Comic Book Shoes

So I gave you a quick peek at the comic book shoes in my first blog.  I have now finished them! Quite pleased with my first attempt at them and and learnt a lot of stuff along the way if I decide to make any in the future.

This is my first project of many where I am going to take you through what I did, how I did it and what I learnt along the way.  I am basically just teaching myself these things and telling you about it!

So I am completely obsessed with Pinterest at the moment and spend sooo much time browsing it while I watch TV, sitting on the bus, just before I go to bed!

Like all girls I do have a love for shoes but not an unhealthy love for shoes! However, when I came across the below shoes on Pinterest and from reading the blog I thought 'that sounds easy!'.  I didn't really follow their tutorial and just took the basic idea and taught myself.

So...here is what I did and added some tips that made it a little easier for me along the way.

What you will need:

Shoes
Comic/magazine of your choice
Mod Podge
Scissors (large and small)
Paint brush

About the equipment:

Shoes
Even though I don't wear a lot of heels I thought it would give a bigger wow factor than flats.  I advise not using canvas/fabric shoes but you can give it a go if that's all you have.

Comic
There are so many to choose from! For my first go (and due to my budget) I went to The Works and there was quite a few comic (the bigger kind) for about £3.99 so you could easily pick a couple of these up.  If not local markets or eBay are a good place to go.  It doesn't really have to be superhero comics, you can put anything you want, even the cheap women's magazines or childrens cartoons

Mod Podge
This was the first time I used or even heard of Mod Podge (that's how much of a newbie I was to crafting!) but it's great as a glue and a sealant without having to buy two different kinds.  I would strongly recommend buying the clear gloss as if you buy 'Shimmer' or 'Gold' they can dull down the colours of the comics and completely spoil all your good work!  You will see from the picture I got shimmer but only used this for gluing and bought the clear to put on top.
Mod Podge can easily be found for under £10 for a big pot on Amazon.

Paint Brush + Scissors
I just bought some childrens paint brush for 99p from The Works, nothing fancy.  Scissors I had a normal pair to cut out the pages from the magazine and some small nail scissors or the fiddley bits.

Tip: Don't expect to get this done in one night, be prepared for a good few hours work!

Firstly I went through the comic and cut out images I liked (keeping them quite big to start).  I then spent the next 10 minutes looking at the cut outs and then the shoes then the cut outs.  I then spent another 10 minutes picking up cut outs and holding them against the shoes.  Then this happened.....

The first piece was on!! I then spend another hour placing bits onto the shoe. I decided not to do the heel due to scuffing (and a little bit of laziness).  You could cover the hell with Mod Podge and cover it with glitter but I'm not a massive glitter fan so left it black.

Tip: Try not to use large images

Due to all the curves the shoes have try to cut out large images as they don't tend to curve very well.  If there is a large image you like you might need to cut it into smaller pieces and place it back together on the shoe.


I started these while having a night in with the girls so film watching and chatting did distract me from getting that much done.  First night results...

Tip: Cover large sections and then layer on top

My first section (above pic) was done by pasting the images I wanted and cutting them to fit in.  Problems with this was it was very fiddly to do and meant cutting very tiny pieces at time.  Also it meant the images didn't seem to blend very well.  See below picture

So I tried a new approach from putting bigger images on and then cutting out smaller bit (such as the speech bubbles/narratives or small pictures/faces) and then layering them on top over the edges or corners where the different images meet.

Tip: Pick your favourite images for the front

When you get to show off your shoes the first bit people are going to see is the toes! I decided to pick quite large image(s) as a focal point.  As I was working my way around to the front I pasted my picture on and then worked around it.

Tip: Use your nails as a ruler!

Shoes have a lot of funny angles and sometimes I'd end up cutting away too much of the image or not enough.  The way I tackled this problem was to lay the image on the shoe (over hanging to the end of the shoe) and then run your nail along the curve of the shoe.  By the curve I mean the tops of the shoe or around the sole.  You will then have a dent in the paper which you can cut away.  It might need neatening up but it's a very good start to getting the right shape.

Once your shoes are completely covered with comics just add a couple of thin layers of clear Mod Podge to seal it up! 

These are my main tips to hopefully make it easier for you if you decide to give it a go.  From then on just have fun putting your own touches to it.  So these are how mine turned out...

Now I need to find another theme for my next pair...maybe 80's cartoons or lego. Need to go image hunting!

If you found my blog useful or you just liked it please leave me a nice comment.  Might urge me to crack on with my next project sooner.

Lisa x