Pretty Me up//DIY Notepads (For Stylish Doodlers!)

When I tailored my newest paper & digital crafting collection, I knew exactly what project I'd design with it: My own notepads! I can never get enough of notepaper, being both a blogger and and architecture student, my mind tends to over produce random chunks of crappy, lopsided ideas that need to be polished (preferably in journals) to make some sense and land over here on the blog. So notepads (and the cutest ones too) were such a welcome addiction addition. Besides, these make just the prettiest desk accessories I can vouch for and even prettier gifts for friends!

Here's a tiny secret I'll share today: whenever I get an idea, I make sure it's not already out there and raved about on the blogosphere. Even if it's original in my head, someone may think I ripped it off. (Has this happened to you too? :| ) When I do recraft someone else's ideas it's either because I wanted to test it out or because I loved it to the moon. (design-function wise, in which case, I provide credit). That's how this DIY really got to here, I found that most other notebook tuts were actually about customizing them rather than making them-from scratch. (which is as easy as customizing them!)

The collection is now available at my store for two bucks (really!). I used three sheets from the collection for this project.

Materials:
-A4 sized paper (18-20) sheets.
-White/cream colored cardstock
-Scissors, a ruler and a pencil
-Modpodge (matter)PVA glue
-Washi Tape (optional)
-Pretty scrapbooking paper (I printed out mine from my Candid Springs collection)

Instructions:

1. Align all the A4 sized sheets in a stack. Decide the size you want your printed decorative paper to be. I printed out mine to be 4 inches by 5.5 inches (for reference) and place one atop the stack of A4 papers.

2. Using a pencil and a ruler, mark out the boundary of the decorative paper onto the A4 stack. Since my decorative paper came to be roughly 1/4th of the A4 sheet. I divided the A4 sheet into 4 sections.

3. Use a scissors and something (like binder clips or clothespins) to temporarily keep the papers from going haywire while you cut through. Cut along the four divisions you made with the pencil so that you get four individual smaller stacks of paper each the size of your decorative paper.

4.Cut cardstock the same size as the decorative paper to act as the backing for the notepad.

(Since I used three sheets of decorative paper, I made one notepad thicker than the rest by using two of the four papers stacks combined for my thicker notepad.)

5.Align the paper stacks, the decorative paper and the cardstock (so that the paper stack is sandwiched between the deco paper and the cardstock) and along one of the shorter sides, apply a generous amount of modpodge. This is like the spine of your notepad.

6. Allow to dry. When dry, reapply a thin layer, cut washi tape to the size of the spine and apply over. Let dry again.

Finished! Now you can hopelessly romance with these pretty gifts.

If the process sounds complicated, it's actually not. I daresay it'll be done in 10-15 minutes (yes, all three of them including the drying time!). Three-gorgeous- notepads to let your creativity let lose in a jiffy! ;)

A closer look. ^ :) Here's a preview of the collection you can download the papers from at my online store.

Like it? Pin it! You can also find tons more stylish DIYs in my DIY gallery here!
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Till then, have a great weekend, hugs and ciao!
Nash

The Decorista Chronicles//DIY Ring Box!

You know those gorgeous ring boxes you see in stores? Maybe you won't be seeing them just in stores anymore....just maybe...if you're a jewelry junkie, you probably need a quick, glitzy way to organize those pretty jewels a-a-a-and.... here's the ultimate solution (and you wouldn't believe what it is) that I came up with!It fits in quite an array of rings and eartops and looks the cutest ever atop your vanity. Also a fabulous way to gift it to someone. For the full instructions, drop over at Laurel's cute craftspirational blog: A Bubbly Life to see my guest post!

Hungry for more DIY?

You can also check out my DIY Gallery here!

Take care,
XOXO, Nash

Inspiration Nation//Transfer images on fabric!

So I've been on this crazy wild chase to get the newest designs from my collection printed on fabric. All was grand and lush till I realized I've never done fabric printing before (painting, sure but printing? Whoa, hold up right there!). So here's your basic tut for printing out those cutesy images you own or have designed like me onto fabric. All you need is a glob of modpodge, wax paper (optional),foam brushes, your fabric and the printed paper the design of which you want to print on your fabric.

Easy enough? Let's get started!

MATERIALS:

Modpodge (matte and gloss)

Printed image (I used Inkjet)

Fabric (any will do. I used white cotton)

Paintbrushes/foam brushes for the modpodge

Sponge

A bowl of water

Wax Paper, optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Begin by laying out the wax paper to protect your work surface from the gooey sticky mess of the modpodge. For the first round, I'm using the matte version of modpodge. Have the image side of the paper facing you and dunk it in a whole lotta modpodge. Do nice, even strokes and you need to put a "thick" layer. When you're done, the colors of the original image should hardly peek through.

2.When you're done, gently lift the paper off the wax paper and put the image side down facing the fabric. The blank side should face you know. Leave this to dry a day.

3. 24 hours later, you should find the whole fabric-image combo stiff because the glue has dried. You'll now wet the sponge with some of the water and gently press down onto the blank side of the image which faces you. Keep dabbing on the water gently until you see the pattern and colors coming through again.

4.Slowly scrub the paper which will come off like shreds and leave a vibrant print behind. Scrape of the entire image (gentle is key, scrape too much and you'll rip off the print from the fabric too!). If you need to, dab the image with water again to make sure it is wet during the whole process.

5.This step is so important and I want you to pay extra effort and attention here. You'll want to make sure that you completely remove off all the tiny bits of paper sticking in there. Rub it all off because if you don't and it dries, it won't be a pretty sight. I overlooked this a bit while printing on mine and I was left with tiny white flecks in some part of my fabric print :(

6.Do a light layer of modpodge (gloss version) to seal it all in, bring out the vibrancy and add a pretty shine. This last step goes that extra length to perk your image up!

And that's it! You can use modpodge meant for fabric and waterproof modpodge if you wish to wash your fabric in the future.

Yes, the color did turn out that vivacious!

(PS: If you can't judge if you removed all the paper, wait until the fabric dries and if it shows off the tiny white specks, wet it again and gently rub them off. Don't apply the modpodge until you do this step because removing them after the modpodge dries clear is pretty much impossible. A lesson learnt!)

This is how it looks from the back. ^

I'll be using this fabric for a very special purpose which I'll share on the blog soon ;) You can check out Craft A Doodle Doo's new hip online shop where you purchase the entire collection of these super chic prints!

Have any queries? Drop a comment below!

In the meantime, share a lil blog love and pin/share if you liked this trick!

You can also subscribe to Craft A Doodle Doo (in the sidebar) for more clever DIYs. You can find me mostly on Pinterest and occasionally on good ol' Facebook!

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I bid you goodbye for now with tons of more inspiration at my DIY gallery.

Love, Nash!