Sunday, May 3, 2015

No outfit is complete without the prefect touch of just sweet!

Did you click on this mirror blog to learn to bake the perfect cupcake? Well, you are in the wrong place.  Make really convincing fake food?  Not quite the right place either. How about creating some sweet faux cupcake high heels, that would satisfy even the pickiest of fairy tales? This place is just right!



Materials:
Heels
Fabric paint (pink)
Paintbrush
Ribbon (white satin)
Ruler
Fabric marking pen
Sewing pins
Needle
Thread (white)
Sewing machine
Scissors
Disposable gloves
Silicon II (white)
Oil paint (pink)
Silicon baking cups (tan)
Piping bag
Piping tip
Disposable plastic container
Plastic knife
Model magic
E-6000
Rhinestones (pink)

Lets start by finding a pair of shoes that's just right.  I choose a pair with a heel that was not too thin, mostly for support and to help minimize the amount of "icing" that had to go on the cupcakes.

Unfortunately, like most of the shoes on clearance at the Glass Slipper, the colour was a total fairy fail!  Easy to fix, don't worry about finding that perfect pink heel.  My heels are fabric covered, so I used fabric paint to get a scrumptious pink.  If your heels are pleather, adjust your materials.  You'll have to do a few coats to cover up the original colour.  I choose not to paint the heels since they will be covered in cupcakes.  Make sure all the coats are thin, or the paint will run the risk of cracking when you wear it, and that's gotta be 7 years of bad shoe luck!

 The next step is to start baking up some cupcakes with a taste that would make only the Candy Witch proud.  Make sure to keep your creations away from any little kids that might mistake your "ingredients" for something they can eat, these treats are quite unhealthy!
Begin by making sure your heels will fit inside the cupcake cups without bending the sides. The heels of my shoes ended up being a bit too big, and my destiny won't allow for that! So I removed the fabric on the heels and sanded the back and sides of the heels till they fit just right. 
Cut a hole in the bottoms of all four cupcake cups and slide them up the heels. You want to place the bottom cup just above the sole. The silicone won't stand up to being walked on, and you don't want to spoil your treats!  Depending on how your shoe is shaped and how high you slide it up, you might also need to cut part of the rim of the top cup off.
It is fairy hard to glue silicone, so make sure the fit is tight to avoid having to do so.

Next you want to fill the cups with some "batter."  You want to use something light weight to fill the space. Starting to see why I choose thicker heels?  I used Model Magic, since it's light and air dries.  These shoes are no bake!  I had to poke holes in the clay to make sure that it dried all the way through since the silicone creates a barrier for the air.

Once my batter had set up it was time to put on those gloves and whip up some "frosting!"  Much like my super sweet 1600 heels, I chose to use silicone II.  Please be wary when using silicone. Use in a well ventilated space, and be careful of any allergies.  Squeeze the entire tube of silicone into a disposable container.  I used two tubes, one for each shoe (though you might want to mix up some extra for practice).  Add some "food colouring" aka oil paint, till the mixture matches the rest of your shoe.  You don't want to add too much paint, it can disrupt the drying process. I find that oil paint mixes more evenly than acrylic, my best guess is because it's not water based.
Once your frosting is all mixed up scoop it into your piping bag.  It's time to decorate!  I would strongly suggest starting on the outside of the shoe working inward. The frosting can get a bit messy when you go to the next layer.  You'll want to put the best side forward.
Set the shoes aside to "cool" overnight.  Make sure they are out of reach of any nursery rhymes, you don't want anyone testing your treats before they are done!
Clean up any smudges after the frosting has dried, otherwise you'll create a fairy big mess!

Next up is the trim around the shoes. If you like, you can pipe this in silicone too, but I personally love texture in my shoes, and doing everything in the same materials can be enough to keep any princess asleep for 100 years.  I chose to use ribbon for the trim.  First box pleat the ribbon.  Grab a ruler and a disappearing ink fabric pen (I hear Kitty has lots of them) and start marking your ribbon. There are lots of great in depth tutorials on the mirror net for box pleats, so I'm not going to waste a chapter on how to make them.  Pin your pleats in place, don't press them.  Use a sewing machine to stitch straight through the middle of the pleats(along the length of the ribbon).  Then take your needle and thread and sew together the tops of the pleats. The top and bottom edges of one pleat are stitched together, the other is the top and bottom edges are sewn down to the center of the pleat. I alternated these two styles for a bit of variety. This technique takes a bit of patience, but its good practice for any damsel waiting for her prince.

 After waiting forever after for your frosting to dry, attach the pleated trim around the shoes. I used E-6000 to glue the trim down.  Then whip up a fake bow using the same recipe as these Apple shoes, but add an extra piece of ribbon folded in half to create the streamers. If your ribbon is synthetic you can burn the edges with a match so they don't fray.  Always be careful when working with fire, you don't want to burn your kingdom down! Attach your bow by sewing it to the pleated ribbon.
For the final touch add some sprinkles.  No fairy tale is complete without sparkle, so I choose to use rhinestones for a more magical touch.  My stones are glass not plastic so I glued them down using E-6000.  If you are using plastic stones use a different glue, E-6000 will melt the backing on the stones.
Set your shoes aside and wait for them to dry.  When the timer goes off in a few hours your shoes will be done!  With that it's time to give your new shoes a "taste" test.  I'm sure you'll find it's a true cupcake walk~




     

2 comments:

  1. you're a genius! this is perfect for a project that I am working on.

    ReplyDelete