I’m so excited to share this fun DIY collaboration with Converse One Star for Target! They sent over an adorable design kit with a brand spankin’ new pair of classic white Converse One Star sneakers, and asked me to customize them to match my personal style.
I put my own little spin on them with a few tricks and some simple craft supplies. Get the full run-down after the jump — including details about a giveaway from Target for a chance to design your own pair!
I started with a super-white pair of Converse One Star for Target sneakers, and big plans to spice them up a little with some gold and leopard for fall {ya’ll know I love myself some leopard}.
First, I wanted to take the bright white to a natural canvas color. [Enter my first try at tea dying]. I brewed a full kettle of strong tea, then cut the tea in half with an equal amount of water. After letting the liquid cool to room temperature, I removed the laces from the sneakers and dunked them in a big pot with the tea covering them completely to soak up the stain.
While they were cooking, I took some time to practice my leopard print [another first]. Using my favorite Michael Kors leopard pony hair wedges as inspiration, I got to work making spots with fabric paint in metallic gold and medium brown and sponge brushes from the craft store.
The great thing about leopard is it’s perfectly imperfect, so recreating it isn’t as hard as it looks. I found the best results when I made messy ovals with the gold metallic paint and the round end of the sponge brush, then made the edges of the spots with the medium brown and the narrow sponge.
The sneakers soaked in the tea bath for about an hour until they reached the color I was looking for. Keep in mind that the stain will look darker when it’s wet, so let it get a little darker than your desired end result. I let them dry overnight.
The next morning, I painted the black stripes and the top part of the rubber sole with two coats from a metallic gold paint pen.
When the gold paint dried, I went to town on the leopard spots! I toyed with the idea of covering these babies completely {meow} but decided to focus on a few strategic areas instead. We try to keep it classy around here.
Speaking of classy, I thought they could use a little extra fancy with some bling. So I added a few light brown Swarovski crystals…
… And gave the star the respect it deserves by painting it with the gold metallic paint I used on the leopard spots and my angled eyeliner brush {clearly my DIY kit needs some restocking}. Finally, I replaced the laces with ribbon.
Fini! What do you think? Are they me? ;-)
Now it’s YOUR turn…
Target is giving one lucky APP reader a design kit and a Target gift card to customize your own pair of Converse One Stars! To enter, leave ONE* comment telling us how you’d style your pair, along with an email address and/or URL where I can contact you if you win. All entries must be received by this Friday, October 14th, at 11:59PM EST. A winner will be chosen at random next week. Good luck!
Editor’s Note: Giveaway CLOSED
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Target. I received material compensation for this post, which I will keep. Target sent the Converse One Star sneakers and design kit for my review, editorial consideration, and for a giveaway to A Pretty Penny readers.
* To keep things fair, any duplicate comments will be deleted.
What do you think?