September 2012 – Coriander in the Spice Rack

I spent a great deal of time in July and August not reading many blogs. I think I had reached blog-saturation. I needed to make something, instead of read about making something! But, now I have returned to my old friends for inspiration. And, I want to share with you some things that I made during my hiatus!

We had a nerdtastic wedding to attend at the end of August and needed costumes. Research came first!

Skotte decided his costume should be someone with red hair. He pared it down to: Poison Ivy from the Batman series, Destruction from “Sandman”, Syndrome from “The Incredibles, and Ariel from “The Little Mermaid.”

After settling on Poison Ivy, he decided on an outfit in dark greens, with a nice corset, and maybe some red as an accent. We started with shoes.

I have been reading about making glitter shoes for months now, and this was naturally the perfect project for me to apply my knowledge.

I started with these shoes in white patent leather. First, I put masking tape over the entire bottom of the shoe and around the back and bottom of the heel. I also taped around the inside top of the shoe so I could get the glitter right to the edge of the shoe.

I painted on regular matte Mod Podge in small sections and then sprinkled Jo-Ann Craft Essentials glitter out of the tube onto the shoe.

I had a routine:

put down two sheets of printer paper under the shoe, on top of each other
paint mod podge onto the shoe
glitter over the glue
shake excess onto the paper
lift shoe and remove paper with glitter, and put shoe on next sheet
put extra glitter back into the tube

I put on one coat of glitter, and did some touch-ups after it dried. Then I added one more coat of matte Mod Podge. Skotte sprayed a coat of glossy Mod Podge clear acrylic sealer. The last touch was to add a glittered leaf to each shoe with green glitter hot glue.

The rest of the costume consisted of: black tights, a creme blouse, a black and green corset, black skirt with tulle skirt over (which I made) and faux bustle-turned-apron in the back (which I also made), hunter green satin opera gloves, red purse, and a red jacket which came from a nightgown set. He neglected to wear the ivy sash I made, but did wear the ivy hair clips. I also made a red rose hair clip for Ms. Ivy.