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!

Coolest Clock E-VER!

So, one of my besties had a birthday back at the beginning of December.  We both love making stuff, so I thought to myself, "Self, why not give her something we can make together.  Hmmm. . ."  I had to think of something we could make.  Ok, her bedroom is black, white, and pink.  (Love that color scheme!)  Her favorite things in the world are her four animals.  She could use a great big clock b/c she's always late.  (Heh. . . heh!  Don't hit me, Sam!  It hurts!)  And the idea was born. . .

I designed the clock, and bought all the necessary parts.  Except for the most important piece: the wood.  My favorite daddy in the whole wide world gave me a piece.  And cut it for me.  Twice.  But we won't go there right now.  Here it is all finished.  What do you think?

(Honestly, I don't care what you think.  I love it!)  ;)

I decided to make each corner of the clock a corner for each of the animals.  I put their names and a whole bunch of words describing each pet into Microsoft word, and played around with the fonts and text sizes.  It only took 4 days!  The girls are in opposite corners on two different pink papers, and the boys are in the other two corners on black and white papers.  I printed the boys' names and descriptive words on pink card stock so it would stand out against the black and white paper.  The girls' names and descriptive words were printed on white card stock.  (I thought the pink would get lost on the pink paper.  I would have liked to have done white font on black paper, but I wasn't sure how to do that.)

Here goes:

First, I asked my dad oh-so-sweetly to cut a piece of wood for me.  He has a stash of 3/4 in. plywood that worked quite nicely for our purposes.  He also drilled a hole for me.  He's the best.  He did it twice for me.  I won't say why b/c it was my fault.

We primed the wooden letters (that we found at Hobby Lobby quite by accident), the board, and four wooden cabinet knobs that we used as feet on the back b/c the clock mechanism stands away from the board.  We spray painted all the wooden parts a glossy black.

We spray painted the clock hands the Raspberry color.  I'm not sure they stand out enough, so we might have to repaint them a glossy black, too.

Then we modpodged the four papers to the board.  We used wood glue to glue the wooden letters in their places so we could get the words placed correctly around them.  We modpodged the words after that.

 Glue is still wet.

Just trying to get an idea for the placement.  These words go on the top squares.

We sealed all the words with a final coat of modpodge.  After that was all done, all that was left was the feather boa and the clock hands and mechanism.  We used Fabritac to adhere the feather boa around the clock. Lemme tell ya!  Gluing a feather boa to something ain't easy!  Sheesh.  I hope I never have to do that again!  We also used a staple gun on in.  The clock hands and mechanism were easy.  We used wood glue for the cabinet knobs/feet thingies (of which I do not have a picture).

It's pretty big.  The board is 18" x 18", and the boa adds a few inches to either side.  I think it's adorable, though!

I'm going to make myself one using the first board my dad cut for me.  But much different.  And without the boa.