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October 8, 2013

Black and Gold Halloween Cauldron Clock



I love clocks.  I love the idea of making anything into a clock!  
To me, clocks are like wreaths, or pillow covers.  Why not make one for every season??  Switch them out to match your holiday decor - and have it be anything you want!

I had an old clock I didn't want to use anymore - but instead of throwing the whole thing away, I took the clock mechanism out of it, and re-purposed it! (This is as easy as carefully pulling the hands off, and unattaching the box in the back that holds the battery)

So that means that this project cost me a total of $0 - that's what I like!  Plus, I did it all by hand - no vinyl or cutting machine required.

I decided to use sections from the famous Macbeth play by Shakespeare (double double toil and trouble...). Each number has written over it one of the items tossed into the cauldron, and if you read it clockwise starting at 12, it rhymes.  It isn't exactly the same order as the play, but it is entirely taken from it.  Very Halloweeny ;)


I like me Halloween decor looking rough and shabby, so I took a banged up piece of reclaimed wood from my scrap pile.  I even added extra dings on the edges with the back part of a hammer (the part that you use to pull out nails).  Awesome!


I  panted the whole thing black (above) and then carefully and lightly brushed a few coats of white over the top (see the picture below).  I wanted the black to show through, especially where the divots and dings are, and I wanted the edges to stay black.


Now here I did use a computer to design the clock.  I made a box exactly the size of my wood, figured out where my numbers should be, what size I wanted the font, and where to place the words.  Here is a picture of my paper, printed out.  I also centered a dot to help me know where to drill a hole for the clock mechanism.

In order to use this as a template (and you can use this method for any hand painted sign - like I did with this Halloween broom parking sign), rub the side of a pencil on the back of the paper, wherever the words are.  Then, set the paper face up on the wood and trace the words/numbers/pictures with a pen, pencil, or anything pointy.

If you look closely below, you can see the outline of the numbers that I traced.  A faint pencil mark is transferred as you trace.  I started by tracing the numbers only.

I used a stylus (see pic below) to dab the metal point in paint, and dab/draw/paint inside the lines of the numbers that I had just traced.  It takes a few minutes, but looks pretty good when you are done - and doesn't require vinyl!

Once the black paint was dry, I used the same method to transfer the words to the wood - by laying my paper over the top, and tracing the words so a pencil mark was left behind.

This time, I painted over the words with a gold paint pen.  Let me tell you, it was easy and it looks awesome!!

Finally, I traced and painted a black cauldron...

And used the gold paint pen to make a bubbling brew pouring out...

I drilled a hole right in the middle for the clock mechanism to poke through (I did have to chisel out a bit of wood in the back to make the clock fit) and then reattached the hands.  Easy!


It looks really great hanging in the living room, and will be fun to use year after year!  Now I have two Halloween clocks in the house (here is the spider web one I made) - and I love them!


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