Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.--Iris Murdoch

"Age shouldn't affect you. It's just like the size of your shoes - they don't determine how you live your life! You're either marvellous or you're boring, regardless of your age. " --Steven Morrissey

I couldn't decide which shoe quote to start with tonight. But yeah, it's about shoes.

Probably somewhere within Craftster, I came across an posting about decoupaged, or Mod-Podged, shoes. I found out the woman who did them has a blog and she had a great entry there about her "new" Black Canary shoes. Her entry was from 2009 but I found it in June of last year. I've been meaning to make a pair of shoes for myself and I finally got around to it.


I didn't want to buy a brand new pair of shoes in case I ruined them, but I didn't have a pair that I could do anything to, since they are all in good shape. So I headed over to my local thrift store, Thrift Store USA, to see what goodies they had. I got lucky. They had a pair of black pleather pumps in my size for only $2.99. I really liked the idea of being able to upcycle an older pair of shoes, because even though these were in good shape, it didn't matter what they looked like. I don't have to buy new shoes to have new shoes.

They were actually a part of a flight attendant uniform line. I had already picked out five Spider-Man comics that I could willingly cut apart. What better way to enjoy my comics and Spidey than to wear them on my feet?

I was about to pop my Mod-Podge cherry, people. I think I am now addicted.

This is about half way through the process. I actually did not stick the images on all willy-nilly. I actually gave some thought to this. All of the images on the right shoe are looking to the left, and all of the images on the left shoe are looking to the right. Each shoe has a Mary Jane, a Peter Parker, an upside down Spidey on the back, talk balloons, and a title graphic on the front.

I think I did about five coats of Mod-Podge over the top of all the pieces when I was done. I even painted the heel and sole in blue to cover the scuffs. Then I did about four coats of clear over everything, sole and heel included.

OMG, do you see the greatest thing EVAR on the heel of the left shoe??? A little tiny cartoon Stan Lee!!!!

But I went one extra step. Who knows what poor woman wore these shoes for work, over countless states and countries. I was a little weirded out about putting my feet in those shoes. I pulled out the liner, traced around some thin cardboard with it and made some new liners with a black bandanna.

God, I can't wait to wear these to work tomorrow!!! And while I was looking through my comics, I realized I have enough Wonder Woman comics that I'm willing to cut up five more to make one more pair of shoes! I might end up needing a Mod-Podge intervention.