mod sunburst mirror (size large)

Hey everyone! This is my final official entry in this season's So You Think You're Crafty? competition. I'll get a full tutorial up eventually (because this project is not only easily adaptable to a variety of supplies, but is also, dare I say, lovely), but in the meantime, you can read here, in its perfectly formatted entirety, the project I posted there last week. Thank you a million times for your votes and your support, those of you who voted and supported. It was a wild competition!

When I first saw the theme for this week back in December, I knew right away what I wanted to make. Metallic? Check. Shine? Check. Glitter? . . . well, I left out the glitter, but I think I used enough metal to make up for it (and like my husband's always saying about his motorcycle, "It's not glitter; it's metal-flake"). My choice was obvious: A large mid-century modern sunburst mirror.

I lucked out and scored the abandoned, gold-colored aluminum tent poles for $3 at the same rebuilding store (shout out, again, to Bring!) where I found the 75-cent, 4-inch convex mirror and the two light fixture bases ($1 and 50 cents, respectively). It's just that I found them several weeks apart, when I was sure my project was doomed and I wasn't at all sure what I was looking for. Sometimes projects just come together that way.

My project is the result of some amazingly lucky finds (and is nearly two feet across, at its widest point), but this is a pretty versatile project. My tutorial will show you how to make it using dowels, chopsticks, twigs, etc. Everyone can make their own huge mod sunburst mirror! If, like a magpie, you love things shiny, give it a vote!

 

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all - stars

I found a little pair of Chuck Taylor's at the thrift store which were just the right size, but not the right color. We don't really wear much pink around our house, so I made them into these sweet little day-and-night Chucks for my kiddo as a Christmas present:






These were in practically new condition, as lots of second-hand kids' things are. You can see how the inner soles look pristine.




Even the laces were still pretty new-looking.




Enter Tulip Soft Fabric Paint.


(photo credit)


They come in teensy little one-ounce bottles, which is plenty for little projects like this one, with enough leftover for a bunch more projects. I bought four colors (Yellow, Glacier White, Marine Blue, and Platinum Metallic) for a little over a dollar each; I had the turquoise color left from those baby onesies I painted awhile back. You could also use regular craft acrylic paints; they're colorfast, too, but can be a little stiff. These come out nice and flexible, which is great for stuff kids are going to wear.

First, I painted one shoe solidly Turquoise for the "Day" shoe. I let it dry for about an hour, then added some puffy white clouds with the Glacier White and a tiny little bird with the Marine Blue.




Next, I used the Yellow to turn the "All-Stars" logo into a little sun.




For "Night", I painted the other shoe in Marine Blue, with accents of the Turquoise for depth and the appearance of galaxies.




Using the Glacier White, Yellow, and Platinum paints (alone and in combination) I dotted in stars of varying sizes, and painted in some starbursts, dashed lines (resembling those on a star map), and a little moon near the logo.




My little dude looks pretty darn cute running around in them.







This is a really fun project that can turn out to be pretty time consuming, depending on the complexity of your design. On the other hand, if you were to start with a pair of shoes that was already some shade of blue, it would go faster.

You can also adapt this project for a ton of other designs, as this company does. How well they turn out will totally be dependent on your artistic ability, but a simple Day-and-Night design should be pretty easy to accomplish with decent results.

Total project cost here was under ten bucks, including the sneakers ($4) and paint ($4.50, with lots left over).


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)


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