Nothing Beats Added Pizzazz

We hit the sales rack looking for good little canvas sneaks for Doodlebug to play in. We found a not so attractive pair of red canvas sneakers that really wouldn’t go with much of Doodlebug’s clothing but were made well and the price was right, $3.00 a pair. Who can pass up a deal like that? We sure couldn’t. Red really isn’t Doodlebug’s color unless it is Christmas time, which then she wants everything red. We found them in her current size as well as her next size up. So, we bought them and picked up a few things to give them a bit of added pizzazz. We always love embellishing, adding personal touches to things so, we tried our hand at painting these sneakers. Doodlebug painted one pair and I helped with the grow into size.

The materials we used were a basic fabric medium, Gesso, Tulip fabric markers and a few bottles of squirt fabric paint and scotch tape.


The very first thing we did was to put tape along the rubber soles to cover them so we wouldn’t get any paint on that part of the shoe.

Next we added a little of the fabric medium to the gesso, stirred well and thinned it down some. Then covered the shoes completely using a brush and left them for a couple of hours to dry.

After the long awaited two hours were up, we really started to have fun. Using the fabric markers, we just added all sorts of squiggle lines, over lapped colors and just went nuts. There are no rules here, our favorite type of craft. I loved Doodlebug’s X’s and O’s idea.


When the fabric markers were dry, which didn’t take very long at all, we used the squirt bottles of fabric paint and added little designs, symbols, words and more squiggles. It was really hard to stop, as you can tell.

This is the grow into pair that I helped with.



The end results were very satisfying. As you can see, Doodlebug couldn’t wait to try on her recreated sneakers and show them off. I think she did an awesome job.



This was a very fun and simple project and kids really love getting involved in creating their own style.



Speaking of style, Doodlebug’s new favorite, all time television shows to watch are all the old Punky Bruster episodes. If you remember Punky, you know she knew a thing or two about added pizzazz and style. Papaw happened to find the Punky Bruster seasons on DVD in a bargain bin at Books A Million and Doodlebug loves them!!!



If you try adding some pizzazz to a pair of sneakers or anything else for that matter, we would love to see your creations. Send us an email or post them over on our Facebook friend’s page.




Blessings To You All!