Customized clock

This an old craft for me, I have been personalizing clocks for several years. Sometimes I find a graphic, sometimes I use a photo (nice for wedding gifts), sometimes I scan fabric to match a clock to room decor. I have even scanned a wall paper border graphic and used that for a clock background. The difference with this one is that I did not have to hand-cut it, I let MTC and the Silhouette do that for me!

The clock is a 9" one from Target, I think it was less than $5. Be sure it is less than 9" unless you have a wide format printer. I measured the clock face (that was already in the clock) and found it to be just less than 7.5", and the printed part was less than 7.2". My printer will print up to 8" wide, so this size was perfect for me.

Since I planned for this to be a Print-n-Cut, I added the registration marks to the lowest layer of the MTC file and locked it. Then I designed the clock face with a circle of 7.23 inches and added a center circle cut-out. Since I covered up the numbers, I added small dots for the 12-3-6-9 o'clock markings and added a red ring. Her colors are red,white and black - I felt like this design needed a bit more bright red. Here is my MTC layout:

I printed off the design in MTC (be sure to use matte paper for best results), then cut it as a PnC. Now you are ready to add your customized clock face to the clock. It takes a bit if finesse but usually you can pry off the plastic cover from the clock with a screw driver. Just look for the tabs and push in one of them to remove the cover. Once the cover is removed, gently pull off the hands of the clock and place your new clock face inside. I used tape runner to adhere mine so that it would not warp the paper. Reverse the disassembly process (replace the hands, then the cover) and you are ready to gift!

I think this clock would be easier to read with white hands but when I tried coloring them (I used a white gel marker, lol!) it looked cheesy so I removed it. Here is what it looked like:

I am not sure if you can see it but the gel ink did not cover evenly and was also a little lumpy. Yuck! Thank goodness it came off easily with Windex. I suppose painting it with some of the Fusion plastic spray paint (specifically designed to paint plastics) would be the best option but I did not have any on hand.

This is an easy project and cheap as well. Give it a try!