Princess Kim and the Magic Red Slippers

nce upon a time, there lived a little girl named Kim.

She was so tiny that her Granny called her "little bit", for little bit of nothin! She was tiny. Teeny Tiny.
Why she was no bigger than a minute!
But she had a very big heart and it was full of love  and  joy and  she was happiest when she was sharing  bits of that with everyone she met!

She was blessed by the fairies, or so they say, when still in her crib. They came early one morning and sprinkled just a glimmer of pixie dust down on her upturned face. That was when she began to sparkle & shine.

As Kim grew up she learned to find beauty in the world around her and collected some of the treasures she found. Rocks with mica that caught her eye and tiny pine cones and dried clover blossoms, sticks with moss and lichen, buttons and broken pieces of rusty metal were safely kept in a shoe box under her bed.

She loved to read books and could often be found with her nose stuck in one after her chores were done.

Well, sometimes, even when her chores weren't finished she would run off down to the creek and sit on an old stump where the moss was soft and imagine herself in far-away lands where elves and pixies danced in daylight and sipped tea with her from acorn cups.

She had an imagination as big as her heart!

When she grew old enough to go to school she started to learn about Art and something called Crafts and then her spirit truly soared and she was happy all the time.
Cutting paper and gluing bits together; adding a button or a bit of glitter to her creations just made her laugh and giggle as she would run to show her Grandmother.

  One day when she was down by the creek, collecting Queen Anne's Lace, a wild-flower that grew like a weed, she came across a tiny fellow smaller than a blue bird!

At first she was puzzled. How could this be?
Then she looked closer and sort of remembered seeing this fellow before in a dream. Or at least she thought it was a dream. He sat on the leave of a tiger lily and began to tell her a story of when she was born and how she was really a princess of the Elves and had been taken from them by her Father who was only trying to make her Mother happy because they had never had any children of their own.

That explained some things that had always made her wonder. Like why her Mother would hold her so tight that sometimes she was afraid it would crush all the bones in her body! Or why she always got cookies and treats after school and cinnamon sugar toast for breakfast when all of her friends had to wait for their birthdays or after they made good grades. Little Kim was treated like a Princess because She Was!!! Well, this was fabulous news! Now her heart was almost ready to burst with JOY!!! She would have to do something very special to show her Mother and Father how very much she loved them and how thankful she was for the happy life they were giving her.

She remembered when her cousins came to visit and her Mother told them a story about when she was a girl and how she had passed by a Shop with her own Mother (while visiting Paris, France) and had never forgotten the lovely red slippers that she had seen in the window.

She often dreamed of them and had never forgotten the wistful longing she held. That's it! That's what I'll do, crowed Kim to the little Elf friend!!! I'll make Mother a pair of darling slippers so that she will be as happy as I!!!! The little Elf smiled and said- I have friends who would love to help!

So, they went to work right away and as the days followed nights it became winter.

Jack Frost came and covered everything with a blanket of snow.

The rabbits hunched down in their cozy burrows.

Kim worked hard  and soon she had completed a pair of red  slippers, sparkling with glitter and adorned with velvet ribbons. She hid the slippers under her bed after carefully wrapping them in tissue.  Oh, Mother will be so happy Kim thought. She put on her coat to go with everyone to fetch the Christmas tree. She had an idea.

She would wait until Christmas Eve and then place her red slippers on the tree. Wouldn't her Mother be surprised? She could hardly stand the suspense! It would be difficult to hide her secret present but she would try. She loved the Holidays and baked cookies and pies with her Grandmother and delivered gaily wrapped packages to the neighbors who always had something small and sweet for her.

Her friends and cousins would often come over for steaming mugs of hot chocolate and they would build snowmen and have outrageous snowball fights!

The boys against the girls of course! The boys always threw so hard- thank goodness their aim was bad!!

Finally it was Christmas morning and Kim ran downstairs to see the tree.

She could hardly believe her eyes!

The tree was covered in hundreds of pairs of sparkling red slippers!

The pair she had made  were at the top hung to the star and the glitter caught the light and sent sparkles shooting all over the room!

The rest of the tree was filled with dazzling shoes too!

They were tiny and perfect and tied with ribbon to every branch!

Tears of wonder shone in her Mother's eyes as she turned to Kim and asked: " Did you make these for me?" Kim ran to hug her Mother and said "Yes! With a little help from my friends."

  They all danced around the tree and everyone lived happily ever after.

Well, at least until Princess Kim turned 16 and encountered a wicked old witch who cast a spell on her true love, but that's another story!!!!

If you would like to create your own pair of red slippers you may use this pattern to do so.
Print the pattern out and then cut out.
Trace on to chipboard or a lid from a coffee can to make a template.
I recycle Sadie's dog bone boxes by opening them up and using the inner side to draw patterns.
I used watercolor paper as a base and you can paint it or cover it with decorative paper before hot gluing the top of the slipper to the sole.
Punch a hole in the heel of slipper. After they are dry they will become very hard and can be hung with a ribbon through the hole.

Coat with thin layer of Elmer's and sprinkle on some glitter.
I love glass glitter and how the silver tarnishes over time.
Use what you have and decorate it with a pompom, paper rose, yoyo or button.
Hang from your tree and tell your kids the story of how Calamity Kim found out she was a real Elf Princess a long time ago.
Click here for the pattern