Bonus Post! Upgraded Dollar Store Flip Flops

So I was out shopping today with a friend, and we were admiring all the fun little shoes, clothes, etc. at the boutique shops.  The only thing we couldn't admire was the prices!  I love the look of the items, but I just can't bring myself to pay the prices when I know that my kiddos are going to grow out of them or wear them out in about 3 months.  So today I was inspired to make my daughter a cute ribbon wrapped pair of flip flops for much cheaper than I saw at the store.  The ones I saw had ribbon wrapped around the straps then a bow made out of matching ribbon at the toe.  I knew I wouldn't be able to replicate it exactly (bows are so not my forte), but I though I could make something similar that was fun and my daughter would like.  It only ended up taking some ribbon, flip flops, 3 different colored pieces of tulle, and a glue gun.

After picking her up from her MDO, we went off to the dollar store where we found some flip flops in her size with multi-colored peace signs on them.  My daughter is a little obsessed with peace signs because her Grammy, my mom, is also a little obsessed with peace signs (teenager of the 70s) and passed that on to my daughter.  So when I saw the peace sign flip-flops, I knew they would be the ones. 

I then let her choose from a couple different ribbons of matching colors to wrap the straps in.  She chose pink (of course), so I set to work.  I recommend starting by hot gluing the ribbon to strap then wrapping it around and regluing it to the ribbon to make sure it stays.  The hot glue comes off the rubber strap pretty easily.  I then wrapped it around, gluing it to the previous ribbon each time.

I made sure to put half the glue on the ribbon and half on the strap.  I also applied the glue to the backside of the strap so any extra glue could not be seen from the outside.  I kept warping until I reached the end of the other side, finishing by gluing ribbon to ribbon.

To finish it off, I grabbed a couple colors of coordinating tulle to tie around the tie instead of a bow.  Again, I am definitely not a bow maker. :)  I tied on piece to one side of the toe and another to the other side.

I then took a piece of black tulle and tied it around both the other pieces of tulle.  I took some scissors and cut it down, so it would be just little puffs of tulle at the toe.

End result, while not as nice as the ones in the store, I ended up with a pair of flip flops that my daughter was able to pick out and help make herself.  She loves them, and even if they fall apart in a week (hopefully not) I only paid a $1 for it b/c I already had the ribbon and tulle. :)  Fun project to do with your kiddos (minus the glue gun) that they can proudly wear later.