Glitter Heels

If you haven’t noticed, I am completely fixated on Pinterest. They have so many crafting and DIY ideas, my hands will never be idle again. Unfortunately, not all the ideas work out for me. I saw this idea of how to fix some worn-looking heels:

I went so far as to actually read the instructions and everything. The original author used Mod Podge and fine glitter. I tried a couple other things before following her method. A few of you know this, but I have a fear/hate relationship with loose glitter. I believe as you use it, you accidentally inhale it. It then settles into your lungs, causing scarring and ultimately death. I call this condition “Sparkle Lung” or “Crafter’s Lung”.

Because of my paranoia, and my love of lung function, I tried glitter already in paint form. This does nothing, so don’t bother. I also tried the glue you see here:

That crap is WAAAAAYYY too thick, and it has all these warnings about not using it on varnished furniture, so that was disturbing. I only attempted to use this on one of the heels, but it was a disaster. So here we are, back to the Mod Podge. You are supposed to make a really thick paste with the Mod Podge and glitter, then paint it onto the heels, like so:

Even after 2 coats, and letting it dry thoroughly in between, my results looks nothing like hers. My shoes now have glittery tumors all down the back. One of them is worse because I experimented with that terrible glue first, but the other one isn’t much better.

I don’t know if the color of glitter I used is the problem, if there wasn’t enough glitter in my paste, or if there was too much. Either way, shoes that were looking shabby are…still looking shabby. I don’t really know what to do with them at this point. Poor shoes. I should have used my old stand-by: Nail Polish!!

March 25, 2012. Tags: crafter's lung, glitter, heels, how to fix shoes, learn from my fail, pinterest, sparkle lung. Arts and Crafts.