DIY Burberry Tribal High Heels

I recently made my own version of the gorgeous bead embellished heels from the Burberry 2012 Resort collection. I crafted mine by creating beaded embellishments to go over my shoes. This DIY is such a simple way to update your wardrobe - you can even use chains or different coloured beads for a different look.

Wearing: DIY Beaded shoe embellishments, New Look wide heel shoes, tribal mini from Thailand, Country Road singlet, Karen Walker Number One sunglasses.

DIY:

You need - brown and red wooden beads and black string.

1. I strung the beads so that I had two red and two brown strings of beads for each shoe - about 15cm long each.

2. I then tied two of each color together, securing at each end with black string, and then tying that string together in a bow at the back of the shoe. Essentially you will have 'necklaces' of brown and red beads for each shoe.

Voila! The best bit about these embellishments is you can wear them with any shoes, they also look great on some black t-bar flats I have. Instant tribal wardrobe updater.

DIY Gold Ankle Cuffs

These ankle cuffs are so incredibly cool - I'm on a mission to make a pair of my own. I would make sure they were detachable from the shoe so that I could wear them with all different heels. I'm sure there would be something in my local plumbing store that would work... Stay tuned!

Images: Nobody Knows Marc

DIY Glitter Platform Heels

These cool heels from Steve Madden at Nastygal are so fun and oh so disco. Make your own by gluing glitter to the platform part of some heels.

Guest DIY - Kirsten of Studs & Pearls

I'm so happy to have the gorgeous Kirsten of Studs & Pearls as this months Guest Blogger here at A Pair & A Spare. I'm sure you've all seen her amazing DIYs - she is definitely a girl after my own DIY lovin heart. In this guest post she show you how to revamp an old pair of heels with a bit of 70's glamour. Take it away Kirsten!

This DIY includes three of my favorite things - chevron, rose gold, and turquoise. It's super easy to do and is a great way to spice up a pair of plain shoes. The metallic chevron creates a really awesome, eye-catching effect!

You'll Need:
- Shoes of your choice
- Masking tape
- Metallic gold acrylic paint
- Copper or maroon acrylic paint
- Paintbrush
- Scissors
- Leather scraps of your choice
- Glue gun or super glue

1) Cut out two triangles; the size of these will depend on your shoes.

2) Mix UNequal parts gold and copper or maroon.

3) Rose gold is technically gold mixed with copper, but you can get the same shade with maroon.

4) Create a V with the masking tape. This will be your first/outer stripe; make sure the tape is as flat as you can get it!

5) Carefully paint in between the strips of tape.

6) Let dry, and peel off!

7) Making sure the paint is COMPLETELY dry, place a second set of masking tape strips for the second/inner V. This will be much smaller than your first one - I made mine a small triangle.

8) Let dry again, then peel off the tape. Be careful to not peel it too fast, as you might strip off some of the paint from your first V.

9) Glue the pieces onto your shoes! They'll look like a completely new pair.

DIY Studded Pumps

I'm totally lusting over the beautiful studded pumps that Peony made recently. She admitted to getting a helping hand from her bf to do the more technical part of the studding, and I must say I am very prone to getting a hand from my bf when I need a bit of muscle. I hope Peony wears these at some stage during LFW! Am so happy to have inspired Peony to get crafty.

Thrifted Yellow Shoes

Love these cute yellow flats I found at my favourite thrift market on the weekend. For $30 honky. That's about £2.50. Very happy. They are actually Elle magazine brand, umm did they ever even make clothes.

Guest DIY Post: Love Aesthetics Two Tone Platform Heels

Last week I did a profile on the amazing Ivania of the blog Love Aesthetics, and I can imagine you all fell in love with her as much as I did. Well I am soooo excited to share with you a DIY guest post authored by none other than Ivania herself! In this post she shows us how to make an organsm-worthy pair of Jil Sander inspired two tone platform heels. These are definitely on the top of my list, I've seen the Anywho girls wearing shoes similar aswell. If you haven't checked out her blog I would head there quick smart, her style and DIYs are lust worthy. Take it away Ivania!

I found these babies at a secondhand market. Their perfect shape struck me immediately and reminded me of a pair of recent pointy Jil Sander platform heels. Though their silver color in combination with their heel- and platform height made me doubt about the possibility for them to be part of a tasteful ensemble. Did they used to belong to a Spice Girl or a stripper? Yes the shiny silver had to go. Or at least half of it. These heels are made out of a synthetic kind of satin. Special fabric paint would probably work best on cotton, canvas, velvet or any other real fabric coated shoes. For Leather shoes there are special leather paints for sale at any shoe maker. But this cheap material almost feels like woven plastic, a permanent marker was perfect for the job. Permanent marker also works like a charm on faux leather.
How to:
Draw a line along the exact middle of the shoe with chalk. If you have a very steady grip draw along it immediately with the permanent marker. Else you can always stick a piece of tape along the line to avoid making mistakes.  Then fill in all the color, remove the tape and Voila! Two tone heels.
I don’t care to which 1995-stripper, -Spice Girl impersonator or drag queen they used to belong, with this 15 minute alteration they were even good enough to wear to last year’s Amsterdam fashion week!

DIY Glitter Boots

Do you remember me posting a while ago about about the DIY potential of the Giuseppe Zanotti glitter boots? Well, the lovely bloggette of Hoard of Trends has made her own version and they are fantastic! Cheap boots + glitter + glue = amazingness! Why not make a pair yourself?

DIY Zanotti Heels

OM-effing-G I have just come across one of the best DIYs I've seen in a very long time. The lovely bloggette from A Matter of Style let me know about these amazing Zanotti inspired heels she made out of a pair of Primark shoes by drawing up a pattern and cutting them out. Head over to her blog and have a look at a few of her other DIYs, this is one of many.


The inspiration:

 

DIY Shoe Pom Poms

Love these gorgeous pom poms, I think they may be attached to the socks which is pretty cute, but I am keen to make some pom poms and attach them to some high heels.

Image: I Love Wildfox

DIY Orange and Clogs

I just love it! Bodkin SS11 and Knock you for Six.

DIY Tread Heels

Have an old pair of black heels that I was going to throw out, trying to work out how to DIY my own Camilla Skovgaard style tread to add to them. I think I am going to need some boyfriend-style tools, some thick black rubber and some glue?

Image:Searching for Style

DIY Feather Lined Boots

As you may know, I can't go past a pair of shearling lined boots, particularly when they are DIYed. But stumbled upon this image and feel in love with the feather lined boots. so effing cool! Buy some feather trim like this, and either tie it around your ankles underneath your boots with the feathers pointing up, or glue it to the inside of your boots.

I get the feeling that the master DIYers out there who rarely get a mention are the stylists who put together amazing shoots like the one above, and are able to turn a simple outfit into something amazing.

Image: Rackk and Ruin

DIY Shearling Boots

Doing a whip around the blogs this morning stumbled on sooo many good diys! You can't understand how happy that makes me. One particular favourite I found were these amazinggg DIY shearling boots from My Vintage Secret, simply measure up and add some shearling fabric to your flat boots. So easy. This one deserves an award.

DIY Studded Leather Reconstructed Dress

This is the most amazing studded leather dress I have ever seen, is it just me or does fashion just keep moving more and more towards looking like you could do it yourself? The skirt on this dress looks like its been made out of a thriefted leather bomber jacket. I am sure there is A LOT more technique to it than that but it does inspire me to get in and have a go.

Image: Shiny Plastic Hag

DIY's by readers!

So happy to see I've inspired some amazing DIYs out there! Natale Eve of Evelesco has done two fantastic ones, the Chanel cap toe shoes and the Dries Van Noten dip bleach denim.

Dip your denim in some bleach and leave it to dye. Natale Eve learnt that you should dip less than you think you should due to the spreading upwards of the bleach. They look so great don't they?

These gorgeous cap toe Chanel-esque shoes Natale Eve did using some old grey suede pumps and a sharpie pen - perfect!

I love to see I am inspiring you to do some DIY, send me a pic of any of your recent creations.

x

Blogger Ballet at FRAME

The lovely people down at FRAME in Shoreditch invited a few of us along to the launch of their new ballet inspired fitness programme. Ballet (which I turned out to be surprisingly talented at... NOT), lots of wine and a bit of DIYing was on the cards, all of which was right up my alley! The ballet class was great fun but if truth be told a bit of a struggle. My uncoordination, coupled with the fact that all I could think about was a big glass of wine (was a friday afternoon yall) didn't induce in me swan lake style elegance. But it was a serious work out so I definitely would recommend it if you want to tighten those bum muscles. Luckily, said glass of wine was delivered into my grateful hands as soon as the session was over - after which we all sloshed our way through some ballet slipper bedazzlin' (in which I managed to burn my finger on the hot glue gun - not to self don't drink and DIY). Followed up by a boozy burrito binge at brick lane (try saying that 10 times in a row) with the bloggers - all in all a perfect evening. Other than the rain that got me on the way home but thats London isn't it? Thanks to bloggers Shini of Park and Cube, Natalie of That Fashion Student, Jackie of Platform Princess, Kit of Style Slicker, Carrie of Wish Wish Wish, Lucy of Snippets of Shiny Thoughts and Jo of Frame for making it an unforgettable night.

Here's also a few images that sweet little Shini sent through to me of the evening (thanks shini!).

 

wearing: blue denim waistcoat (a pound at a charity shop in the east end), American Apparel Black body, DIYed full mini shirt, Zara black suede thigh high boot.