DIY~I strassed my own wedding shoes using genuine swarovski crystals and saved a TON of money!

Esther is apparently VERY good with her camera too. What professional looking photos!

WOW! I could never DIY that much. I did my hair accessory and our cake topper and thought the stress would end me. . . those are awesome shoes though, now you have me thinking I should do something with crystals to my ballet slippers. . .

These pictures look very familiar... Oh wait... Lookie here...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76800065/strassingadding-genuine-swarovski?ref=sr_list_4&ga_search_submit=&ga_search_query=Strassed&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

Oh wow. thanks for finding that, ap. i feel kind of dumb now. =\

No worries! Not dumb at all... I opened this with total excitement because I am going to give this ago (a much cheaper route) to try and create zebra print shoes that dont have a 6in heel. I was hoping someone had really tried it and could give me some pointers...blah

@ Kimi

I actually strassed the entire shoe and the bows myself. I know which shoes you are talking about though, because those are the ones I originally fell in love with.

@ Future Mrs. K & Candice, "Strassing" really isn't a word that is defined in the dictionary, but it is more like a term that was coined by the crystal companies, and has evolved to take on the meaning of "crystalizing" something over time.

@Meghan B. your comment is rude and that was totally unnecessary. Also, just so you know, I am not the first person to have done this. There are people who actually turn this into a business (http://sophie-and-ava.blogspot.com/). They strass REAL CLs (look through the blog). The original shoes that I fell in love with are the CL Aurora Borealis, but they cost over $3,000, which is a lot, even for me.

I work hard for my own money between my teaching job and my tutoring business, but I also am helping my parents out and they're not paying for anything in my wedding...(cont.)

Im a little upset I wasnt the first one to call BS.

@ap zebra print shoes with crystals? that'll look freakin awesome. (: you mean like creating the zebra print with two different crystal colors?

Umm if you google Christian Louboutin encrusted silver Pigalle Pumps it's the exact shoe. I know my designers and I am very familiar with this particular shoe. I just have a really hard time believing you did anything more than put the bows on the shoes.

I'm not trying to call anyone out or be a b*tch... (this is my last post) If you did honestly make them dyi style that's fantastic. It just didn't make much sense to me why she'd buy a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes to basically glue crystals on them.... when the reason why she did the craft to begin with was because you couldn't afford them. (doesn't really add up) I've seen dyi shoe projects - most of them come out looking beautiful... but I've never seen one to come out looking identical to what a designer created.

At Kimi--- thats my feeling exactly. I wouldnt buy one Louie just to hot glue and destroy the value of it just to make it 'look like" another one. idk maybe thats just me

(cont. from previous post but i ran out of space)

so I need to save money where I can. Saving the $2,500 or so for not getting the originals and just buying the crystals and similar styled CL shoes (in terms of shape) and just adding the crystals myself is a big deal.

ALSO I am somewhat offended, but also somewhat flattered I guess that you guys think I'm making this up. FYI @ A P., that Etsy ad is mine. My "nick" that I use a lot is EEHKAY which is a way of spelling out my initials phonetically (E.K.) If you don't believe me, you can actually go to my website, www.eehkay.com, which has my pictures and other DIY projects I did.

AND for those of you who want to know what to do, I used five sizes of crystals~

5ss

7ss

9ss

12ss

20ss

I also used the e6000 glue, a glue syringe, a skinny stick, and some wall-mount tacky that I stuck on the stick to pick up each rhinestone with. You use the syringe to lay down the glue, and then you pick up each rhinestone with the stick and place it on the glue. E6000 is great, but the fumes are toxic so this should be done in a well-ventilated area.

It does take some practice at first, so you might want to test it out on some blanks first. The swarovskis are cheapest on Firemountaingems.com from what I've seen online, but if you live close to LA you might want to drive down to fashion district to by them instead since there are a lot of places there that sell these crystals en masse.

Yes Bre, that's what I'm aiming for, but I'm going to start with shoes fromWalmart

And about 7,000 crystals total doing this project. It took me 40 hours to do the pair of shoes, and about 15 hours for both of the bows.

Also, be aware that cheaper shoes are going to lead to more pain throughout the evening. The ONLY reason I went with the CLs was because I was originally going to do some Stuart Weitzmans (which are still sort of expensive but not as much) but when I tried them on I found they hurt my feet a lot so I went and tried on the CLs and found they were a lot better. It's my wedding, I work hard for my money, and I'm paying for this stuff on my own...my parents aren't helping me out at all. I'm also buying my mom a St. Johns outfit to wear at my wedding, so it's more like a once-in-a-lifetime indulgence thing.

Your site (eehkay.com) doesn't work..

I'M not trying to be rude... but you can stop braggin about your money now im pretty sure everyone workds hard for their money

@MuWA - Take out the comma at the end and it works.

OH DUH..LOL

Lol I didn't think it worked at first either!