As promised on Friday, I'm back today with an off the page make - I am really keen to use my supplies to make more than cards at every opportunity.  Craft supplies are expensive so to make them "pay" making items you can gift rather than just cards which are often undervalued and thrown away is a great way to go.    So today I've made a clock which isn't as difficult as you might think - in fact it's super easy!

To start you need a base and I used a 6.5 inch mdf circle with a pre-drilled hole - and if you fancy having a go yourself, I've added a supply of the bases to store.  You need a quartz movement to go with it - I've not added those as there are lots of different options to choose from in terms of hands etc - the important thing is to ensure you get the correct length shaft to go through the mdf - so you need a 20mm version.  You'll find them easily on Amazon and other online stores.

I wanted the clock for my living room which is grey and yellow so I started with a base coat of acrylic paint using Haystack from PaperArtsy including the edges.   Once dry I gave the edges a light sanding (I paint first as it gets the paint into the raw edges and gives a smoother finish but you can skip this step if you want)  and then gave it a second coat.  

I wanted an ombre look so I ink blended oxides over the top of the paint from the outside edge using wild honey and rusty hinge with an ink blending tool.  I left that to fully dry overnight as the paint is a non-porous surface so it takes a while to dry to the touch.

My image, the Hero Arts Wonders of the World - just screamed clock to me and was what kicked off the whole idea - the lines from the centre are the perfect "time segments".   I stamped it using stazon pigment in piano black and embossed it with Hero Arts Detail Black powder - the perfect black embossing powder as those super thin lines are still clean and crisp!

As there are more than 12 segments, to make it easier to tell the time I added some enamel dots for each hour - slightly larger on 12, 3, 6 and 9 just for fun, but you could make them all the same or even die cut small numbers instead if you wanted a numbered clock.    To get them evenly spaced I just drew around the base on paper and used a protractor to mark 30 degrees all the way around and drew lines to connect them.   I put the houses of parliament at 12 as that works for me geographically and in terms of where GMT is on a map.  To get the dots in the right place, I measured 5mm from the edge of the circle on each line and poked a hole through so when I placed the paper template on top of the base all I had to do was make a dot with a pencil in each hole and stick on my dots.

Decoration done, all that's left is to poke the mechanism through the hole, add your hands and a battery and the hands go round the world in 60 minutes!   Here it is hanging in situ and it's even telling the right time!

Whilst this was an easy image to do - I've got more ideas for clocks with stamping smaller images and even die cuts so I might be back with more ideas before Christmas.   The possibilities are pretty much endless!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We've got the latest release from Waffle Flower Crafts and will be adding in to store by mid-week once we've caught up on packing all the Concord & 9th Color release.

The new release form Concord and 9th will ship towards the end of this week so should be in store next week and will include the updates Take A Bough die and new trimmings die.

The last two releases from Colorado Craft Company are shipping on Monday so should be here by the end of the week.  This includes the Anita Jeram stamps and dies that have proved to be hugely popular before they even arrive as we have hundreds of emails about them.   We know we didn't pre-order enough so they are going ot sell out in seconds of arrival.   BUT we have already re-ordered more (CCC have placed 4 additional orders themselves as they sold out quicker than they thought too)   Manufacturing turnaround is 4-6 weeks so when they sell out, they will be back but not until at the earliest late November.

Mama Elephant's latest release is in transit and will be in store on the 15th as usual.

That's all that's confirmed for arrival this week at this stage.

Thanks

Tara