"Smartie" Shoes

Today is my daughter, Shona's, 19th birthday.

She decided she would like a pair of Dr Martens for a gift, but she wanted ones with "Smarties" on like what she has when she was little.

She was about this age....

.... when I bought her some Smartie covered DM's, she loved them SO much that she refused to take them off, even for bed.  Many a night I had to sneak back into the room once she was asleep and remove the boots from her feet.  They looked like this...

Well, of course, 16 or so years later and Smartie DM's are nowhere to be found, and definitely not in adult sizes.  A compromise needed to be made.

When she was out at work, myself and hubby Andrew, took it upon ourselves to make her a pair of Smartie shoes.

We found an old pair of her canvas shoes, and a pack of felt tips and set to work.

A penny turned out to be the right size for the design.

It took a little while to fill up the whole shoe.

Then it was time to colour them in.  The old felt tips we had found in the back of a cupboard were not too fresh, and needed some real strong scribbling to get some colour onto the canvas.

Of course, we needed to leave a little gap to show the 'shine' on the Smartie.

Then they were done...

Andrew's shoe is on the top, mine is on the bottom.  As you can see he is the novice crafter and drifted out of the lines sometimes  ;)   We both signed our names on the underside of the tongue.

When it came to opening her presents, her expression was that of confusion.  She couldn't understand why we had bought her a pair of .... and I quote...."Someone else's tatty second-hand shoes".

The penny finally dropped that they were HER tatty shoes, freshly decorated  :)

She thought they were fabulous.

Then of course I pulled out her 'real' pressie - a pair of Docs, in her favourite colour.

Smiles all round :)

Rosie - The Deco-Patch Bear.

Not quite my first attempt at Deco-Patch, as I have done a couple of bedside table lamps - but they are still a work in progress and a blog will follow about them once completed.

So, this is a cardboard formed bear, ready for Deco-Patching.

Deco-Patch is literally tearing up patches of patterned tissue paper (other papers will also work) and sticking them onto your item with PVA (or special deco-patch) glue.

I had to work in stages to allow the bear to dry, as I was getting glue all over the place.

But, don't you just love covering your hands in PVA, leaving it to dry, then pealing it all off?  It can't be just me, surely?

When she was complete she had to sit in a most peculiar manner to dry completely.

I then decided that she didn't quite look 'finished' enough, that although she was very colourful and pretty, she needed a few more additions.

I added a Swarovski Cabochon for her eyes - how they sparkle.

Felt pads for her feet.

And a couple of flowers for her hair  :)

I found some matching coloured plastic gems to stick on her paws as they looked a bit 'bare' (geddit?).

Then tied two ribbons around her neck.

Now all she needed was a name ....... ROSIE!