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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Clock Redo

So I've had this idea rolling around in my head for the longest time, but I wasn't brave enough to do anything with it. It wasn't until I entered the world of blog-land and saw all the many things that people re-do on a regular basis and still feel comfortable displaying in their homes, that I was inspired to finally go for it.

Here is the before picture:



Just your regular standard, cheap ugly clock.

While it served it's function (It helped me to be relatively on time for things for a number of years) It has never really matched our decor, and even more so since we moved into this place.

I recently bought some scrapbook paper off of someone who just isn't interested in scrapping anymore. I got a steal of a deal. (I love deals like this...ya know, let someone else pay the full price and then they sell it to me for a real discount later on - yes, I'm cheap frugal like that)
In amongst all the paper I found this beauty. I just love it! I decided this would be the new face of my clock. Just the right amount of colour and pattern without being too obnoxious to look at when you're trying to tell the time.


I used the glass piece of the clock to trace a template for the new face,

 and used this hole punch to cut out the centre circle (I love these things...I bought them a long time ago on sale one time at Superstore and they sat unused for the longest time, but I have made use of them so much in the last 6 months.)

In my newly acquired paper, I also found this other sheet. At first I didn't know quite what it was. (It really helps if you read the packaging, but I was in a hurry to see all the other goods when I acquired it, that I didn't stop to read the packaging.) I thought at first that it was an orange sticky paper, and I had no idea what I would do with it as orange tends to be on the bottom of the list of colours I would choose for, well, anything really.
BUT, after finally reading the packaging I found out that it was double sided sticky paper. (Pretty much a giant sheet of double sided tape.) Perfect!


If I had a silhouette or other cutting machine (My sister received one for Christmas - so jealous!) I would have used that for the next part, but since I didn't, I did it the old school way and just printed out some numbers on my computer, and used that as a template to cut out the numbers out of cardstock and the sticky paper.

After marking the clock for placement of the numbers, I adhered them to the face.

I spray painted the clock edge a dark satin brown. It turned out kind of glossy. I wish it were a matte finish, but this is all the hardware store had and I've got to work with what I can find!

                                                 This was me testing it out inside the clock before I adhered the numbers.

I then mod-podged the new face page and stuck it into the clock. This is where I had a problem.
Apparently, I did not use enough mod podge in spots (I haven't worked with it all that much and was afraid of making the paper soggy.) Or maybe it's just that I should have put something heavy on it while it dried. Regardless of the reason, I was, or more correctly, my husband was anxious for it to be back on the wall (since it's the clock that's referred to the most often in the house.) Anyway, all was good for the first 12 hours or so, but then some of the glue decided to let go and the paper curled up, which made the clock hands catch on it. My clock has been ticking away (the second hand works just fine), but the clock has been reading at 3:50 for a couple weeks now.

My husbands good natured sarcasm: "Way to make the clock look pretty, Jen".

Yes, dear, I'll fix it. Eventually. (Have I mentioned that I'm a procrastinator?)

Sorry, I missed taking pictures of some of the steps in between, but here is the final product.

(After a bunch of glue and frustration with getting the face to stick down, my clock is finally reading the proper time :) )

2 comments:

  1. oh that's cute. I like that background paper. And you can come cut numbers on my silhouette at any time. :)

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  2. I see what you mean about wanting the matte finish. It's really cute!

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