Heartfelt Creations Shoe Hop

Welcome to the Heartfelt Creations Shoe Hop!!! If you came from Kerry Urbatch's blog, you're on the right track.  If you're jumping in to the hop on my blog or you are lost, head to the HC Blog to get on track...

For our hop, I've created 2 shoes. The large shoe was made using a free template I found on ChocolateBaroque.com and it worked up like a dream. The template instructions were easy to follow and all the parts fit the was they should. I would have liked additional lines for open toe shoes on the template, but I know I'll come back to this and play with it more at a later date.

I used the new Decorative Lace Border Die to create some of the trim for my large shoe. I only cut the lower 2/3 of the die, and then cut that further to accommodate the small area of my shoe. The semi-circle design layered beautifully over the lowest portion of the paper lace. 

The flowers were made using Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch Flower stamps and coordinating Posy Patch dies. I stamped the images on pink pattern paper using a medium brown ink (Frayed Burlap distress ink ) and added a little more definition using copic markers.

I stamped, cut, coloured and distressed many little flowers, and the final product is worth every minute of work!

I especially love the richness the velvet trim adds to the shoe. I saw that some of the other design team members used the heel piece on the upper part of the shoe. I suspect they are right and I put mine together wrong, but I do like that my shoe has a heel instead. {*edit* My shoe is put together correctly. I double checked because this was driving me crazy and I used a different template than the rest of the team and their shoe had an upper back while mine had this elegant low wedge heel!} Happy dance - I'm not a putz!

My daughter found the template for this darling little shoe in one of her craft books. Rachel was so excited when I told her we were doing shoes for a project because she remembered this in her "Usborne Activity Book - Princess Things to Make and Do" (ISBN 0 7460 6346 6). This little shoe is only 4" long and would make a delicate addition to a princess party. I think as a party craft it is a little fiddly for small (10 year old) hands and they might have a hard time with the delicate nature of the paper. In more paper crafting experienced hands though, the end result is lovely!

I used the same flowers as for the large shoe, created in the same manner. The green flourish is cut using Parisian Accent Shapeabilities. I used the same taupe pearls as well.

I made my template using tracing paper which enabled me to fussy cut the sole of the shoe. Since this shoe is so tiny, I wanted the pattern on the paper to work harder because I didn't want to lose the delicate shoe design by over embellishing it.

Now, put on your dancing shoes and head over to Lisa Somerville's blog to see another fun pair of shoes!

stamps; posy patch flowers (heartfelt creations)
paper; capella (basic grey), fern, walnut creme (bazzill)
ink; frayed burlap distress ink (ranger)
accessories; parisian accents (spellbinders), post patch die, decorative lace border die (heartfelt creations), taupe pearls (zva), velvet trim (making memories), copic markers