shoes surgery

[carcamella.livejournal.com]

i'm in the process of reconstructing some ugly old sandals. they used to be a beloved pair of leather sandals until i wore them through the rain and ruined the leather, then attempted to beautify them again in a delirious late-night crafting frenzy about a year ago, the disastrous result of which you can see in the linked photo...

anyway, i just dug these out of a box and thought i'd attempt some hardcore reconstruction. i saw that the straps were attached with some long-toothed staples, so i pried them out and now this is what i've got:



i plan to make new straps out of some pretty upholstery fabric samples i picked up at the interior design store and staple those on, and to give the rest of the shoe a fresh paint job to cover up some sad scuffs (all one, premeditated color this time). so my question is this: does anyone have suggestions for what kind of paint i should use? i'm pretty sure acrylic or craft paint would be a bad idea. or maybe not, as long as i used a kind of varnish? enamel? can someone recommend?

i checked the memories, and it appears that the community custokicks would have been the perfect place to ask this question, but it seems to no longer exist.

thanks in advance!