How to paint Patent Leather (aka Birthday Shoes!)

It's my birthday, yay!  27 feels more 'adult' than any other birthday yet.  I realize I'm not old, but to think that I graduated college 5 years ago...where has the time gone?!?

Regardless, I'm going to enjoy every second...fattening foods, alcoholic drinks, and presents galore! Ohh, and I'm going to be doing it in these shoes...

YUM.

I came across these a while back, and basically drooled all over my keyboard.  But $54?  I'm cheap, people.  And the word 'budget' is permanently apart of my everyday language.  So I decided to make my own!

I picked these up at the local Goodwill for $2.99.  They were super cute as-is, but I had visions for them...

The patent leather look had it's advantages and disadvantages, though...I liked the look, but when you paint on patent leather, it just peels right off.  Sort of like a window cling.  I needed to find a way to remove the shine but somehow add it later...

I took some acetone (not NON acetone) and lightly scrubbed the areas I knew I would be painting with a cotton ball.  If you have gloves, I'd suggest using them as the acetone does dry out your hands.

Here's how the difference in shine vs. no shine looks...notice the left side is still completely original.  The acetone treated side has lost it's shine, but the fabric is still completely in tact.

Then I painted the heel blue...I needed about 3 coats to cover it completely.

Then, after loosely following my $54 counterpart, I painted peacock feathers on both shoes.  Good, pointy paint brushes were ESSENTIAL!  I also decided I preferred the heels black, so I re-painted them.  After all that, I got these...

Cute, but they were missing that shine that the patent leather had pre-acetone.  So I grabbed some of this stuff...

If you've never seen it, it's basically like a thinner modge podge in spray can form.  Got it at Michael's.  And you can use it on basically everything.  Winning!

After spraying a few coats (make sure you follow the directions to a T!), my new kicks were all set!

Nothing beats a cute pair of heels on your birthday. ;)

Linky Parties I'm participating in can be found HERE!