Painted Watermelon Shoes

Nothing screams summer quite like a nice juicy slice of watermelon. To celebrate National Watermelon Day today, I’ve created a fun way to show off my love of watermelons: Watermelon Shoes!

These shoes are so freaking cute and are such a fun way to liven up a fun summer dress. Since I had white shoes and Rit Dye on hand, I hand dyed my shoes, but you can easily do these with pink or red tennis shoes and save yourself a lot of time (but it is fun to use Rit Dye!).

Some words of caution: make sure you wear gloves when using Rit Dye, as the water you’re using is HOT and the dye will color your skin. Also, be aware that the Rit Dye might also tint your plastic container. If you’re using another brand of dye, just make sure you read the instructions on how to use and set the dye to get the best life out of your dyed shoes!

Painted Watermelon Shoes

Materials:

• White tennis shoes
• Rit Dye in Scarlet Red
• Plastic or latex gloves
• Plastic container
• Masking tape
• Craft Smart Paint in Apple Tart
• Craft Smart Paint in Black
• Craft Smart Paint in White
• Mod Podge
• Paint brushes

Directions:

1. Remove the laces from your shoes. Prepare your Rit Dye following the instructions on the bottle. I added a teapot full of boiling water to my plastic container and then added about ½ the bottle of Rit Dye. I mixed the two together for a good 2 minutes before dunking in my shoes.
   
2. With your gloves on, dunk your shoes bottoms up into the dye mixture. It’s ok if the bottoms, sides, and insides get dyed; we’re gonna paint over the sides and you won’t see the insides! Once your shoes are completely covered in the dye, let them sit on a piece of aluminum foil or an old cloth for about 5 minutes.
3. The darkness of the red will fade as the shoes dry, so if you want a deep red shoe, dip your shoes in the dye again. I wanted a pink color to mine so I stopped after one dip (this is how they looked after one dip…but once they dried, they were the pink in the picture shown above).
   
4. When your shoes are the color you want, let them dry completely (overnight is best).
5. Before painting my shoes, I wanted to set the dye and remove any excess. This is optional, but be aware that your shoes might bleed onto your socks/feet if they get wet. To set the dye, you can wash your shoes in the washer/dryer (by themselves unless you want pink laundry!), or you can set up a little bath of warm water and detergent and hand-wash your shoes, which is what I did. I washed them, moving them back and forth in the soapy water, for about five minutes…then rinsed them clean. Let your shoes dry completely before moving on to painting.
6. To create a clean white line around your shoes, use masking tape to mark off about ¼ in. around each shoe. Using a brush and the Apple Tart paint, paint one coat of green under the masking tape. Let dry about 10 minutes. Paint second coat. Carefully remove tape and let dry.
   
   
7. So when I colored my shoes, the sides and tops of the rubber siding got a little tinted…so I decided to paint over it with white paint. I cleaned up the line around the shoe and painted over the top rubber toe. This is optional if your shoes remained a nice shade of white.
8. To seal the paint, I covered all the painted areas with a coat of Mod Podge. This also adds a nice shine to your shoes! Let dry.
9. Finally, using a small brush and your black paint, paint on your seeds. You can arrange them however you’d like. If you don’t feel comfortable using a brush, you can also draw your seeds on with a Sharpie marker.
   
10. Lace up your shoes and you’re ready to rock your watermelon kickers!
    

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.