Valentine's Day Glitter Shoes!

Happy almost Valentine's Day friends!  I absolutely love Valentine's Day.  Hearts, glitter, pink...I love it all.  I love pink so much that in grad school, a friend made a bet with me to see how long I could go without wearing anything pink.  I lasted about 5 days before I had nothing to wear!  Valentine's Day is an excellent excuse to wear pink!

My mom bought me Glue Dots adhesives a few years ago and I never played with them until recently.  They are amazing!  They're little double-sided sticky circles.  What's not to love?  I was playing around with them the other day and came up with my first Valentine item of the year.

Valentine's Day Glitter Shoes

Supplies:

Shoes, plain synthetic material works best
Glue Dots adhesives
Glitter, I mixed two different colors of hot pink
Soft paintbrush, preferable a natural bristle
Something to cover your work surface, newspaper works well

I've been weeding out my closet duds for my posts lately and these shoes are the latest to make the list.  Brown, cheap, platform pumps.

Not bad, but not good either

I love polka dots so I used the Glue Dots adhesives to make a random pattern of polka dots all over the shoes.  Take the roll of dots and press the first dot glue side down on the shoe.  Go over it with your fingernail on the back of the paper.  Carefully peel the paper off, leaving the dot stuck to the shoe.  Be careful to keep your fingers out of the way as the dots tend to stick to your skin and you'll have to keep re-applying when they accidentally tear off the shoe ( I speak from experience.)

Look carefully and you can see the dots

Next, put the shoe onto your newspaper.  Carefully sprinkle your glitter all over the dots.  I found it easiest to pinch some glitter in between my thumb and forefinger and sprinkle it directly onto each dot, 1 at a time.  I also smoothed the glitter over each dot to make sure they were sufficiently covered.

It looks a little messy at first

Shake the shoe a bit and let the first shoe dry while you do the second.  These don't really need dry time, but it helps to let the glitter set.  Once you do the second shoe, take your first shoe and your paintbrush and lightly clean off the dots, brushing the excess glitter onto the newspaper.  You might need to pause occasionally and wipe the glitter off the brush to keep it clean.  Do this with both shoes.



I feel like Minnie Mouse would wear these for Valentine's Day

Voila!  Now you have a fabulous pair of shoes to wear for Valentine's Day!

Fake it till you make it

So this isn't really a DIY post but it's still something extraordinarily beneficial.  I work in a job where I occasionally have to be on call and often have late nights and early mornings.  Sometimes, I just don't get enough sleep.  Unfortunately, I still have to look wide awake and put together even on those nights when I'm up until 5am.  I have a few tried and true make-up tricks that help me look my best!

1.  Moisturizer. 

On days when I get little sleep, I always feel like my skin is so dry.  I make sure to layer on a nice SPF moisturizer on my damp face out of the shower.  I like Eucerin Everyday Protection SPF 30 this stuff soaks in quickly and doesn't have a scent.

2.  Benefit Erase Paste

This stuff is my secret weapon. It's a little pricey, but it lasts for a long time. I scoop out a small amount (half a pea size amount, maybe less) onto the back of my hand to let it warm up a bit.  I then dab it under my eyes using my ring finger.  It blends so well and I've never found anything else that covers up my dark circles quite as well!

3.  Bronzer

My skin tends to look chalky with little sleep so I compensate with a slightly darker bronzer than usual.  I like ones that have a little shimmer to give my skin a nice glow.  I sweep some onto a large kabuki brush and use it to give a little definition to my cheekbones, nose and chin.  I use the one I typically use in the summer (when my skin is darker) on days like this as it's not too dark but a little more so than my every day bronzer.

4.  Bright Blush

A slightly brighter blush wakes up my face.  Don't use anything too bright or you'll end up resembling a Tim Burton character.  My favorite is Nars powder blush in Orgasm.  It has gold flecks in it that really make you shine!

5.  Lip Color

I tend to look like death without lipstick but I really hate wearing it.  I've discovered lip stain and it is my saving grace!  Cover Girl Outlast Lipstain in Everbloom Kiss is my fave.  It's a perky pink and really brightens my complexion!

6.  Eyes

There are a few different tricks I have to brighten eyes:

     1.) Lipstain as eye color.  This sounds weird but sometimes I rub the above color on my eyelids.  The pinkish hue makes my eyes look brighter!

    2.) Gold shimmer shadow.  This really works!  It makes my eyes look so awake!  I sometimes layer the pink lipstain with the gold shimmer shadow for a rosy look.  My favorite gold shimmer is "Honey Pot" from Too Faced Natural Eye Kit

   3.) Using an iridescent neutral eye liner on the bottom lash line.  I use Revlon Colorstay Brow Enhancer in blonde.  The highlighter side is the perfect neutral for my skintone.  I dab a little in the inner corners and then rub it along my bottom lash line.  Don't put too much or you'll look like a Halloween character!


And when all else fails, drink a ton of coffee!

Glitter makes everything better

So I think I was a little crafted out after Christimas.  Sorry for the lack of postings.  I'm getting back on the horse!

I'm continuing my resolution to spend less money on clothing, so I've been searching my closets for clothes to upcycle.  I have these gray faux suede booties I bought at a Black Friday sale a few years ago.  Honestly, I've only worn them once or twice, they're just not that cute!



Rather plain

 Sparkly Booties

Supplies:

Paint Brush
Palette
Mod Podge
Glitter
Booties or other shoes

Directions:

Initially I was planning on covering the toes with a cute fabric but I couldn't get it to lie flat.  I decided to try something a little more sparkly instead.  Similar to my post All that Glitters I mixed up glitter and Mod Podge into a smooth, thick paint-like consistency.  I probably used about a tablespoon of glitter and twice as much Mod Podge for this project.



Don't make it too thick or clumpy!

First, decide where you want to apply your glitter.  On my booties, the toes were sectioned off with a seam, so that seemed to be the perfect place to put glitter.  I also decided to paint the heels too, just for fun.

Start with thin layers of the glittered Mod Podge.  This will probably take about 3 thin layers before it's sufficiently covered.

Tape off the sole with masking tape if you don't think you're steady enough to keep it clean!

Let your shoes dry for about 12 hours before wearing.  You can apply a final clear coat of Mod Podge if  you want it to be super glossy, but I decided to leave it with just the 3 layers of glitter Mod Podge.



Ta Da!  I think they look a little space age

I got lots of compliments on these at work today!



DIY Anthro pants

Happy 2012 friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and had fun ringing in the new year.  Aside from my resolution to be more awesome, one of my resolutions is to spend less money on clothes.  I love to shop and this is going to be rather difficult for me.  However, this will be an excellent chance to dig through all my current clothes and re-fashion them into something newly fabulous.

I saw these pants while shopping at Anthropologie the other day and I'm officially in love with them.  Joe's Cavalier Ponte in turquoise. Turquoise is my favorite color so these are perfect or me!

Since they are a little out of my price range,  I decided to try to make my own.  I have an old pair of khaki pants that have been laying around my closet for about 5 years.  I hate khakis, I haven't worn them since I worked for a retail company (which shall remain nameless) that forced me to wear them every day.  Check out these beauties.

Khaki is so boring! 

DIY Anthro pants

Supplies:

Old pants in decent condition
Fabric dye in your color of choice
Fabric color remover
White vinegar (optional, to set the dye)
Pencil
Skinny jeans to use as a guide
Sewing machine
Scissors
Iron
Coordinating thread

These pants are wide legged and ugly.  My first task was to make them a lovely shade of turquoise.  Since these were already a light brown color, I figured I should try to lighten them even more using RIT Color Remover in my washing machine, I followed the directions on the package (basically I filled my washer with hot water and the dye packet, then dropped the pre-rinsed pants in.) Honestly, I don't think this did much, but, if you have darker pants than these it might help.

Since I wanted them to be a deep turquoise, I used an entire bottle of RIT Liquid Dye in Teal.  This might seem like a lot of dye for one pair of pants but I really wanted them to be the perfect shade of teal.  I like RIT dye because their liquid dyes are really easy to use.  Follow the package directions for using them with your washing machine.  Once the pants were dyed, I ran them again on a short cycle with about half a cup of white vinegar to set the dye.  Then I simply ran them through the dryer. 

I love the shade these turned out to be!

Since these pants had such wide legs and the ones I was copying were skinny jeans, I needed to take them in on the sides.  The easiest way to figure out what width I wanted was to take my favorite pair of skinny jeans and use them as a guide.  I simply turned my new pants inside out and laid them flat, and put the jeans on top, centering the zippers and crotch area to make sure they matched up.

Make sure both pairs of pants are perfectly flat

I then took a pencil and traced the edge of the jeans onto the wrong side of the dyed pants.  Make sure you end on a seam or your sewing will look funny!  Then, I stitched a straight line along the pencil marks from the bottom to the top.  Make sure you fan the line out to the original seams towards the top or you'll get some funny bunching going on ( I made this mistake and ripped my stitches out.) Next, turn the pants right side out again and try them on to make sure they look ok.  If they look funny, rip the stitches out very carefully with a seam ripper or some manicure scissors and start again.

If you like the way they look, turn them inside out again and trim the seams to about 1/4".  Using an iron set for the type of fabric the pants are made from, iron the seams open.

Once you've trimmed all your hanging threads you're ready to show your pants to the world. 

I'm not very good at taking photos

So, these aren't perfect, but, who wants perfect?  For less than $10 I got a new pair of pants in my favorite color.  Score!