Short but sweet Monday Shouts!

With another teachers training day at Osk's school today (one on Friday too)  I have both the kiddlets home with me on this bright, sunny Monday, so shouts today will only be brief as I am not sure how long I have before I get the sound of "Muuuuuuuummmmm, I'm hungry, bored, hurt etc." Plus I have made today the day to start potty training so am on tenterhooks watching out for any signs of mass flooding! Potty at the ready!
I didn't really have much time to surf this weekend as most of Sunday was spent feeling rather unwell, I'm sure it was due to lack of sleep from a rather late session on Friday night (I am far to old for late nights!) and not being able to catch-up on Saturday. I did however come across a couple of cool sites that I wanted to shout about today.

Vintage Advertisement Browser

This is a very cool site that has masses of Vintage Ads for everything from alcohol to toys, animals to Xmas! The ads as set out in time slots so there are ads from the 1800's all the way to today. I was looking for old, vintagy ads to decorate a Lazy Susan with and have found heaps on here. The coke ones are amazing and this is a site I will definitely use on a regular basis.

Love Maegan

I came across this blog while I was getting my daily Pinterest fix and chose it to shout about firstly for the shoe tutorials I found on it...A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! I am full of inspiration now and am ready to attack my shoes and reinvent them into new shoes. I have had a quick look at the other sections in the blog (the refashion ideas are great) and am so far pretty impressed by this creative lady and look forward to reading more of her posts...when I have 5 minutes to myself. But if the shoe posts are anything to go by I may need considerably more than 5 minutes!

I love this idea
A home-made barefoot sandal worn under a high heel shoe to give a new looking shoe!

Is it just me or do I seem to gravitate towards shoe themed blogs a little too often?

Are you a shoe addict too? Have you ever tried to create DIY designer shoes? Or perhaps you are lucky enough to own a pair of the real things? 

Well that's it for a short but sweet couple of shouts today...I can hear the joyous sounds of lego being tipped out and spread around and upstairs being destroyed as I type, so I had better go and sort out the war zone! Hope you are having a wonderful Monday.

xx P xx

Shoe themed Monday shout outs.

Wow is it really Monday already? The past week has flown by, it hardly seems like yesterday I was writing my last Monday shouts. Well I haven't been comletely idle and have managed to find some great blogs/sites to rave about. The theme for this week seems to be (my favourite subject) shoes and 'how to' shoe tutorials. I am upcycling a couple of pairs of old rarely worn heels at the moment and was looking for inspiration and came across some awesome blogs with fabulous ideas on how to revamp old shoes.

1.
U.create I was looking at Mod Podge ideas and found this little beauty of a blog. It is jammed full of cool ideas and in particular I really liked the Linda's list: 26 Mod Podge tutorials! Being a die-hard M.P fan I was overjoyed to see this list and will definitely be visiting the blog again... often!

2.

Make Something- Cathie and Steve I saw a fantastic tutorial on a pair of boots thet she upcyclked and can wait to try it out for myself.

How awesome are these!
Picture courtesy of Make Something blog.

3.

Wobi Sobi What a quirky name!? This had a great restyle on a pair of heels using glitter and glue. It is an excellent way of covering over messed up heels on shoes and something I would really like to try. The link buttons send you to a pinterest page where the writer has posted loads of pics of their projects so it is a great place to be inspired.

4.

Alisa Burke- redefine creativity This is a gorgeous blog full of beautiful art and design ideas, tutorials and inspiration. There is a fantastic tutorial on covering wedges with fabric, a project near and dear to my heart. I have spent ages looking through all the past posts and love this blog...definitely one I will be following on a regular basis.

Pretty floral wedges.
 Picture courtesy of Alisa Burke- redefine creativity

Richard's Magic book- available through Amazon for Kindle.

5.

My last shout out isn't about a blog rather it is a shamless plug for a close friend of mine. She is now a published author on Kindle. Her current book is for kids and is called Richards Magic Book and it's an absolute steal to purchase at only £3.09! You actually don't even need a kindle to purchase it as you can read it on your computer!

Book blurb....

Richard is an 8 1/2 year old boy who, like many boys of his age, simply hates reading. He views it as a waste of time - after all, there are plenty of other things that he could be doing ... such as watching TV, playing on the WII or on his Nintendo. But all this changes when his teacher gives him a special book. As he says 'I had to give it to you. It has your name on the cover!' And it does. It's called 'Richard's Magic Book'. Reluctantly, Richard takes it home to read ... and is astounded to find that it really IS all about him!

Before long, he meets a small elf called Nilbog who takes him on a series of magic adventures. The only catch is that, for the magic to work, he has to keep reading the book; however, the good side to this is that the book continues to be all about him and about his magical adventures.

His adventures take him to the North Pole, where he meets Ralop, the Polar Bear; Under the sea, where he meets the mer-people and Krash, the shark; to Fantasy Land where he meets Nicornu; into his garden where he meets the ants and finally to an encounter with a giant called Ergo.

Elaine is also currently writing a new book, which is almost finished, for parents. It is a book full of fun Maths games and activities to do with your kids. As soon as it comes out I will do a post about it, watch this space. 

Well it has been a lovely, relaxing, quiet May Day here at our place, I hope you have all had a relaxing Monday. Back to the grindstone tomorrow!!

Pretty shoes tutorial... OH how I love Mod Podge!

 It is so great when you wear something that people comment on asking where you got it, commenting how lovely it is etc etc. It is even nicer when you can proudly say that "I made this!"
I LOVE shoes and have "several" pairs in my wardrobe! I love quirky, different, pretty, one of a kind shoes (ala- Irregular Choice,Rocket Dog, Jimmy Choo) but unfortunately could never afford to own a pair as they are so expensive... sob sob!
Not being one to let a little thing like no cash stop me from owing something everyone would comment with jealousy on, I decided to make my own shoes! I am a Mod Podge junkie (if it sits still I'll mod podge it!) and knew it would be the perfect to use for shoes, I had used the outdoor one on a few other projects so knew it was amazingly waterproof and durable. After pouring over sites on handmade, fabric covered shoes getting inspiration I grabbed the glue and some scraps of material and got to work.

These were the first pair I made. I started with £4 shoes from Primark in an odd brown colour. I used different scraps of fabric and leather and added felt balls and felt leaves to the front. I get masses of complements from people when ever I wear them... I really love these shoes.

 These were my wedding shoes- but when can you ever wear white satin shoes again??? I covered them using torn up tissue paper and covered them with several layers of Outdoor Mod Podge to keep them weather proof. I haven't worn them yet, not too sure what outfit to match them with? 

I thought I would share a tutorial with you on how I created my latest pair of shoes.

Step 1

Get an old pair of shoes. These can be newly purchased shoes or old ones you no longer use, it doesn't matter either way, in fact charity shops are great for cheap shoes cause it doesn't matter what they look like to begin with. Mine had flower decorations on them that I simple snipped off.

Step 2

Trace out a template of you shoe onto paper. I used tissue and laid the shoe on to the paper and roughly traced round it. You don't have to be too accurate as you'll trim the excess off later anyway. Then cut your template out of fabric, like you would with a sewing pattern.

Step 3

Cover shoe in Mod Podge (I used the Outdoor type ) and place fabric on top and move about til it fits well. I then pushed the fabric into the rim of the sole with the end of my unpicker, but anything with a small sharp end would be fine.

Snip little tabs into the fabric round the instep of the shoe and glue down. I held the tabs down with mini clothes pegs but again clippy anything will do.

Step 4

Repeat the steps for the back of the shoe. I didn't cover the heel on this pair but have with previous shoes.

Step 5

When the glue has dried completely trim the excess fabric off using a very sharp craft knife (it goes without saying please take special care when using sharp knives!)

All trimmed up

  

Step 6 

Now decorate! The sky's the limit here so go mad! I used lace, ribbon and small wooden hearts with super glue to stick them on to make sure they didn't come off. I finally gave them a couple of coats of Outdoor Mod Podge to make sure they were weather proof.... and here they are!

Looking forward to being able to wear these as soon as the weather warms up...whenever that may be!

Hope you are having a great Wednesday where you are.

xx P xx

Oh Mod Podge how I love thee!