Happy Monday ... again!!
TODAY. IS. THE. DAY!!! Yes ... after a mere ... oh ... 100 hours or so ... I'm FINALLY posting my Christmas Shoe Tutorial. Flippin' Heck!! This project has taken weeks and weeks and WEEKS to bring to you via technology. There were honestly days where I thought I was going to spontaneously combust over things like printers not working, MacBooks not making sense and/or paper not feeding. But I would NOT give up!!! SO! Without further adeau ... I give you ... MY CHRISTMAS SHOE!!!
Aren't these the cutest little gift for teachers, co-workers, friends, neighbours or any female on the planet who is into shoes??!! Perfect!!
Sheesh! Who knew it was so hard to get a good picture of a paper shoe!!! Don't you just love it??!! I obviously do ... or I wouldn't have spent 100 hours on it. Seriously. I'm not even kidding. 100 hours. "Why did it take you so LONG?!" I hear you cry. Well. Let's just chalk it up to learning curves and lack of understanding of computers and how they link to other systems. I made the tag using the My Digital Studio program on my MacBook Air. So right there I had 2 new things to deal with. Then it was a nightmare trying to get the images from point A to point B ... to print on my lousy printer ... and so on, and so on, and so on. Suffice it to say I got 'er done in the end ... and I'm gunna share a picture tutorial with you for assembling the shoe. Yes ... I DID do that already with my Witch Shoe project a month ago ... but I did it again. The original plan was to sell the tutorial. But I think my head might explode by trying to link that all up and have it work ... so the tutorial is free! (woo hoo! Free is my favorite price!) What I AM selling, however, is the PDF file for the stinkin' cute tags ... IF I can get the link working it will be at the bottom of this post. If not then I may just have to do it the old fashioned way - PayPal or e-transfer and a good old e-mail. *sigh* Wish me luck!
So! On with the tutorial ...
The first thing you have to do is print off the shoe base template. Click
here to get the shoe base template. Yes, I spend about 18 hours trying to upload MY base template but I give up ... I just CAN'T get it to post here at the right size to print. This original document came from
www.skiptomylou.org. Just use that one! Next you have to click
here to get the shoe liner template. Yes ... again ... I spent HOURS tweaking this liner document but can't get it to work. I'm done! Use this one ... just know that the part that looks like little airplane wings is slightly too big for my liking. In MY template I shaved off a bit of the rounded section to better fit the base when assembling it. I hate admitting defeat after all my work but sometime ya just gotta cut your losses *lol*. Fingers crossed I can at least get the link to the tag template to work ...
OK - back to our tutorial! You can either print the template directly onto colored card stock and DSP ... not an easy task for older printers that can't handle the thickness of our card stock. If your printer doesn't accept your paper just print the template on copy paer, then trace it with a pencil or Sharpie onto your card stock/DSP.
Once you have your card stock ready to go cut out the templates and score on all of the score lines. NOTE: On the *liner* template I cut off the airplane wings completely - this makes it fit the base a lot easier. I recommend you do the same. This also helps save DSP ... you will notice that I used the DSP from the Season of Style paper Stack ... which are only 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" sheets ... you use a lot less DSP by cutting off those wings!
Fold on all the score lines inward:
Now attache sticky strip (or tombow glue) to three spots on the Cherry Cobbler shoe base:
Ok ... you can't really see where the tape is in that shot so here's another pic with silver strips pointing the sticky strip:
**Make SURE you put the glue / sticky strip close to the edge. If you don't then your shoe will have little flaps once assembled and you don't want that - you want a nice, tight adhesion ...
Start assembling the base with the heel. Remove the top layer of sticky strip on the long part of the heel. Line up the edge of the right flap of the heel with the fold line on the left flap of the heel. Once in position squeeze that sticky strip tight for a nice, tight seal ...
Next we adhere the small flap of the heel. Same as above - remove the top cover from the sticky strip and adhere the edge of the sticky flap to the fold line of the other flap ...
Now we need to secure the sole of the shoe to the rest of the shoe. For this I find the tombow glue to be the most forgiving and the least fiddly. Apply glue to the one flap of the sole ...
... then add glue to the other flap of the sole ...
... then press the sole into position. You need to be a little careful at this point. You have some time before the glue dries so don't panic ... but don't doddle too long either. You want to make sure the flaps are secure but you also want to make sure there are no gaping holes when you turn the shoe over. You'll know what I mean when you make one yourself. Essentially, if you push the sole down too far it will create a gab right at the *bend* of the shoe sole. Try not to get a gap. It's not the end of the world if there IS a gap but it just looks better if there isn't.
Here is what it looks like glued:
... and the other side ...
Now attache the DSP sole to the Cherry Cobbler sole (just using snail):
Attach the sides of the liner as well ...
Now we stick the toe piece together. Same as before ... remove the protective strip from the sticky strip...
... and attach it to the fold line on the other side of the shoe ...
Ta Da! You have a shoe!!
Make a bow (I used 10" of the Gumball Green ribbon) - attach it with a glue dot and add a large rhinestone for the final touch!
The shoe fits a nail polish and a nail file.
For packaging I bought some small gift bags from my local craft store (... it just MIGHT be that store that starts with an "M" ...)
... the bags are too long for my liking, but I needed this size so that it was wide enough for the shoe ... and the bags have that extra flap at the bottom so the bag is *deep* enough for the shoe. Make sense? No? Don't worry about it. Just trust me and buy the bags :)
The final FINAL touch, of course, is the tag:
"Just a Little Something for your Mistle-Toes".
Now ... let's see if this PayPal Button thingy works! If all goes to plan ... you click the button, send me the whopping amount of $3.00 Canadian and an e-mail with a PDF file will HOPEFULLY magically be emailed to you. Well ... we'll see about that ... any guinea pigs out there want to test-drive the button??!! Here we go .....
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