How to: customise shoes

I spotted these customised boots over on Fashion Toast and it got me thinking just how easy it can be to transform a pair of run-of-the-mill, high street shop bought shoes into something really quite special. In this case, a pair of boots from Zara were customised quite painlessly by their owner, who spent a leisurely evening fixing on the studs 'while watching Gossip Girl and Heroes' with her boyfriend.

Follow the jump for more simple shoe customisation ideas

Canvas shoes lend themselves well to being painted, and there's no limit to the designs you can put on a pair of sneakers. Once you've got your idea ready to go, you'll need some acrylic paints and a bit of varnish to coat your design to ensure it doesn't wash off in the rain. There's a great video tutorial here on how to paint up a pair of ballet flats resulting in original, funky, patterned shoes that will have Converse's designers out of a job!

• Kids' shoes often come in plain canvas colours, and are crying out to be made more fun. I love this simple ladybird pattern (pictured) from Just Deanna, who has many more ideas here.

• Want to take your favourite cult TV show with you everywhere? Why not paint on a character with acrylics? That's what Kelly_bear did with her 'exterminate' Doctor Who shoes, here.

But don't think you have to stop at sneakers. If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, why not customise a pair of heels? For inspiration, check out Miss Bunny's Etsy shop. She adds features to shoes that could turn you into a walking work of art. To see a full range of her designs, go here.

Looking closely that the labels, you can see that many of these hugely desirable shoes started life as very cheap high street basics. Take these, which were bought at Primark, for example. But with a few scraps of felt, buttons, some glue, paint and other embellishments, these become instant collectables!

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