Book offers hints for turning plain shoes into fancy footwear

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Ah, the shoes. In the fashionable stores and magazines, they look more like art.
They are in gloriously printed fabrics. They are lace-trimmed, hand-painted and glitter-drenched. They sit on platforms as if posed in a museum. You look at them and then down at your own dusty loafers. You feel like Cinderella left home to sweep the hearth.
How do you step out from the crowd in the slipper category?
The answer is in a how-to paperback book called "A Closet Full of Shoes" (Sterling Publishing Co., $14.95). It's about how to transform your footwear into something different.
It's produced by Utah-based Jo Packham and her daughter, Sara Toliver, who are involved in crafts book publishing and home decor.
The idea makes sense. People are feverishly knitting and crocheting. They are designing handbags on their own. And customization is an obsession of this decade.
The authors maintain you can do it on the cheap. Stock up on art supplies such as paint, silk flowers, industrial strength adhesive, rhinestones, glass beads, buttons and iron-on appliques. Thrift-shop shoes make good basic subjects. Old jewelry is good for trimmings. Examples in the book range from garish and tacky to oh-wow and elegant.
No one at the party will have on your shoes. Just try not to stare at your feet all night.