DIY kinda girl: $2 IKEA clock redo

It's been awhile, hasn't it. One thing after another has caused this blog to lie dormant. First, I tackled an enormous project on a tight deadline. Then I was pregnant. And exhausted. And just all around not feeling my best. And then I had a miscarriage.

I'm still trying to heal emotionally, still trying to regain...myself. I'm taking steps in the right direction, but it's often slow going. But I will say that doing this little project today made me feel rejuvenated. And hopeful. Guess I need to get back to DIYing, then!

Without further ado, my $2 clock makeover!

I HATE that I can't see a clock from my bathroom. How am I supposed to pace myself while getting ready, I ask you!!! So I decided I needed a clock for the bathroom. BUT, as most DIYers, I'm cheap.

Found this ugly little wonder for a buck ninety-nine at IKEA last week.

And I knew I could make it something beautiful!

First things first, take off the plastic cover. Next, remove the background. Then spray paint the red second hand (cover the other two) with a little Krylon Brushed Metallic in Oil Rubbed Bronze. Then uncover the other two hands, and give all three a light coat of the same.

Then cover up the hands (cover well, spray paint can sneak in tiny crevices!), and paint the whole she-bang with Krylon Brushed Metallic in Sparkling Canyon.

Once the spray paint is dried, I used some acrylic paint, Americana in Bittersweet Chocolate (same paint I used for my latest wedding gift) to age it a bit. Since the walls in my bathroom are a sage green, I didn't want to use a copper patina (as I did on my lamp redo last year) since that is an aqua color, so grunging it up with brown acrylic paint was the best option. I used one soft cloth to rub it on, and another to wipe it off. Do this in small areas, and work quickly, otherwise it won't wipe off very well.

Now time for the new center! I used an old clock face found in the digital scrapbooking kit Old Garden, by Etc. by Danyale. I did have to enlarge the image, which typically affects the quality, but in this case it was fine. In Photoshop, increase the image size to about 7.25 inches in diameter, then use the clone stamp to remove the hands. Once you're satisfied, print!

I trimmed off almost all the brown around the edge to make it fit perfectly. But keep testing and trimming until you get it right.

Then poke a hole in the dead center, and carefully slide the hands through. I did end up tearing it a little to get the other side of the second hand through, but it fit in with the whole look and once glued down, it was hardly noticeable.

Make sure the 12 is on top (line it up with the hanging hole in the back), then carefully lift a few edges and use some Elmer's to tack it into place.

If you want to be done at this point, you can. In fact, it might be better! But since mine was going in the bathroom, and I was worried about the moisture going directly onto the paper, I opted to put the plastic cover back on. As I feared, it scraped a bunch of the paint off on the insides. But it's not very noticeable, and to take it off and repair it would mean a whole lot of work, only to most likely have it happen again. So I'm just dealing with it! No one goes in this bathroom except me and my husband, and I'll be lucky if he even notices we have a clock in there now!