Shoe Collection? Obsession? Affinity?

I have a serious affinity for shoes*. Cute shoes, sexy shoes, comfy shoes. I joined a Shoe Fetish ATC swap over on SCS. When I signed up I wanted to use my marabou shoe stamp. I can't find it. So I had to re-think my plan. I recently got that polka dotted paper (I totally love polka dots!!) and it makes me think of all things vintage and retro. So I wanted to use it for this project! And red goes so beautifully with cream and black. And I have 2 pairs of red shoes that give me an extra spring in my step when I wear them. I feel incredibly trendy in one pair and totally sexy in the other. If I had red polka dot shoes I'd probably swoon!!

Of course I had to dry emboss the base layer. I used my Swiss Dots cbug folder and then ran my craft white ink pad over them to really make them pop! By this point, I decided to just get carried away with the polka dots. I used a stamp to give my flowers some polka dots and a little touch of ribbon. This is just one of the shoes that I cut out for my ATCs. There was a whole row of 5 all lined up! I just picked my favorite one!! A little torn edge, some inking and overstamping for a slight distressed look! And yes, if I saw a pair of shoes like this I would totally buy them!! ** I hope the rest of the girls in the swap enjoy this ATC as much as I enjoyed making it! I can't wait to see what I get back!!

**Assuming that it came in a size 11. Yes, that's my shoe size. Causes me much grief and angst often I can tell you. I can still clearly see a fabulous pair of shoes that I wanted to buy a few years ago in Chicago. They only went up to a size 10. And trust me, I've tried to wear a 10 - but it's not pretty - so I don't do that anymore! Why, oh why, don't the shoe manufacturers realize that girls with big feet like pretty shoes too? And that we don't all have wide feet? Or want 4" stiletto heels?

*I got a kick out of everyone's comments regarding the various "collections" in my stamp room. I also have a serious shoe collection going on. When I was teaching, it didn't seem to be a problem but now that I'm a work-at-home-mom who lives in bare feet (yes, I prefer to be barefooted in my home) and flip flops these days it seems a little ridiculous. I have gone through them and gotten rid of lots of pairs. But I still have tons. And can't quite bring myself to get rid of them yet. I'm looking for new storage solutions for my vast collection - I'd love to hear how you store your shoes!!