Let's Craft Something!

Alright girls, how many of you have an old pair of plain heels that you loved at one time, got on sale, or you never wear because they're plain and boring?  Well, I don't even know how I came across it, but Maegan over at Love Maegan has a great tutorial for how to revamp those heels using those heels, fabric, and Mod Podge.


She turned her boring black heels into this:


Of course, yours don't have to be hounds tooth or have the little pom pom at the toe, but it's a wonderful idea, in my opinion.  And you probably have all of these materials at home already if you're a crafter.  Here is her tutorial for this super shoe makeover.

She also has a tutorial for making cute lace socks to wear with your heels, which I think is another great way to spice up your shoes.  This is also a good idea if you're afraid of messing up a pair with Mod Podge!
What girl doesn't have nail polish laying around, too?  She also has tutorials for adding color to your shoes with nail polish!












Of course, she does have more than just shoe tutorials, but I stumbled into the shoe section and fell in love with her neat ideas!  Before you throw your heels away, be sure to check how you can revamp them and fall in love with them all over again!  Visit Love Maegan for all of her great tutorials.

*All of the photos in this post were from Love Maegan.  I did not create any of these; all credit belongs to her.

A few years ago, I was introduced to the wonderful world of steampunk.  If you haven't heard of it before, there are a multitude of resources on it; I would suggest a Google Image search just to give you the basic idea.  To explain it initially to confused individuals, I would begin with "neo-Victorian."  Another suggested it simply as "What if the future happened in the past."  I've heard prime examples of it described as the film Wild Wild West or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I realize it was a book before being made into a film, but we live in an age where films have a wider audience, unfortunately).  We were introduced to it during Anime Weekend Atlanta, where we attended a panel by Outland Armour.  These guys do an amazing job with everything they put their hands on.  It is definitely worth a look if you haven't seen their work before.

During our last AWA trip, I saw this beautiful top hat that I thought would look amazing on my boyfriend.  What I didn't realize, however, was the price.  It was a beautiful leather top hat in green and brown.  I even made him try it on.  In the end, though, it wasn't worth the $250 and we went home without it.


One day, I was skimming through new craft websites, as I am prone to do, and stumbled across Cut Out and Keep.  I did a search for steampunk out of curiosity and ran across a tutorial for a Duct Tape steampunk top hat.  Her finished product is shown below along with a different version that followed the same pattern:


It's beautiful, but at the same time, it is much too feminine for him.  It also used a preexisting top hat, which we didn't have.  It mentioned using a plastic party top hat that could be purchased from somewhere like Party City, but I didn't want to make the trip and risk making a hat that was too small for his head.  I also didn't like the lines where the Duct Tape began and ended being so visible as it is in the original product.

I did some searching and found a few YouTube tutorials on making a Duct Tape top hat from scratch -- well, Duct Tape.  My best find was a Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat top hat tutorial found here.

After looking through the tutorials and watching the video, I decided it was due time I began.  When I finally stopped procrastinating, I got it done in time for Christmas.