I’ve been in a bit of a creative funk lately, feeling like every thing’s been done before and nothing feels new or fresh.  Leave it to a group of amazing 9-18 year olds to totally pump me up and get me so excited about pretty much everything!  I taught an art camp for the past two days to 7 amazing girls that totally rocked my creative world.  They were so energized and full of inspiration.  I mean, look at these Vans they designed!  Holy cow.  I am just totally in awe of how each sneaker looks totally fantastic and different and super freaking cool on every level.  This is something I would totally do again.  Though, I definitely learned a lot through the process so read on so I can save you a bit of shoe designing drama and make this a home run art project for kids every time.

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First of all, this project was originally supposed to be embroidery only.  I had seen these Vans on tumblr and thought, oh yeah, we can totally make those.  The girls were super excited too.  The only thing was, I practiced on my daughters Vans, age 1 and a half, and a bunch of the things that went so smoothly for my trial didn’t go nearly as smoothly for the older kids.  It was really challenging to get the needle far down near the toe for one, and two, the stitching itself caused a bit of a challenge.  Thank goodness I had a plan b, which was to paint the Vans with fabric paint.  Phew, because frustration was rising and I made the executive decision to move to paint.  There were some kids that toughed it out though with the embroidery and I am super proud of them.

The plain white Vans looked awesome and so did a few variations.  We had one pair of converse that were really fun to do because they had so many different parts, and one pair of checkered Vans.  I love the way the paint markers look over the checkerboard.  We used this kind of fabric paint, which worked like a charm and regular embroidery floss you can find at most craft stores or order on sale here .  How cute are these vans for toddlers.  I am so ordering these.  You can buy adult classic white Vans here.

I am in love with those super cool random star constellation sneaks and these cupcakes with embroidered sprinkles are amazing.  These girls literally worked all day on them.  How about a virtual round of applause for these kids?!!  They really hit it out of the park.  I am so inspired.

How about those watermelon and Minion Vans?!  Are they not insane?  I love how kids find the coolest ways to express what they are into.  I have no idea what a minion is to be honest, but I know they seem to be a really big deal to a whole lotta kids out there.  The day and night sneaks are totally amazing too, with each one a different color.  I love all of them!

So, basically, I think these kids are the coolest thing since sliced bread, which you’ll probably hear me saying a lot because we did several amazing things at art camp this week.  I can’t wait to share them with you in the days to come.  Happy Summer!