For me, it began when I was gobsmacked by the cover of Belle Armoire (Art to Wear) in the spring of 2003. There on the cover were Mary Sue Fenner's Hot and Wow Docs. Dr. Marten boots painted and shiny and wonderful!  Shortly after receiving that issue, I broke down and painted my first pair of shoes: leather boots I'd picked up at GoodWill just for this purpose.  Using Lumiere and Halo-style jacquard paints I spent one afternoon gleefully painting. 

Last weekend, I had fun again; this time painting a pair of Keds!  Let me show you:

My Keds were a bit stained but still had some wear in them; they were, however, tthe most boring beige.  I decided to use a pair of knitted socks as my inspiration, chose simple acrylic paints and a perfect roll of ribbon trim to match. 

The Keds were first painted with 3 coats of white paint to create a clean base. 

First step was to paint the channel stitched spaces orange:

Then one set of side panels was painted in a check to echo the design on the ribbon trim:

Contact paper stencilled stars were added to the other side panel:

A feathered cable, plus a speckled background completed the painting. I let the paint dry for an hour, then used Fabric-Tac to glue a row of the ribbon trim around the base of the shoes. Three light coats of a silicone shoe waterproofer (CampDry), and they are ready to wear!

Links:

My leather painted boots.

Howard Rheingold not only gives great directions for  painting Doc martens, he has a wonderful gallery of painted shoes. Now don't you just want to grab some paint, a pair of shoes and have fun of your own?

Don't believe you can paint shoes yourself?  There are a variety of individuals who will art paint shoes for you.  Just Google "Painted Shoes."

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her mundane life at Deb's Daily Distractions .