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I am so excited about my DIY pencil shoes! When I saw a picture of pencil shoes I KNEW I had to have them and that I could make them.
Once I had the idea in my head that I can and will make them, I was on the HUNT to find white canvas shoes with laces and ones that DID NOT have a rubber toe. It would have made it a little more difficult to paint and made the black part for the lead bigger than I wanted!
So I finally found the perfect shoe, for a great price, at Old Navy! You can find TOMS shoes, canvas shoes at Walmart, here on Amazon, but the Old Navy ones were the perfect pair for me!
Materials: White canvas shoes, paint brushes, blue tape, acrylic paint in colors black, tan, yellow, silver, and pink (these are the ones I use from Amazon)
Here are the 10 steps to making your very own simple pencil shoes after you buy the shoes!
*Make sure to remove shoelaces before you begin!*
Step 1:
- Tape off the top part of the shoe that will be the “lead” of the pencil
- PAINT BLACK
- I didn’t want too much black so the section I taped off was pretty small
- Make sure to measure the distance from the tip of the shoe to the tape to try and make it the same for both shoes
- *Hint* – find shoes that DO NOT have the plastic/rubber over the toes
Step 2:
- Add more tape to the tape section on the front part of the shoe so there is a larger section of tape.
- I made it so my tape ends right where the curve of the top flaps begin to curve up.
- This section (after tape is removed) will be your shaven pencil before the lead.
Step 3:
- Tape of a section in the back of your shoe.
- I aligned mine with the rubber detail on the bottom of the shoe, but this determines where the silver of your pencil will be (under tape) and the pink eraser, so it’s up to you on how much space to give each of those colors!
Step 4:
- Paint the majority of the shoe, in-between your two taped ends, YELLOW.
- I used “Deep Yellow” A140 from the acrylic paint set linked below
- *Hint* – take your time! Go around the metal holes for shoelaces and edges of shoe. Aryclic is not the most forgiving!
- I also had to do a second layer on some spots!
Step 5:
- Paint the end of your shoe PINK
- I used “Pink” A141 from the acrylic paint set linked below
- *Hint* – make sure to get the top of the shoe, but you don’t need to worry about painting into the shoe to much!
Step 6:
- Let dry
- Remove tape
- *Hint* – I free hand the rest of the painting sections, if you feel more comfortable go ahead and tape off already painted sections to protect from the paint you will be using!
Step 7:
- In the unpainted section on the back of the shoe, between the yellow and pink, paint it SILVER
- I used “Silver” A128 from the acrylic paint set linked below
Step 8:
- For the unpainted section on the front of you shoe paint it a TAN color for shaven part of the pencil
- I mixed “Naples Yellow” A131 & “Raw Sienna” A119 from the acrylic paint set linked below
Step 9:
- Let dry!
- *Hint* – you can spray or paint a protective coating, or even a waterproof coating. I don’t plan on wearing my much so I didn’t but it’s definitely worth it if you plan to wear them often!
- Add shoelaces
Step 10:
- Use a Cricut (or any cutting machine) to cut “Black Everyday Iron on Vinyl” for a “No. 2” on each side of the shoe
- Easy press it onto the shoe
- OR you can hand write/paint it.
There you have it! Simple D.I.Y. Pencil shoes! My shoes took me a little under two hours, but that’s with try and error, filming, cutting and using my easy press. So you can definitely complete these under an hour! Acrylic dries pretty quick so you can alternate between the front and the back of the shoe!
I would love to see your final results, post in comments or email me at alyssa@missalyssas.com!
