80’s Inspired Geometric Stamped Shoes Tutorial

Remember a few weeks ago when I teased this sneak peek of a pair of 80’s inspired stamped shoes that I made? Well, then I got busy re-branding and redesigning my blog, and I haven’t even had a minute to edit the rest of the photos until today (some have watermarks from the old blog since they’ve been sitting around for so long). Better late than never, right?

I originally wanted to create a pair of vintage skater style slip-on shoes for one of my boys, but I couldn’t find any inexpensive Vans or Toms knockoffs  in their sizes. When I spied this white pair in MY size, I figured that I could totally rock some old school kicks myself.

For this project I used Tulip Soft fabric paints and Tulip Puffy dimensional paints. I carved a basic triangle stamp from a carving block, and mixed my own paint colors from the ones that I had on-hand and available.

Tightly packing the toe of the shoes with newspaper gives a firm surface for stamping.

I poured a small amount of black fabric paint on to a paper plate, dipped my stamp and started placing triangles on to the toe of the shoes in a staggered pattern. I tried to keep the same number of triangles per row and left space to add a few colored triangles later.

I used the herringbone stamp that I carved awhile ago to add a fun detail to the heel of the shoes.

When the black paint was dry, I went back and added some pops of color with bright coral, aqua and lime triangles. If you have keen eyes you might notice that I messed up on the second row from the top and only did 3 triangles when the other shoe has 4. It drives my OCD nature CRAZY, but I still love them! 😉

Perfect for kicking back on a hot summer afternoon (bonus points if you wear them with a splatter painted shirt as well!). I think I’m in love with fabric stamping! In fact, I just might have picked up two more pairs of shoes that are eagerly awaiting a makeover!