Decorated Pointe Shoes - Halloween Edition

One of my favorite projects that I've done are my decorated pointe shoes. They turned out really cool, but I've never really done another pair. I've started a couple, but never actually got very far. I did dye an actual pair for a costume in Chicago - Hunyak's circus costume was a silver tutu bit (seen here) and the actress was a ballerina so I dyed her pointe shoes silver.

For some reason I was suddenly compelled to do a Halloween version of decorated shoes. I love Halloween - as you may be able to tell from my multitudinous zombie posts. So I pulled out my RIT dyes and acrylic paints and here's what I did:

I think they are Griskos

I got a brand new pair of pointe shoes on eBay for cheap (didn't care about the size so I just went by price). I bent the shank a little to make them look less stiff and I took out the drawstring since it won't be needed. 

Dyes packets and mixed dyes

When I dye pointe shoes I take a little bit of dye, add water and paint it on like a water color. I try not to do too many coats at one time because the water will soften the resin that is keeping the shape of the box. Above are the colors I used: Black, Pearl Grey, and Navy Blue. I started off with just pearl grey.

One coat of Pearl Grey

Then I added some Navy Blue to the Pearl Grey mix (I just made the connection to Earl Grey - lol). I did a separate batch of Black for some gradation (below). I did several "coats" letting the shoes dry in between.

After several coats

I also used the Pearl Grey/Navy Blue mix to dye the inside. I may end up replacing the insole with something sturdier, which is what I did on my first pair.

Dyeing the Inside

Here's a close up of some of the gradient black. I think it gives it a very "halloween" look.

Closeup

Then (after letting the dye dry completely) I just used some acrylic paint to paint some creepy scenes on the box of the shoe.

Tree with headstone and Bats

Witch crossing the moon

Spiderwebs

The spiderwebs aren't my favorite. The box is much easier to paint that the softer parts of the shoe.

Ghosts and Bats

Spiders!

I need to do more to decorate the back half of the shoe, but I'm not sure what I want to do yet. I don't want to do scenic work like on the box, so I might go check out the Halloween section at Ben Franklin and see what they have.

I'll post an update when I've done more!!

Count Louis LeStat Wafflebuns

You may remember a couple years ago I created a little lamb for a friend: Pete T Sheep. He went traveling with me to Egypt and a couple other places. He also travelled with some other people when they went to far off places. So when I was about to set forth on a three week trip to England, Scotland and Ireland I asked my friend if I could take Pete with me. Unfortunately Pete had a run in with my buddy's cat and I'm horribly allergic to cats so Pete couldn't make the trip.

I decided I'd have to make my own travel buddy.  It was during waffle week when I had the following picture as my Facebook profile pic:


I found the picture on google and have no idea who made it or why, but you have to admit it's pretty awesome. When I asked my Facebook friends what I should make for my travel buddy someone suggested I make the waffle eating vampire bunny.

So I searched for bunny softie patterns and this is what I found on Craft Passion:


A little on the cutesy side, but it worked. The pattern is made from socks. I altered it slightly to get rid of the droopy ears. It ended up taking about three socks because I had to redo a couple things and because I ended up using the toes of the socks and some pink felt for the ears.

At first I wasn't sure how I was gonna do the ears so he looked kind of like a baby seal.



I put a little packet of rice in his bum to keep him from falling over. I was going to use sugar but then I thought I'd have issues going through security at the airport. I didn't want them tearing him apart thinking I was smuggling cocaine.

Here he is with ears:


His waffle is make of felt.

It took awhile to find something to use for the teeth, but eventually I found something in the beading aisle at Ben Franklin that worked:



And here's some pics on the trip:










I also made a travel turtle for my sister. And we picked up a loch ness monster in Scotland and a little lamb in Ireland: