Tale as old as time...

This was the first pair of non-TOMS shoes I decorated... they were Vans! Painted on the Vans are "Beauty & the Beast" stain glass images. This is NOT my original design... I merely copied it from an existing pair for a friend of a friend who adored the look of the shoes. Here is the site for the original: http://wenuwishuponastar.deviantart.com/art/Beauty-and-the-Beast-Shoes-139375075
The friend found the shoes on tumblr and wanted a similar pair for her birthday, so that's what I ended up doing. :D This was all freehand with pencil, then sharpie, then acrylic paint. I ADORE the original design and the artistic talent of the girl who painted the Beauty & the Beast Vans... I could never replicate something as stunning as the original!

I finally decided to test out my manual setting on my Nikon D3000... the images above are results of my test :)

A purple heart and a red rose

Yet another pair of red TOMS... and with a rose on it, nonetheless! :)

The purple heart with the "love" stitching was a nice touch!

Bringing Hawai'i to California

A Hawaiian-inspired shoe for a friend of a friend. It was for their birthday, so I raced against the clock to finish them! I really loved painting on the hibiscus... the yellow and pink mixed very nicely. :)

This was also the month that I bought my Nikon D3000 SLR camera... I was still testing out the settings, so these pictures I believe are on auto.

Phantom number two

The girl who received the "Phantom of the Opera" TOMS had a friend who wanted the same style, only with giant "P's" on the toes. So that's exactly what I set out to do. :)

Love under the stars

This style was a replica of my original pair, only it was on grey TOMS, set at nighttime, and was on a smaller canvas (the shoe size was a lot smaller!)

The Phantom of the Opera?

I was very surprised when an elementary school girl came up to me and asked if I could decorate her red TOMS "Phantom of the Opera" style. Who knew kids still watched the classics? :)

The red rose was my favorite part to draw on the shoe... the mask definitely was a pain. But it all worked out in the end!

I apologize for the shockingly red color in all the photos... I overexposed the images on accident. hahaha oops!

Grey trees

A simple design of a tree with black sharpie on grey canvas TOMS. I was inspired by the cool, whimsical look of Urban Outfitters that day...

The girl I decorated these TOMS for is named Mikyla-- hence the name written on the side of the shoe. :)

How it all began...

A lot of people ask me how I started drawing on shoes. Well, it all started about a year ago in the month of May. I attended a TOMS "Heart & Soul" festival with my friends at a sister church. There was music, food, and of course, shoe decorating! The church announced that whoever decorated the most creative-looking shoe would win a giant prize! I decided to enter the contest, and decorated a pair of white TOMS. On the TOMS I drew a boy and a girl sitting in a field playing "he/she loves me, he/she loves me not." Soon enough, I discovered that many people liked my shoes! I ended up winning the prize that day, and from then on, whenever I wear my winning pair, people become inspired and ask me to decorate their shoes. It's such a relaxing pastime and I enjoy every second of it!

Here are some recent pictures I took of my original decorated TOMS (sorry, they're a little old & dirty now...):

As you probably have noticed, I got a little lazy with the coloring-- especially in the lines! But I learned to be more careful hahaha :)