How to Make Galaxy Shoes

       I searching through Pinterest one day and came across a vague tutorial on how to make galaxy shoes. I attached the link for the original website. Some of the directions were a little vague for me, and I am the type that needs you to spell it out while slowly repeating yourself six times in order for me to get it right.
     I decided to make this an adventure and do this with both of my girls so we would all have matching galaxy shoes. I'm going to give you step by step directions and go more in depth than the website I provided. That website was a great start for me, but I had to learn along the way.

Step 1- Get a cheap pair of black canvas style shoes. I found mine at Family Dollar for 6 bucks, but afterwards I found them on Amazon for cheaper if you happen to shop through them. Shipping can get you unless you have Amazon prime, which I don't have. Just one less fee for me to pay.

Step 2- You will need fabric paint and a sponge or sponge like paint brushes. I used this sponge and cut the rough bottom part off of one then vut the sponge into three different sections. I found a pack of these sponges, six for $1, at Family Dollar. I bought small white, blue, purple and pink fabric paint bottles at WalMart for .97 cents a piece.

Step 3- If you have thick soles on the side of your shoe, you should tape them to prevent paint from spreading on them. My soles are thin so I skipped this step.

  ~~I used an old egg carton to put the different colored paint into the little cups to prevent a mess and leakage. ~~ I also didn't like how dark the blue was so I mixed some white in to make it lighter. ~~

Step 4- Sponge the  colors one by one on them. My girls and I all interpreted these directions differently. I tried to make them cloudy and blended rather than blotchy by dipping the sponge lightly in the paint, then getting rid of access paint on the sponge by wiping it off on the side of the egg carton. Then I blotted and rolled onto the shoes.  Kiara and Brianna had too much paint on the sponge and theirs turned out more rubbed in than cloudy; however they still look good. This is where I should've started taking pics but we were having to much fun and our hands ended up looking like a galaxy! Once you have your desired look move on to step five.

Step 5- This is the hardest part. The website says to splatter, but doesn't explain how. I did a test run on a grocery bag first so I didn't mess up my shoes. I tried dipping a straw in the white plaint then flinging it on the grocery bag. I didn't like how this turned out. It looked more like lines then stars. Kiara then suggested to use a coffee straw, suck up some paint then blow it on the shoes. She decided to try this out on her shoes first, not the grocery bag. This ended up doing the trick; however, when you blow hard on the straw, a huge splotch comes out first, then small splatters come out. I didn't want such a huge splotch so after sucking up some of the paint (sucking to hard the first time and getting a nice mouthful of white paint. Girls were laughing at me while I was gagging and spazzing) so I decided to blow out the large splotch on the grocery bag, then I did the rest on my shoes. This turned out the best for me. After awhile of blowing out paint, spit tends to go with it. Don't worry, it just made the stars look more realistic!


                                       These are Brianna's shoes. Sorry I didn't get a better picture.

 

Kiara's shoes. The huge splotch is paint and spit mixed together. She didn't test out blowing out the paint first. She went for it. Kiara is braver than I am!

 

This pair is mine. Even though we all sponged the paint on the shoe and spit it out, they kind of turned out the same.

 Overall, this was a fun project and now I have a pair of science shoes that I can wear while teaching science. And, I can tell everyone that I am SSOOOOO cool that even my kids wanted the same type of shoes. (They will say it is because the shoes look cool, but I know the difference in my own delusional head!)