Turn your ordinary, solid-color canvas tennis shoes into colorful and decorative shoes with paint and a little imagination. Fabric paint, sold in any craft store, is inexpensive and easy to use on tennis shoes. You may use one color or a variety of colors and let your creativity take over as you decide how you want to decorate the shoes. This is a way to repurpose old shoes you no longer wear.
1 Cover your work surface and floor beneath you with newspaper to protect it from paint splattering. Arrange the supplies you will need on the newspaper so that they are within arm's reach.
2 Decide which colors to paint your tennis shoes and possible designs or patterns. If you want to paint shapes that are difficult for you to draw like stars, you can use stencils to trace the shapes onto the shoes. Other possibilities include painting stripes to match your favorite outfit or painting the entire shoe one solid color, such as turning a white tennis shoe pink.
3 Sketch your design on the shoe using a pencil before painting. If you are using a stencil, tape the stencil to the shoe before you trace the design. Depending on the type of fabric paint you chose, squeeze paint directly from the bottle onto the shoe, or dip a paintbrush into the paint bottle or container and paint your shoes that way. For letters or more intricate designs, use fabric paint pens that have a fine point.
4 Allow the paint to dry for at least 24 hours before applying more paint over the previous color or wearing the shoes.
