Craving Ravings//Creamy Chicken Pasta!

Creamy Chicken Pasta anyone? =) When my sweet cousin sister sent me this recipe to try saying that people who dislike pasta in her family happened to smack this up, I knew I had to whip this one pronto!

You know how I said earlier that I post eateries on my blog only when they come out 'that' good?Well this one's a winner!

It's rich, super-creamy with tender pieces of chicken tossed in, enveloped in the delectable sauce and you're gonna savor it to the last bite!Keep in mind that this dish is calorific so save it for special pampering moments!

The Decorista Chronicles//Faux Vintage China+Jewelry Display DIY

Vintage china jazzed up with some bling bling! I knew I was falling in utter love with all the vintage china popping all over pinterest. There were two particular pinterest boards that happened to pop up in my suggestion box that had all this unbelievable eye candy. I then knew I had to come up with my own wicked clever china wall decor but i also had to wrap up the Wardrobe Stylist series, and this baby? This baby is what I ended up with!

Except that it's displayed on the side of my closet. A fancy home for all my especially fancy jewelry ready to be nabbed from their cubbies when I dash off to college! I'm not sure whether this would be last feature of this series, I may just end up with one more feature which is conjuring up in my mind, so for now, have a dive in the inspiration and scroll down for the steps!

Let's begin by whipping up some of our own faux vintage china, easy enough to do!

Here's what you'd need!

1.A few cheap plastic plates, choose the reflective kind if possible cuz' they give off a glassy sheen which is what we need!

2.Temporary tattoos resembling vintage florals.

3.Adhesive gold crystals. I found mine at a craft store I frequent but I've seen 'em at a lot of other craft stores too for very cheap.

4.Strong glue strips or mounting tape squares. Make sure they are good quality so that they adhere well.

5.Command hooks, the mini ones actually (optional)

6.Scissors, craft glue,pencil and ruler

For the teacup

7.Foam or foam like material

8.Felt/adhesive velvet

9.X-acto/craft knife

10.Small plastic teacups (also at craft stores)

As you see, I've got my teacup (made using the same method as the plates)and a block of foam right here. What we wanna do is measure the diameter of the cup across and use that to cut a conical block of foam;so that the circle at the end of the cone has the same diameter as that of your cup.

Next, we just glue in and fit the foam into the cup so it's snug and tight!

Lastly, take your felt/velvet and cut it in a circle to fit at the top of the foam gaping out of your teacup. Using your X-acto knife slit two lines to fit in two rings (or if you have a bigger sized teacup, slit a line extra).Fit in your rings to see if the slit size works.

Trying it on!

I did a little trial arrangement of my plates because I'm impatient  to see my progress in action. All I did was to get a tiny bit of test mounting tape at the back of my plates and sorted them round to see what works best for me. Also, affix the teacup to one of your plates using a glue gun or uber-strong craft glue.

PRO TIP: If you can't find the adhesive crystal strings, then just pick a gold paint marker and outline your plate, It looks beyond beautiful!

For the decorative hoops:

1.Inexpensive embroidery hoops

2.Pretty fabric ( I made my own using this tutorial)

3.Pin hooks

4.Foam/Corkboard sheets

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Pitch the fabric in between the hoops and cut your cork board/ foam to size (if your fabric is very thin) and fit it snugly at the back of your hoops and you're good to go. 

A little extra I did so that I can house my bracelets and necklaces was to use these pin hooks onto my hoops.

And you're done! For some extra storage pizzazz, add transparent mini command hooks to your vintage plates. I couldn't find in my area at the moment (they're never there when you want 'em I tell ya!).

And the keyword here darlings, is heavy mounting tape because you don't want your porcelain and china falling down and crashing (well, of course they won't crash and become smithereens, but anyway..). So make sure you pretty ladies get a good quality mounting tape that will survive the dinosaurs, yes, I think you get the idea now.

Ladies, this corner in my room is the most glamorous one for my go-to jewelry. I have a reasonable amount of jewelry which I've organized in many ways but I love this one the best because it's so feminine and enchanting with the vintage vibe and the glittery metallics!

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Make sure you pin this anf follow me if you loved it and you can check out other jewelry/accessory organizing options below!

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DIY Jewelry Depot

DIY Bracelet Tower!

DIY Ribbon-Tie Basket!

DIY Vanity Tray!

DIY In-door style organizer!

Keep smiling and adieu for now!

Much love, Nash

(Craft A Doodle Doo is also on facebook, pinterest and instagram. I would be love it if you guys join in the inspiration and idea parties there!)

Inspiration Nation//DIY Cath Kidston inspired Fabric

I've swooned over Cath Kidston fabric wa-hayyyyy too many times to count, so I decided to make some of my own. Of course since I had to be covering a large surface area, probably to make me some cute clutches for the oncoming month, I decided to keep things simple and not go into details.The result tho', is just as stunning and I'll reveal the trick I used here!

Here's what you need to get started on your own designer fabric!

-Five fabric paint tubes in colors bright red, magenta, yellow, green and white.

-A rose flower stencil

-Paintbrushes (cuz, duh)

-Water as a mixing and cleaning medium

-Cotton fabric. (mine is in white, but as long as your fabric paints are bright, I think other colors may work?)

-A palette for mixing colors in.

-Painting skills of a five year old

-Scotch tape (optional)

How-to

For the flower outline

1.Begin by ironing out your fabric to remove any creases. (excuse my dirty paintbrushes in the background. They've been working overtime lately :-D)

2.Place the rose stencil in top of your fabric and secure on all sides with scotch tape.This will make sure your design comes out steady. I don't usually tape it down because I've gotten used to it but it's good for first-timers =)

3.Take three blurbs of paint (magenta, red and white) onto your palette close to each other(preferably making a triangular shape.)

4.Start be picking on some magenta paint on your brush. Pick 2-3 random petals on the rose stencil and fill 'em in.

5.Clean your brush, mix half of the magenta and half  of the white. Pick a couple more petals and paint them this color.

5.Take the bright red on your brush and fill in the remaining petals.

Remove the stencil and this is what you get in the end. This is the "infrastructure" behind creating even,beautiful and natural roses.All you need to do now is go nuts with different combinations and intensities of reds and magentas and fill the flower in further.

This process takes five minutes or lesser for me. When you get really used to it you'll hardly take any time to make a fat quarter!

For the leaves:

1.Begin by taking three blurbs of paint : white, yellow and green on your palette like you did before.

2.Mix in a leeeetle bit of green with your white to get a nice minty shade. Do random leaf strokes all around the flower. Don't be afraid to paint a whole bunch of them!

3.Now take a hint of yellow with the white and swirl in to make a light lime shade and dab this on your minty leaves. This is how your rose should look like now.

And that's it! You can do a whole lot of these depending on your much distance you want one rose from another;, or just go around the border of some plain fabric and drape in onto your table for a one of a kind tablecloth.

The advantage of using stencils is you never have to pay attention to design of the petals. All you are doing the whole time is taking in different colors to fill in. It's kind of a no-brainer but produces some awesome sauce!

If you've got a bit of your paint left (red/,magenta that is), you can go ahead an dot a few tiny flowers clustered with the leaves to add a bit more drama!

Try darker and lighter red and magenta palettes for an eclectic mix of roses! 

To be honest, my mum has been getting worried about my OCD with florals, so I think I'm gonna tone it down after my next post which would be part three of the Wardrobe Stylist Series.

And I wanted to show you how typical Nash got impatient and had a few stray streaks of paint, so yeah, be careful! =)

If you find this guide handy, pin n' share it along with you buds and follow Craft A Doodle Doo!

Stay tuned for another feature of the Wardrobe Stylist series coming in a day or two!

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Much love and big hugs, Nash

(You can check out the rest of my easy n' fab DIYs here!)