DIY Watercolour Sneakers

I’m all about watercolour right now: on my walls, my pillows, my tea towels, everywhere! Personally I’m not all that crafty, and I’m certainly not a great painter by any stretch of the imagination, but there’s something about the forgiving nature of watercolour that makes it feel like something even I can do with a bit of patience. I love sitting down with a pad of watercolour paper and seeing where the colours take me, and more often than not I end up with something simple that I actually really like.

Lately I got to thinking about what I could watercolour other than just pieces of paper, and it turns out adding watercolour flair to fabric is much easier than you think. I toyed with the idea of painting napkins and placemats, but in the end I decided what could be cuter than watercolours that you wear? With the help of painting expert @blousesandhouses, I picked up a few pairs of plain white sneakers and got to work on my next masterpiece: watercolour sneakers.

Scroll down for tutorial

Supplies Needed //

White sneakers

Watercolour paint

Iridescent medium (optional)

Two jars of water

A few paintbrushes

Fabric Medium

Directions //

1. Mix your colours by watering down each shade and testing the colour on a paper towel.

If you want to make a colour shimmery, add a touch of iridescent medium (I did this with

the green and blue for a mermaid-like effect)

2. Start painting your shoes! I like to use a bigger brush to cover more surface area, and

then go in to add details and different colours with a smaller brush, but it’s really totally

up to you.

3. Wait until the paint has dried, then paint over the entire shoe with a mix of 3 parts water

and 1 part fabric medium. This will seal in the colours so they last!

And there you have it- one of a kind shoes that look like you’re walking on a work of art.

Originally published on the Brit+Co site