How to strass your shoes

I originally thought that I wasn't going to write this post until I had completed BOTH of my shoes. However, there have been A LOT of gals asking lately about "how to" bling their shoes. What to use, how to do it, how long it takes, etc.
So, I decided that I would go ahead and give y'all my directions for how I went about making an amazingly sparkly and fabulous shoe for my wedding day. Please make sure you go ahead and read the entire blog before you get started. I always find that helpful when I am trying something new. And please, PLEASE don't hesitate to ask me any questions you might have.

So, without further ado- I give you "how to strass your shoes"
Any "side notes" and things like that will be posted in RED so that you can choose to read it or not.
The little details you definitely should take note on will be in BLUE so that you can see how and where I added special little details.

Tools/Supplies Needed:
1.  Rhinestones (I can give you an exact estimate once I am finished with both- but for one shoe I think it's
     about 5,000 stones) I used HotFix rhinestones. They have a glue substance on one side (not sticky until
     heated) and then the rhinestone on the other. This is important because you want to make sure that the
     glue side goes onto the shoe and your rhinestone is facing the correct way!  One big thing to keep in
     mind-- my shoes are a size 9.5-- your shoe size will definitely determine how many rhinestones
     you will end up needing :-)
     -Rhinestone sizes: I used 3 different sizes.
                      * 6ss (2 mm in size) I used these to line the entire shoe- approximately 1440 stones for one
                                                     shoe
                      * 10 ss (3 mm in size) These cover the majority of the shoe. I used approximately 3,000
                                                        stones for one shoe.
                      * 16 ss (4 mm in size) I used these as a "filler". They are slightly bigger and I wanted to give
                                                        some dimension to the stones and not have all one size. I used probably
                                                        about 100 of these. (you will be able to see photos of this later)
2. E6000 glue (readily available at any craft store. I used almost one full tube of it for one shoe)
3. A pair of tweezers (I used these to position the stones once I had the glue on my shoe)
4. A small paintbrush (To brush on the paint in small sections)
5. A pair of shoes (I got mine from shoebuy.com for about $40. AND they were free shipping!!)
6. Paper plate (to hold your rhinestones)


The How To:

1. Gather all the supplies that you will need.

This is a photo of the paintbrush and tweezers I used.

I just set some rhinestones on a paper plate and used this as my working surface. You will see later in the process that I found it easiest to pick up the rhinestones with my fingers. With them on the plate like this, you can pick up a few at a time and place them into your glued area. (Again, you'll see this a few steps from now.)

2.  The first step for the rhinestones is to do the outlining of the shoe. This way you have a bit of a "workspace" to work inside of. I used the 6ss (2mm) rhinestones for this part of the strassing.

The easiest way I found to do this is to take your paintbrush and brush a small area of glue in your working area. For the lining of the shoes, I would not paint more than one inch of glue at a time. Once the glue is on, pick up your rhinestones off of the plate with your finger, and place them on the glue. At this point, take the tweezers and arrange the rhinestones where you want them.

You also want to use the 2mm stones on the heel of the shoe as you are lining it. You will be filling it in the same way as the rest of the shoe.

**a couple of side notes**

Don't worry about dried glue. You will be covering the entire shoe in rhinestones. You won't be able to see any of the glue. It's okay if it dries. You'll just be painting more glue over it when you move to the next sized rhinestones.

Also, for the "lining" of the shoe, I put two 6ss (2 mm) rhinestones right next to each other. This is the ONLY time I worried about something being uniform as far as a rhinestone pattern is concerned. I wanted to make sure they were even and looked good.

3. The next step is to go ahead and put your rhinestones inside your lined area (essentially the rest of the shoe). For this, I have captions under each photo so you can see the process. This is the process you should use for the ENTIRE shoe (including the lining)...
I used the majority of the 10ss (3mm) rhinestones, as well as SOME 16ss (4mm) stones for more depth on the shoe, You will be able to see the difference in some up close shots later on.

Your first step is to add a drop of glue onto your shoe. To do this, I used the paintbrush and took a drop of glue off of the tube.

Once the glue is on your shoe, spread it onto a small area. You don't want to work on more than a one inch area at a time. This way the glue doesn't dry. You can spread it to a decent thin-ness. This is good strong glue, and once it is dry, those stones aren't going anywhere.

Here is the glue being spread on the shoe. You also want to make sure that you are getting your glue as close to the other rhinestones as possible. The glue dries clear. You don't really have to worry about it drying because you won't see it.

Your next step is to add the rhinestones. Like I mentioned earlier, these are HotFix rhinestones. So, they have a glue adhesive on one side. PLEASE NOTE this glue is NOT sticky and won't be unless you heat the stone. So, you won't be using the glue on the actual rhinestone, and this is the reason that you have to use the E6000 glue.
So, pick up your rhinestones off of your paper plate. Make sure when you pick them up, that the grey side is facing UP and the rhinestone side is facing down. You can grab more than one rhinestone at once, and I actually recommend doing this so that you cover a greater area each time.



The last thing you want to do is use your tweezers and place the stones where you want them. This ensures that each stone is sitting right up against the next one, and that you don't have any dead space in between rhinestones.
It is a bit hard to see, but I do have two different size rhinestones here for more depth. I liked this idea because the bigger rhinestones are "slightly" bigger and makes time go a bit faster for filling the shoe.










4. There are two other small details to cover. That is the "base" of the shoe that is on the bottom front. I used the smallest rhinestones to cover this (the 2mm stones). Same procedure as the rest of the shoe.

The other area is inside the toe. I didn't realize this until I put on the shoe. Since I have peeptoe shoes, I really liked the idea that there was NO white on the shoe that you could see. So, I added the rhinestones to the inside of the toe to the point where you can't see any white.



And that's it!! Makes it seem super easy, huh? Besides the ten hours of time, it really is easy. I watched a lot of basketball and football and Gilmore Girls. I didn't do it all in one day, and instead did it little by little.

Take a look at the final product! I added one 3mm red stone (our colors are scarlet and grey) to symoblize the "last stone" put on the shoe. It's a neat little detail and everyone I have shown it to likes it!!

And like I said earlier, PLEASE comment or email me (ashley@ohsomagical.com) if you have any questions! I don't mind helping anyone willing to take on this project!!

Now-- show off time!!

heel view

full view!

back of the shoe. Can you spot the red rhinestone??

kinda like a "before and afer" photo

modeling them!