Monster Bash: Shoe Nerdcrafts!

One of the things I've learned in the past year-and-a-half-ish of being a published writer is that teachers and their feet are saints. I have oodles and oodles of cute, monster themed shoes, and after one classroom presentation in them, my feet are ready to stage a coup and make a run for it. Or maybe a hobble. So anyway, I've been eyeing this set of instructions for nerd shoes for a while now. Here was an opportunity to make some cute monster themed shoes with less than a three inch heel that I could wear to events! And when I decided to do Monster Bash, this seemed like a great opportunity to give it a try and tell you how it went.

It went...like THIS:

Why, HELLO, slightly blurry Grable-themed hotness!

That's right. I now have a pair of ballet flats printed with my book covers and website images (thanks to the awesome Manning Krull). And they are CUUUUTE.

The actual instructions are pretty simple, and I plan to try it again with some comic books at some point. I'm thinking I really need a pair of Tick themed shoes. And if decoupage isn't really your thing, you can follow that link to get ideas for shoes that require the use of stencils and the ability to draw a straight line, which I'm not particularly good at.

The actual shoe makery was easier than I expected it to be. I probably spent an hour and a half on them not counting drying time, but that also included time trying to get my stupid printer to cooperate, so I think an hour would be reasonable, especially if you're cutting pictures out of comic books. The actual assembly wasn't too tough; I think you could give this project to tweens quite easily. Just make sure you use fairly good quality printer paper if you're printing your own pics. I think thin, cheap paper might rip, but I didn't have any problem with that, and I used regular copy paper from Staples.

Porous papers seem to work well; I didn't try any slick magazine type paper, but I suspect it would be fine too. I did learn that you might as well take the number of pictures you think you'll need to cover the shoes and multiply that by three. I also wish I would have picked a pair of shoes with an unadorned heel. This pair had a raised seam on the back that made it really tough to get the paper to stay where it was supposed to be.

But STILL.

AAAAH SUGAR LIPS THAT GO ON MY FEET!

I'd like to have a different pair for every day of the week. And that's all I have to say about that.

Don't forget to leave a comment! One random commenter on a Monster Bash post will win signed copies of all three Grable books! Let me know what kind of shoes you'd like to make!