Tutorials: Upcycled Shoe Memo Holders

The theme this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is ANYTHING GOES!  Since nothing was off limits, I decided to re-purpose these adorable little cardboard feet into some handy-dandy memo/photo holders.  

To make these, I started with some cardboard shoe/feet forms that some baby socks came on.  The ones I used were Converse brand.  All the forms I found were hollow and were either cardboard or plastic and you can find a box of them for a reasonable price at places like Ross or TJ Maxx.

Coat the shoes with Gesso or white acrylic paint.  If they're already white plastic, you get to skip this step.  Once the Gesso dries, cover your shoes with Washi tape.  Since Washi isn't known for sticking permanently to surfaces like this, I used a glue stick to tape down my Washi, especially in the places where it overlapped.

Once your shoes are covered with Washi, you can add some Distress Paint or acrylic paint to give it some opaque spots of color.  Here I've used some yellow paint to highlight certain areas:

Next you can add ink (I applied mine with sponges) to give your shoes some additional shades of color.  I used brown, black and orange ink.

The next step is to attach the wire that will poke out the top of your shoes to hold your memos.  I realized that I would have to anchor the wire to something stable on the inside of my shoe, so I decided to go with corks.  Using a needle, I poked a hole through each cork.

Then I used the same needle to poke a hole through the top of the shoe.  Thread a piece of wire through the cork and make a curl in the bottom so it won't pull through your cork.  Put some hot glue on the top of your cork, then pull the wire through the hole in your shoe so that the cork glues to the inside of the shoe with the long part of the wire poking out the top.  

Using pliers, twirl the long wire down into a squiggly curl (this will form the wire curl that will hold your memos or photos).

Once the wire part is done, you can finish off your shoes by adding other embellishments like flowers or words, which I adhered with hot glue.

Your shoes are now ready to hold any little scraps your heart desires!  These would be so fun to personalize and would also make great place card holders for a dinner party (for those of you admirable people out there who cook)!

Washi is truly a wonderful material.  Here are the tapes I used, along with other supplies that you can get at Simon Says Stamp:

Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Tim Holtz Squeezed Lemonade Distress Paint	Distress Paint - TUMBLED GLASS	Tim Holtz Distress Paint In Picket Fence	Tim Holtz Distress Paint In Spiced Marmalade	Distress Paint - PEACOCK FEATHERS	Hazel and Ruby 2-inch Fat Roll Quote Washi
My Mind′s Eye Pretty Things Record It Washi Tape	My Minds Eye Up and Away Washi Tape	Cavallini and Company Paper Tape, Numbers	Cavallini & Company Vintage Office Tape	We R Memory Keepers Yellow Washi	We R Memory Keepers AQUA Washi Tape	We R Memory Keepers Red Washi Tape
We R Memory Keepers PINK Washi Tape	We R Memory Keepers Orange Washi Tape	Kelly Purkey Washi Tape TEAL POLKA DOTS KPWS8	Kelly Purkey Washi Tape NUMBERS KPWS6	Kelly Purkey Washi Tape NAME	Kelly Purkey Washi Tape RED CHEVRON KPWS7	Tim Holtz Journeyman Tissue Tape
Doodlebug Sugar Stripes Washi Tape	Doodlebug Rainbow Stripe Washi Tape	Jet Black Stazon	Timber Brown StazOn	Colorbox Rain Forest Ink	Walnut Stain - Distress Ink	Spiced Marmalade - Distress Ink
Mustard Seed - Distress Ink	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Mixed Media Sponges Bars

 
With a theme of Anything Goes, there's no reason NOT to upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.