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!

Inspiration Nation//Architecture Project Reveal!

Hello ya' all!

For those of you who know that I'm an Architecture Sophomore at college, you may as well be wondering why all that I ever post over here is floral, vintagey feminine DIYs, and freebies, and a few recipes now and then, beauty fixes even...but anything related to architecture? Nope......until, now. :)

This is my final model for the proposal of a French Consulate General. The site area is quite small really, but I wanted to make it iconic, here's the behind the scenes of how I did it.. *drumroll*

First, I made the very basic building design out of smokey grey-brown foamboard. The building isn't in itself complicated, but 1.5 meters away from it, it holds a beautiful aluminum cladding held in place by supports.

For the design of the intricate cladding which was inspired by the Eiffel Tower's cross-net pattern and the famous Arab 'mashrabiya' style, I went to a laser cutting lab with the vector images of the pattern drawn out. The laser cuts through mattboards...

And you get the above result, well not really, (since it was so detailed it couldn't cut all the way through, I had my craft knife come to the rescue!). 

A black acrylic undulating wave frame was then laser-cut and hot glued over the gold pattern.

The supports cut in the same black acrylic were then hot glued at the back,...

And voila!

Look at the beauty! Can we pretty please lemme brag here for a teeny second and lemme say I'm smitten by my own model??

New visitor to the consulate? Please allow me to walk you through the journey ^_^

You are first welcomed through a gate for the consular's main enterance, the secondary gate lies on the adjacent side.

Your left and right alley are laced with beautiful high-rise palm trees....

Upon entering, the same mesh canopy shade lies overhead, walking up the steps, you can see two refreshing water features cascading smooth glassy water jets at both the sides...

Lush green terrace gardens invite you for outdoor lounging lined with trees in full blossom....

A pyramidal skylight filters warm, sunlight into the mass to hint the perfectly blue sky..

Wherever required, my warrior acrylic supports keep my gorgeous cladding in place :)

The pretty woven web cladding filters through a beautiful play of shadows onto the walls and glass windows...

Do you think the building would make the consular and deputy glad?? :)

If the design of the building inspires you, do pin this project so that it clicks through another idea for you in the future!

Join me at Craft A Doodle Doo on Pinterest and Facebook fo' lots more fascinations or easier enough, become a wonderful subscriber! :)

Thank you so much for taking round a trip with me, I feel honored. =)

Lots of love,

Nash

Inspiration Nation//DIY Vintage Storage!

Checklist for things I love:
-Maroons and reds
-Florals
These storage boxes  ✔

My love for everything vintage themed needs no introduction..what can I say...it just, happens :) Anyhow, we had loads of very sturdy boxes lying around in which 'thobes' come in. (know thobes? It's the traditional white garment guys over here put on. But that's not what we concern ourselves with,is it?it's what they come in!).
The best thing about these is that they are super dent-proof, wear for ages and perfect to chuck in craft supplies, no wait....anything!
Here's how I made mine!

Like this? Pin it!

I made a set of three beautifully coordinated boxes. At my local craft store we get rolls of adhesive paper (each for about 2$ approx.). The deep red box has been covered with a velvet textured red adhesive paper. It feels just like velvet but it's actually paper not fabric with an adhesive backing! How cool is that? ...and if you've been dawdling on my humble blog previously, you would have seen how many, many, many times I use these kind of rolls,
              The third box is a glossy adhesive roll with a delicate floral print (for 2$ too) and the first is a thrifted floral pillow cover. (or should I say it took only about half of the pillow cover? :D). The pillowcase set of 2 cost me 2$ which would make this for 0.5$! You just need to scout 'em shelves ladies!
(Click read more to see the full post!) 

Inspiration Nation// Statement Gallery Wall DIY!

I'm sorry new posts on this blog have grown scarce since the past couple of weeks but my final exams are in full swing and I've pretty much been a zombie! If you want to have a look at the projects I've been up to, you can check out my Facebook page! Anyhooooo, I slipped this DIY into my last weekend because it was so simple and easy and perfectly fit in the lil time I could afford for something other than my studies! A DIY statement gallery wall! You can make a ceiling to floor version or a half version. I've got the pictures ready to expand my gallery when my schedule gives me more space to breathe! :)

Are your empty walls in need of a chic vibe?

*_*

The pattern was hand-drawn by me and you can download it at the end of the post. All you need to do is color in to coordinate your room decor! (Oh of course, you color in just once and then just do multiple print outs =D)
If you want yours exactly like mine (because let's see, bright and cheerful rooms attract magnetize you), then just follow the steps below!

WARNING LETHAL : I'm a very messy artist. Please don't be eeked out be my colors going outta the lines!

Here is what your sheet of paper should look like after you've printed it out. I printed mine out on an A4 sized paper

Start by taking a salmon pinkish color pencil and filling in the big buds. Take a medium pink and shade over lines for a little more interest....

Go to the whole flowers and use the medium pink again to start at the base of the petals coloring almost all the way to the end of the petals. Then round off the end with a pretty red color merging into the pink shade..Fill in the center with a mango yellow and shade it with a bit of a mustard color pencil.

Next fill in the curvy round flowers with each of the two orange and yellow. Fill in the centers black as shown!

Fill in the stems with a forest green shade.

Color in half of the total leaves on the entire paper with the forest green. Fill in a sweet minty green in the middle stem of these leaves. Then for the other remaining leaves, do the opposite (i.e fill the leaves with the minty green and do the middle stem a forest green)

Fill in the round berry-like stems with light and dark browns shades. I used dark brown for the fringe-like pattern on the berries.

And you're done!

Scan your colored paper and do multiple copies according to how many rows you want to go across your wall!

You can either frame them (and that'll obviously take longer), or use washi tape as a border to mimic frames, or use washi tape to just tape the top of the pictures to hang 'em!

Next time, I'll do neon washi tape frames. ^-^

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Here is the finished result!

This table needs a bit more decoration, I think. It's one of the drafting tables I use for my architecture drawings (read :"one of")

Side-view!

I need to finish up the two more rows underneath :)

Here's one to pin!

Here's the pattern to download! >> Free Floral Printable Pattern

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If you loved this, then consider becoming a subscriber or hop over at my Pinterest and Facebook page to follow on the fun regularly!

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PS: Check out more cool, easy and inexpensive DIYs here in my DIY Gallery!

Love ya' all

xoxox, Nash

Inspiration Nation//Stunning Photo Backdrops for $0

Sometimes I pretend to wear my photography princess crown and just twist around ideas for different cool-looking backdrops in my head. I've smacked my lips at all those beautiful food recipes with such gorgeous backdrops, not to forget, Foodgawker makes it worse for my amateur mind. Add to that fact, I'm super-thrifty and you get this...

Most of the time you need to make do with what you have; so these gorgeous photo backdrops were born from empty pizza boxes and some "laying haywire" pillowcases.

Your read that right.

This is so ridiculously easy, but as ridiculously flexible and versatile to suit different moods too! More tips at the end of the post!

You'll start by collecting an empty pizza box(es), and variety of pillowcases/cushion covers (feel free to go wild with patterns and colors, solid colors are awesome too!). Next get a roll of masking tape, double-sided tape and scissors and that's it.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.Begin by ironing out any creases on your pillowcases.

2.If you fully lay open the pizza box, you can map it into halves (the top lid and the bottom base). On one half, place one pillowcase and tape over the extra fabric (using masking tape) onto the other side to secure.

3.Take the second pillowcase (a matching one from a set or another entirely different one) and tape it like in (1) onto the other half. 

In the middle where the two pillowcases meet, secure them to the middle edge of the box using double-sided tape.

3. Make sure you pull the fabric taut over the whole surface area. This is in fact the most important step!

4. Have the completely open and stretched out pizza box stand up both half-sides making an angle in between. And you should have a free standing photo-background. No support whatsoever required!

I did one pillowcase on one half, a pretty floral and a red palette-d pillowcase on the other half.

Keep these props handy for quick photography sessions to add instant glamour!

Have these stand somewhere across a window but not directly in front so that you get beautifully diffused light gliding over your photo subject!

Remember lighter colors bounce off light. Depending on the time of the day, you may want to substitute lighter background for darker ones if it's dark, or choose one darker and lighter for either side like I did!

See how it makes different facets of the subject glint? 

If you have more time at hand or you are a more of a stitch-chic you may want to sew a removable cover for each side. That's not me, really, but I bet my mum would be up for it so that she'll have to avoid taping them everytime!

My suggestion would be to collect a few bunch of pizza boxes or other similar sorts over time and designate a backdrop fabric for each box!

A con though is that you can only use for maybe smaller -medium sized subjects . It's relative to your thinking though!

Here's the really amazing part besides the customization. You can even use giftwrap or fat quarters apart from thrifty pillow covers. Other than that, use retired tees that are too small/big are also a great idea!

The above picture shows how you can even blur up the backdrop for a more subtle addition to your picture when you want more focus on your subject!

Have a fabulous week ahead and I hope this post helped those of you who were stumped about expensive photo backdrops! (You can also check out my epic DIY gallery here! <3)

If it did, please share and pin it to let other pals join in the fun!

Skip over at Craft A Doodle Doo's Pinterest and Facebook page and join me there or become a subscriber for totally rad free creative DIY updates!

Ready to wear your photography crown yet?

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Lots of love and loadza hugs,

xoxo Nash