1 Month 2 Win It!-Trash to Treasure

Now that the voting is over I can show you all what project was mine for the OMTWI contest.

The first challenge was Trash to Treasure. For this assignment we had to find something that was "trash" meaning at a yard sale, thrift store, the side of the road. . . the options are endless. Then we had to make it into something new. 50% of the project had to be the trash. This challenge was especially hard for me because there are so many options. After going through all the alternatives in my head I decided to go with a project that I have been planning in my mind for awhile. The inspiration for my project were these flower sandals I saw at Anthropology.

Whenever I am feeling I need a creative burst I check out their website. First I went to a few garage sales looking for items I might use on projects when I saw these old silver sandals. They were a little worn and a little boring but in overall good shape.
For the second part of my project I went to the fabric store in search of some distressed leather. When I couldn't find anything I liked I looked at the vinyl. I was a little aprehensive but it was so cheap for the amount I needed I thought I would give it a try. The great thing is it worked beautifully. I just started playing around with the material trying to create different layered flowers. I also tapped into my supplies and used a few decorative brads that I had on hand. Finally I used my trusty hot glue gun to attach all the flowers to the shoes and an amazing creation was born. I think they look very similar to the Anthro ones and at a fraction of the cost. Original Dahlia Dear Wedges $168.00, my version $8. Talk about getting your money's worth with a little creativity and some old shoes.
Honestly if I could do this project again I would have looked a little more for the leather. I found some swatches at Michael's that would have worked really well. The leather is just thicker and gives it a more expensive look and feel.

As for the flowers they are so easy to make. All you have to do is cut out flower shapes decreasing in size and stack them on top of each other. As you can see I went for variety with rolled flowers, stacked flowers, and even used some leather strips sticking out of one of the flowers to create a more dimensional effect. That is the trick adding the dimensions to make the flowers look real. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can sport my new sandals on the town.