In case you couldn’t already tell, I’m very excited about this one.  I have been L-U-S-T-I-N-G over a pair of booties I found a while back.  The original pair I found were black, but there was a brown option as well.  BOTH were kind of amazzzinggggg.  However… not amazing enough to spend $375 on a pair of shoes.  Sorry.  No can do.  SO….  for the newest DIY I have created my own pair.  I hope you like them and I hope this will inspire you to create a pair too!!

To begin with, I have to admit… I went to the local thrift store and my SISTER had a HUGE find.  She found this pair of boots, unworn, with the tags still on!!  For a whole $8!  Unlucky for her (but so damn lucky for me) they were not her size.  But they were my size!!!  You know how I love a good thrift store find.  Especially when I can see the ‘end product’ in my head and I have no fear of messing up because the purchase price was so cheap.  But anyway… here are the $8 boots:

To begin, I used a pair of cut-through-any-crap pair of scissors and literally just chopped off the top of the boot.  I wasn’t too concerned about a straight line, because in my mind the more ‘jagged and roughed-up’ the better.

Then I grabbed a pocket knife and just rubbed it back and forth along the tops of the boots .  The more patience you have for this, the better.  Because… (like I said before) the more roughed up and jagged, the better.

Earlier in the morning I had made a stop at the local arts and crafts store, and picked up an assorted bag of brown leather strings.  I also found these bronze/gold chains in the sale section.  I figured the more ‘bling’ the better, so why not.  The cross chains I found in the sale section of “Claire’s” accessory store.  Apparently these aren’t in style anymore and they HAD to get rid of them.  So… one by one I just started tying all of my bling around the cut off boots:

I was a littttttle concerned about the chains moving around when I walked, so I added a little bit of hot glue in areas that wouldn’t be too noticeable, just to hold them in place.

Once I had all of the ‘bling’ added, the boots still didn’t look ‘roughed up’ enough.  So… I brought out my trusty flat black spray paint.  A quick spritz or two around the areas that needed to look worn in added just the right touch:

I even added a few ‘spritzes’ in the areas where I had added a bit of hot glue, and it did a great job of hiding the glue!

Voila!