Paint a pair of white or light pink ballet slippers with the palest shade of green fabric paint. Cover the outside of the shoe but don’t worry about the elastic or the sole. Let the slippers dry.
When the shoes are dry, randomly paint one and two-leaf bud settings here and there on the shoes, leaving the center-front undecorated. Use a medium green fabric or hobby paint for the tiny leaves and dark green for a single vein painted in the middle of each leaf.
Once the painted leaves have dried, glue tiny satin flower buds on them with a glue gun or a spot of fabric glue. Glue an organza butterfly to the front center of the shoes. Let the glue dry. Note that fabric glue can be tricky to work with and can “thread” like a long strand of spider web. Keep an old cloth handy to whisk these threads away to prevent them from sticking to your hands or the shoes.
For a summer camp fairy, paint the ballet slippers bright yellow or leave them pink. Glue a fabric Gerbera daisy or sunflower to the front of each shoe. To add a touch of whimsy, glue a small bee to the center of one flower.
Fall fairies get their colors from the lengthening shadows and the changing season. Paint ballet shoes a shade of lavender or maize and glue one fabric autumn leaf to the center of each shoe. A maple leaf is a good shape for a ballet slipper. These leaves are too large—about 4.5 inches--to glue a scattering of them to a small shoe.
Holiday fairies appear like the snow in winter. Cover white ballet slippers with iridescent white fabric paint. For extra-sparkly shoes, sprinkle white glitter on the wet paint before it dries.
Loosely gather a 1-inch wide strip of ice-blue, red or fir-green net into a flat circle. Use wide stitches on one edge, pull the net into loose gathers and tie the threads together to form the circle. Glue one net circle to the front center of each shoe.
Glue a medium-sized, flat-back, paste diamond in the middle of the colored net. Glue more of the diamonds—smaller ones—randomly around the slippers. Or use a mix of paste rubies, emeralds and diamonds for Christmas colors.