DIY Marvel Shoes

Here is a fun way to customise your own canvas shoes. Add a unique step to your costume to Comic Con! Be the Flash at the next office party! The possibilities are endless for making a unique pair of shoes that are so totally you!

You will need:

• A pair of canvas shoes
• Painters tape
• Sponge brush
• White gift wrapping tissue paper
• Mod Podge (I used outdoor Mod Podge)
• Waterproofing spray
• Scissors
• Sharp knife
• Your favourite images!

Remove the shoe laces. Begin taping around the rubber on your shoe. Make sure that each piece of tape overlaps one another to ensure that you have it all covered.

You will need to choose a design to put on you shoes. I chose Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and The Avengers. Then you will need to print it out on tissue paper. You will need to print an image for each side of each shoe as well as the tongue and heal strip on both shoes. Make sure that you mirror image the side design of each shoe to ensure it will fit on both sides. If you design has words make sure they are placed after you mirror your image.

Tip for easy printing: Using painters tape, tape a piece of tissue paper on to a sturdy piece of paper such as photo paper and print using an ink jet printer.

Pour some Mod Podge into a small container. Take your sponge brush and apply a generous amount of Mod Podge to ONE side of the shoe. Make sure you cover the eyelets. You must make sure that you cover the seams really well as the tissue paper will not stick otherwise.

Once you have covered one side of the shoe with Mod Podge, you will need to gently place the tissue paper design onto the shoe. Be careful because once the tissue paper touches the Mod Podge it will become wet and rip easily. Make sure you place the tissue paper on quickly, as you want the Mod Podge to be quite wet to ensure that the tissue paper will stick. Press down firmly on the tissue paper. DO NOT RUB the tissue paper on or you will rip it. Let dry for 15-20 minutes before moving on to the next step.

Fun Tip: If you do rip the tissue paper once it is already on the shoe you can take some of the scrap you have and simply Mod Podge it over the rip to repair it.

Once you have let it dry for 15-20 minutes, gently apply a second coat of Mod Podge to the surface of the tissue paper. Let dry 25-30 minute then apply another coat.

You will need to trim the down excess tissue paper using scissors. You only need to leave enough trim to fold over the edge of the shoe and Mod Podge it down.

Repeat steps four through seven for each side of the shoe. Put on several coats of Mod Podge. Let dry completely. Follow the directions on the Mod Podge label. The outdoor Mod Podge recommends three days drying time. However, you do not need to wait this long between coats or doing each side of the shoe.

Following the directions on the can for application and drying time, you will want to have two coats to ensure full coverage. Make sure you do this outside!

Using a sharp knife trim the bottom edge of the tissue paper and remove the tape.

The bottom of the tissue paper may come off the shoe. If this is the case apply more Mod Podge at let it dry completely. Once it is completely dry spray it again with waterproofing spray and let it dry.

Gently poke the laces through the eyelets.

Now you may MARVEL (pun intended) at your wonderfully unique customised shoes!