When I heard that Kate Spade was teaming up with Keds I knew there had to be a polka dot number in the mix and to my delight there was!

{Kate Spade Keds}

I loved them, but I couldn’t justify $75 for a pair of Keds. What’s a girl to do? Figure out a way to make her own.

Supplies:
I picked a pair of canvas sneakers aka Keds look a likes at Payless. Only $14.99 and not only do they have black and white, but a fab array of summer inspired colors like orange, lavender and mint green. I found the Sharpie paint pens at JoAnns for $3.99, but they are available online here for $1.70. In order to get perfectly shaped dots I needed a pencil and Martha Stewart’s multi surface craft paint in a midnight blue.

Step 1: Paint the pink border on the out sole of the sneakers. The sneakers already has grooves all throughout the out sole so it’s very easy to take the paint pen and fill it in. No need to use painters tape.

A slip of the hand might happen, but don’t stress. It’s easy to clean it up with some paint thinner.

Step 2: Apply paint to eraser. I just dipped the eraser in a bit of paint and made sure not to overload it. I didn’t want excess paint to spill out of the edges when I pressed down on the canvas. The best part about polka dots is that you can free hand the pattern and apply as many or as little as you like.

Step 3: A small paintbrush will help you fill in the paint if you have canvas showing through some of your dots. I only found this that this happened a once or twice per shoe. So it wasn’t time consuming to fill in some dots.

Step 4: It’s all about the details. Use your paint pen to make your shoe lace ends pink like our inspiration keds.

Step 5: Such stylish kicks deserved to be paired with a dress instead of jeans or work out clothes.

Close up of sneakers:

This project was so easy and fast to do and it came in around $20 for all supplies.

I’m adding these babies to the summer soiree linky party! Have you added anything to it yet?