How to Make Galaxy Shoes - Universe Shoes!

I can’t even tell you how much fun making Galaxy shoes is. And even better – it’s also very easy! Galaxy shoes are also a great project for people that consider themselves less than crafty. Because the shoes are sprayed with rubbing alcohol, individual strokes are instantly turned into beautiful watercolor canvas, with no effort on your part!

You really can’t mess this up.

Here are my tips for making Universe/ Galaxy Shoes…

One of the best parts of this project is it’s simplicity. You will just need a few things.

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You Will Need:

A pair of Canvas Shoes – They can be practically any color, although the darker they are starting out the darker your overall project will be. The pair I chose happened to be an oatmeal color, and worked great.
Permanent Markers – I used Sharpie Markers, and chose colors that reminded me of photos from NASA! Deep purple, blue, pink and black.
White Paint – You could use both fabric paint or acrylic paint. You could also use glitter paint.
Rubbing Alcohol – You will also want a small sprayer for the rubbing alcohol.

Directions:

The First thing you will want to do, is to tape off any areas of the canvas show you dont want to get marker on. For us, that was the rubber side soles. Once that’s done your ready for the fun part!
Go to town with those permanent markers! I know this sounds cliche – but you really cannot make a mistake here. The only word of advice I’d give you, is to be sure to change colors every once in a while and to leave some small areas without marker. Those blank areas are where marker will bleed into adding great depth!
Spray your shoes liberally with the rubbing alcohol you put into a misting spray bottle. It will blur all the obvious lines on your shoes and start to run the colors together.

Once you are satisfied with the base colors of the galaxy on your shoes, you will want to get your acrylic paint and to start adding areas of light. You can dab and smear. I like to add some painted stars to the lighter areas, but you could also add planets or anything else you prefer! If you have a Dr. Who fan in the family, this might be a good time to add a little blue box hurtling through space and time in the background 😉
Let shoes dry for at least 24 hours, and until all the alcohol has dissipated.

Would you like a sneak peak into the process? Here is a video that takes you step by step through the process!