Altered Stiletto & Mouse Adventure

New altered Stiletto for the ArtFest gallery, the theme is birds so lots of bright feathers. This shoe was made in memory of my sweet friend Sherri, many of the materials for this shoe were ones that were also used during the last retreat she hosted at her Sparrow's Nest Studio. Body of shoe was covered in altered paper towels and sprinkling of glitter. Heel was painted and then a random application of some Jones Tones foil.

In another shoe related story The Vermin (aka the Cats) have outdone themselves again in the mouse department.

We were sitting watching TV on Sunday and I had not seen the cats in the living room for a bit which usually means they are up to something so I went to find them. They were in the bedroom staring very intently into my closet at my shoes. The back door had been open and they had that "we have something cornered" look in their eyes. After shooing them out of the bedroom against bitter protest and shutting the door I looked around in the closet really good and could not see anything..... and then noticed that one of my brand new 3 inch heels had suddenly grown a long skinny tail. There was a BIG fat mouse tucked into the shoe, the shoe is a peep toe so his little face was peaking out the toe and his tail was hanging over the heel. I picked up the shoe VERY carefully because I did not want him to bolt and then be wandering the house for eternity.  Managed to get mouse, shoe and myself out to the back yard and let him go. I am sure he was pretty traumatized, what with being trapped in that leather prison with two cats breathing down his neck. We think Apollo caught him, and so I guess we have to stop calling Apollo "The Big Marshmallow" and start calling him the "Mighty Hunter".




Ice Queen Art Shoe

The latest shoe is finally done, as usual I started out with one idea (all white) and it morphed into something else, but I am pretty pleased with the result. The curved shapes were made by tracing portions of a french curve, lots of detail work involved with gluing on the silver trim. Plaid's new product, Extreme Glitter and then some Stickles gave the white accents and the blue body that extra sparkle I wanted. Rebuilding the heel's once they are cut off takes some time, you have to balance the shoe just right upside down and they glue on a few elements at a time, let them dry and then do some more. E-6000 is the best glue for non-porous items, once it's dry it's very sturdy. This one will be added to the items for sale on Etsy.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, my best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season, whatever your faith happens to be. Our holly tree is in full glory right now, it's the only tree we have in the back yard and during the summer I mostly curse it. You really can't get anything to grow underneath it and trying to clean up or garden around it means risking getting lots of sharp holly leaves jammed into your person, but it completely redeems itself this time of year.

I made a quick trip to Jo-Ann's today to get some fabric and check out all the Christmas stuff that is always on sale and came across this great little addition to my holiday village for next year.....and it was 70% off! Now all I need is a Michael's one and I will have the beginnings of a Craft Store Village.

Altered Art Shoe for Stiletto's on Parade

It's that time of year again, the Stiletto's On Parade altered shoe contest at  12th Street Shoes in Bellingham, is just around the corner. I dropped my shoe of today, and the contestants go on display at the Solstice Walkabout in Fairhaven on June 18th. The public can vote for their favorite shoe on the 18th and the shoes will be on display that weekend also....and in a shameless act of self-promotion I am hoping you vote for mine! This years entry (did I mention I won the People's Choice award last year...again with the self-promotion!) is called Deep Sea. The shoe is covered in specialty paper, texture was added to the toe and heel with DAP Tub & Tile Caulk and painted with acrylic paint. The inside was painted and spritzed with glitter, 'cause you can n.e.v.e.r have too much glitter, same with the painted caulk. Gold bead trim, blue fabric trim and some glass pebbles finished off the embellishing. The final touch was a little green octopus, or squid sitting on the toe with rhinestones for eyes.

12 Street Shoes is located at 1204 Harris Street in Bellingham, their motto is Shoes, You Can Never Have Enough...too true. Some persons of the male gender don't process this information correctly, boys, shoes are simply jewelry for our feet, 'nuff said.

Stiletto's on Parade

12th Street Shoes in our historic Fairhaven neighborhood is having a Stiletto's on Parade decorated shoes contest, could this be more up my alley? First of all there is my ongoing love affair with shoes and then add the endless possibility of applying mixed media to them and you get the Best.Fun.With.Shoes.Ever. I went to Value Village and found a decent pair of 7 1/2 Issac Mizrahi's with a nice line and a good heel to make into my Shoe Art. The first one was themed Mother Nature as a tribute to my garden and the sweet songbirds that nest in the soffets of my art studio every year. I applied sheet moss to the shoe and used some faux foliage and a wee nest on the toe to finish it off. The heel was hacked off partway up and I built a new heel out of stacked stones. I tried to cut the heel off myself and just could not get the hacksaw to go through so I asked husband to do it, thinking it just needed more muscle. Not so, the heel actually had a metal rod through it, he had to cut it with a chop saw. There were sparks flying everywhere, it was very impressive, there were a couple of guys in his shop while he was doing it and they made some comments about not knowing shoes had metal spikes in them and maybe they should duck a little faster when they made their wives mad and got a stiletto chucked at them.

The next one is "The Music of the Night" because I cannot get enough of all things Phantom of the Opera and I love to watch Gerard Butler in anything, even under all that makeup. The sheet music lining the inside and on the back is the actual sheet music from the feature film.

These were outrageously fun to make and I will be doing more, they will be on display at the shoe store the week of the 19th of June and People's Choice judging will be that day, so all my Bellingham art friends, please come and vote for me if you like them!