Maria's Guitar--That I ALMOST Kept

So, I made this clock for my brother a couple of Christmases ago.  He is majoring in Classical Guitar at the Schwob School of Music of Columbus State University.  (Wow, that's a mouthful.)  We're all very proud of him.  *sniff*

He was in some big competition the summer before I gave him the clock, and he placed, or got second, or something.  I can't keep up.  Anyway, it was a big deal.  We're all very proud of him.  *sniff*

So, I saw this idea on one of the blogs I follow:  My Repurposed Life.  She took an old, beat up guitar that she found on the side of the road and turned it into a clock.  It was pretty stellar, and I immediately thought of my wee brother when I saw it. 

I did mine slightly different.  I used a child-size guitar that my parents had bought for my youngest brother that never worked well.  I painted the tuning pegs the same bright red as the clock hands and guitar picks.  I also used the sheet music from his competition.  But it's pretty much the same thing.

This is my brother with his guitar clock:

He took it to school with him, and he got all kinds of compliments on it, and one of his friends wanted to buy one.  He and his buddies ended up buying one from me for her birthday.  When I asked him what colors she would like he said, "I dunno.  Light colors.  No Pink."  Ok.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this one turned out!  I liked his, but this one is more feminine and girlie.  Check it:

I painted the "head" (I don't really know all the technical terms of the guitar parts) and the clock face a pretty sea-green color.  The tuning pegs, the "neck/fret board," (whatev) and the clock hands I painted the same goldish/copperish/metalic tan color.  The sides and back of the body are aqua blue.  

I used an old, scratched up CD for the clock face.  I modpodged (which is decoupage with Mod Podge glue) the sheet music to her favorite song to the front of the body.  I cut out the name of her song and put it in the 12 o'clock position on the clock face.  My mom cut out the fancy music notes on her fancy Cricut machine (THANKS MOM!), and dad cut the hole in the guitar a little bigger so I could fit the clock mechanism into it (THANKS DAD!).  I had to use a washer to screw the clock mechanism to the CD b/c the CD hole is too big, so I also modpodged a little sheet music to cover the ugly washer. Turned out perfect!   I used Velcro to attach the clock face to the guitar so the batteries can be changed easily.

How adorable is that??  I really like how it turned out.  With my brother's, I didn't like how the clock face disappeared b/c of all the sheet music.  Since I painted the CD on this one, it really makes it pop!  I also like the music notes better than the guitar picks that I used on my brother's.  The guitar picks were cool on his, but these add a little bit of a feminine touch.

You like?  I sure do!

The year-long project. Oi!

I finally finished it.

I love it.

But for many a sundry reason, it took me a year from start to finish.  Here it is:

Yes, thank you, I know the door is a little crooked--just waiting on my awesome dad to come over and help me fix it.  Other than that, isn't it fun?  

Here's the before:

Yowza.

Let me just say:  stripping is SO not my thing!  

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Get your mind out of the gutter.  I meant THIS kind of stripping:

That process only took about three weeks!  Sheesh.  And then I sanded.  Messy!  

The drawer guides all needed to be replaced, and as I am NOT a carpenter (that would be so cool, though!), I enlisted my wonderful father.  He's awesome.  He spoils me.

Then I moved the whole thing into my living room to paint it.  Fewer bugs were likely to land in the wet paint since I could mostly only paint at night after work.

This was before I had my new floors, so I wasn't totally concerned with keeping the paint/primer off of the floor.  Ha!

I didn't get any pictures of the paper process, but I just Mod Podged the wrapping paper to the front of the drawers and the door.  I also painted the inside of the cabinet and the drawers, and I lined the shelf and drawer bottoms with black and white wrapping paper.  I Mod Podged the shelf, but just stuck the paper in the drawers with double stick tape.  I didn't really feel the need to go through the extra trouble with the inside of the drawers.  I probably could have gotten away with that on the shelf, too.  I love that black and white paper, though!  It makes me want to leave the drawers and door open!  

I do believe that my favorite thing about this whole piece is the knobs!  I heart them!

I sealed all the paint, etc, and put it all together.  It's in my living room, and it's the best looking piece in there.  I need to get busy with the rest of the room!

How cool is this!!

So, I spend a lot of my down time at work looking at blogs.  (My boss is fully aware that I have a quite a bit of down time.  I always do my work first, and I get my work done before I play!)  I came across someone's blog today quite by accident, and she pointed me to this website.  So, whoever you are, thank you for sharing!  This is really cool!

http://indiefixx.com/Feed_your_soul/downloads.html

It's free artwork that you can download and print.  Not all of it is my cuppa T, but some of it is really cute!

Suh-weet.  I have been trying to decorate my house a little bit lately, but I have a very tight budget.  This is great!