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Oh. My. Gosh. Guys. I guess I’m going back to my roots because I’ve gotten quite a few shoe makeovers in the pipes right now. Way back when I did a shoe makeover every. single. Tuesday. It actually got to the point where I ran out of ideas and totally got bored with it.
But I am SO back into it! I’ve got a freaking ton of ideas and about 6 shoe-boxes with brand new sneakers in them all ready to get AFTER IT! And we’re stepping out of the gate with these SUPER AWESOME solar color changing Converse All Stars. Want to see them in action?
Just FYI, and totally on the side, I learned that it’s pretty darn difficult to walk and film your feet at the same time. I had to do that like 4 times to get one where I didn’t tip over :)
I made these Chucks for my sister but I’ve got plenty of supplies that I think I’m going to have to make some color change kicks of my own! Want to see how to do it? It is SO EASY!
For this project you will need:
To start you’ll need to prep your shoes. You will need to remove the laces and if you’re a messy painter you might want to tape off the rubber soles, too.
These are Solar Color Drops from solarcolordust.com. They run about $10 a bottle or you can get 6 bottles for $40, which is what I did. There are 6 colors and you can pick and choose the ones you want. I went straight all 6 to keep things simple. You mix 10-15 drops of pigment with 1 ounce of clear base. That means this stuff goes a long, long way.
This pigment is technically a liquid powder meaning that once it dries it becomes a powder making it necessary to add the pigment to a base that will dry appropriately for the project. Since I’m painting canvas shoes, I went with textile medium.
You mix 10-15 drops of pigment with each ounce of clear base. FYI – 1 tablespoon is 1/2 a liquid ounce. Pour your base into a container, here I’m using tiny mason jars.
Add the appropriate number of drops. FYI, again, I used 1 ounce of “paint” for each color for 2 coats on a pair of size 7 mens, 9 women’s sized Converse All Stars. In all honesty, I should have only done a single coat because I literally couldn’t tell a difference in the amount of color change, I just mussed up the really nice and blurry blend I got in the first round when everything was soaking into the canvas cloth of the shoes really well.
Now you might be wondering how in the world you can paint on a pair of shoes when your pigment is white and your base is clear? That’s easy… we’ve got to take this project outdoors.
Swirling the “paint” around in the jar, make sure that the color appears to be equally distributed so you don’t get streaky results. Using a soft bristled brush paint your first color onto the heel of your shoe.
Working quickly, begin the middle color in your ombre, brushing over the first to blend them together where they meet.
Continue to the rubber toe with your final color, again, brushing the paint Go back and hit up the tongue to finish up. If you’re wondering, I just used the same brush, wiping it off roughly on a paper towel in between colors rather than using a whole stash of brushes.
Bring the shoes inside and allow to completely dry. See! They look white again and Maybe the cat is very interested in them!
The longer these shoes are in the sun the more the color will fade with time. So, say you left these shoes outside all summer, they are going to lose that vibrancy and turn pastel. I think with regular wear they should be fine and you can always touch them up with more pigmented fabric medium if the color starts to fade with lots of use.
Now aren’t these shoes too much fun? I’m so making myself a pair. And I’ll probably wind up making a pair for just about everybody in my family, too! But that’s okay because I’ve got pigment left for DAYS and I’m really into the idea of playing with other techniques so we can all have our own unique solar color changing sneakers!
