! Again, be sure to let the coats dry completely to avoid any smudges.

I finished them off by using an unbent paperclip to knock out all of the holes and clear out any paint that had collected in the corners of the cutouts. It ended up being far smoother than I thought!

My next step would be to try this with some loafers. I wore these out to Gallery Hop tonight and got multiple compliments — they really sparkle, even at night!