Post-party boot

Tell me, would you have guessed that glitter would outlast paint? Miss Light Bright and Tina Twinkle were right, I shoulda glittered the whole dang boot!

The glitter girls

So, I painted my boots with gold paint and thought I was gonna look pretty daring at Dawn's Solid Gold karaoke birthday party that is, until, Dawn and I went to her friends' house to pick up their karaoke machine.

We opened the door to find a demented Santa's workshop with beer and wine drinking females happy at work painting glue on shoes, covering with glitter and embellishing with boa feathers and glitz and glam. The chicks belong to an all female Carnival krewe whose name rhymes with "shoes" and indeed glitter shoes are the special gift handed down during their parade ride. Handed down people, not thrown. Can you imagine getting beaned in the head by a glittered high heeled shoe tossed from 2 tiered Mardi Gras float? Yikes. Now you know why the Zulu krewe has been prohibited from tossing their decorated coconuts after Governor Edwards signed the "Coconut Bill" .
Friends donate shoes to the glitter girls and each krewe member is limited to giving 30 shoes so they set up an assembly station and we were lucky enough to witness the fun. We wondered if we would need to be treated for "glitter lung" and laughed at the thought of future attorney television commercials soliciting for inhalation damage only to later witness the special first aid required when glitter gets in the eye . . . . . Oh, did you want to know the technique? Apparently a really strong puff of air blown into the eye from a close friend does the trick so maybe glittering alone is not safe.

Some shoes were based painted, then painted with glue and sprinkled with the New Orleans shiny magic dust. These ladies had lots of glitter inventory but see if you can spot the shoes with the super iridiscent quality Martha Stewart glitter. That stuff is the McDaddy of embellishment.

Eventually, they let Dawn and I play. Fearing the potential of an eye glitter incident, I opted to brush on glue and be part of the assembly line. Dawn wanted to play glue pen and glitter games. Dawn is a good crafter but doesn't always know when to say when. Check out the letters.

Ease up on the glue, lady.

Glue to glitter ratio: FAIL

Mardi Gras colors and fleur-de-lis

Finally, I swallowed my pride and brought in my country-comes-to-town boots and asked for a dab of glitter. Miss Light Bright and Tina Twinkle were ready to cover the whole dang boot but I resisted, wanting to be subtle and all.

New Orleans Saints theme

Go LSU!

My two toned heel idea as executed by Miss Light Bright

More is more: add a boa accent

Base painted and waiting for glue

Before and after

Shiny Stuff - caw! caw!

Glitz and glitter

As a little girl, I enjoyed ballet dance recitals and feeling glamorous for a short evening but mostly I was a natural fibers girl and preppy all the way through school and beyond. Never a fan of glitz and glam and glitter and have postulated that the older the lady, the more shiny her clothing choices and often joke that those old bingo ladies confuse the planets with their shiny-as-the-sun ensembles. In fact, I'm pretty sure the December 26, 2008 tsunami was caused by female senior citizens wearing their flashy and trashy Christmas sweaters and rocking the sun off its trajectory.

Usually I shun any clothing with a hint of glimmer and yet today I sit in front of you wearing a sweater with a bit of shimmer. Damn it all, I'm getting old. Not yet wearing shiny crap from head to toe but trying real hard to resist, Ringo.

However COMMA Dawn's Solid Gold karaoke birthday party preparation brought out the repressed shiny side and I decided I to see how the tackier side of life dressed by revamping my tired cracking boots.



Brushed on a couple coats of gold paint and top coat of glitter paint.

Added "stitched" detail with gold Sharpie pen.

(stay tuned to learn more of the painted boot adventure . . . . .)

Decoupage project

My church bud asked if I would craft a "door prize" and I was stumped. Wandered the aisles of Hobby Lobby and dang, you cannot swing a dead cat in there without hitting a cross of every ilk. Okay, wooden cross went in the basket.

Painted the unfinished wooden cross with terra cotta acrylic paint.

Decoupaged front with a printed vellum sheet from my craft stash.

Painted cross edge with gold glitter paint.

Mixed some gold glitter paint with Mod Podge and washed it over the vellum.

Wrote a door Scripture on card stock and glued it to a glass "rock".

Glued that to the cross. Outlined rock with gold glitter glue.

Whew ~ done!