This week’s Project Accessory challenge was supposed to be inspired by a piece of jewelry, and be able to be styled with a little black dress. I admit, I failed on both accounts. The whole outfit has a funky vintage-inspired feel. I added a brown vintage handbag to the look, and instead of a black dress, I used a white nautical-ish navy blue sweater as a backdrop for these accessories.
I browsed the Swarovski website looking for an inspiration piece similar to what the show contestants from week two were able to choose from. I found a lot of great Swarovski pieces (check my Pinterest jewelry board to see some of them), but ultimately didn’t use any of them for inspiration. Instead, my first act was to spray paint a pair of Goodwill-bound shoes bright blue, with no influence from any inspirational jewelry.
Blue Winged Shoes

spray painting my old shoes
I was, however, inspired by this blueprint filing cabinet I made a few months ago. I really wanted blue shoes with white pinstripes, and maybe some architect blueprint-style notation. I couldn’t find my white paint marker, and was apparently too lazy to hand-paint white pinstripes on the shoes, so I decided to play around with other ideas. I am currently suffering from craft-regret, because I really would have liked to have some blueprint shoes and I think they would have been more successful had I stuck to that inspiration.
So, what do you think? Are these a craftfail? Tardis-colored shoes with hand-drawn pleather wings and a weird medallion-button thing on the toe? Oh, and I punched holes around the shoes too, which give them sort of a wingtip-vibe (get it, “wing” tip – wocka wocka!) It would take a very special woman to love these shoes. The good news is, nobody in Southeast Portland will think twice when they see these babies. They fit right in with the quirky handmade vibe.
And apparently, I’m not alone in the winged shoe inspiration. It was a mini trend in 2010, with design houses like Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood showing winged shoe designs. I still like the idea, but I need to keep working on the execution! [my pinterest shoe board]
Beaded Boho Skinny Ribbon Necklace
For this necklace, I just played around with knotting 1/8″ ribbon (you can get it for $.47 at the craft store), and haphazardly stringing red wooden dollar store beads or colored squares on the ribbon. The squares were cut from a shiny CD holder gift wrap pouch I picked up at the dollar store, and I backed each square with pieces of leftover vinyl from last week’s thrift challenge. I made several strands of knotted ribbon at various lengths.
I was thinking of you, dollar store crafters, when I made the clasp for this necklace. I wanted to use something that everyone already has on hand, so I knotted each end of the necklace to a paper clip. Don’t let the lack of proper findings keep you from making necklaces if you want to!
Again, I’m not sure if this is a craftfail. I think it looks weird with the navy sweater, but I can sort of imagine a scenario where it would be cute on the right girl. Any color combination other than tan and red would probably yield a better necklace!
I think I need a do-over for this week!
Did you play along this week? Be sure to link your project up at our Week 2 linky!
We’re continuing on with our Project Accessory challenge for week 3! Did you see the challenge – Unitards!!! Rhonda and I are both stumped about how we are supposed to translate that for dollar store crafting. I’m thinking a black t-shirt paired with black leggings. And no, I won’t be modeling the final look for you! Ha!
4 Comments
Michelle L.
I think the wings are adorable! And I would never have thought to punch simple holes in the shoes, it makes such a cute effect. Love the paperclips for clasps – they’re perfect.
rhonda
I think you had a lot of good ideas going on here, maybe just too many ideas at once, haha! The necklace is great, I love the double-sided squares.
Better to take a chance and miss than to play it safe and hit, right?
Vivi
Love, love the sweater/necklace. The necklace closure is interesting and cheap! I do not care for the shoes… but whatever floats your boat!
Jane
I’m curious– I keep spray painting shoes, and the paint keeps rubbing off. How on earth did you keep it from cracking?