It's TIME to Paisley-fy! Clock re-do tutorial

Well it is looking like I am not going to get copies of the pix I took of my Phantom of the Opera Costumes so that's a big bummer.  The moral of the story is "Bring your own camera next time!"  However, life goes on. 

I had a very boring clock on my office wall.  I had to change a dead battery in it and while I had it off the wall and in my hands I decided to paisley-fy it.  First I had to see if I could take it apart without totally breaking it.

As it turns out, the plastic disc covering the face just pops right off when you insert a rusty Exacto-knife (or other skinny/flat object of your choice) near the little tabs.

After removing the plastic cover, I traced it onto a piece of white card stock so it would fit the clock face.  I didn't even remove the paper face that was already there.  It it was glued on pretty well and I thought tearing it off might damage the mechanism holding the hands.  Since the card stock I was using was mostly opaque AND I was going to draw and color on that I figured the original numbers would not show through--and they didn't.

I worked my doodle magic inside the circle and also marked a smaller circle right in the center where the hands would be.

I colored my paisley, cut out my circle and the smaller circle for the hands, then started to put my drawing overtop the original face.  After trying to thread the hands through just the little circle, I realized they needed more wiggle room.  I cut a small slit, about 1 1/2" to get them through.

Then I threaded the hands through and positioned my improved clock face the way I wanted it.  Lying flat, against the clock's face the extra slit is not visible.

I carefully popped the plastic cover back on, inserted the new batteries and hung it back up.   This was super easy to do; the drawing and coloring was what took the longest.  The potential for this project is huge!  You could cover your clock face with anything you want, whether it's a unique drawing, a large enough picture, matching wallpaper or fabric to go with your décor.  The possibilities are endless!

In Which I do 2 Tutorials I Found on the Web...

...and tell you how they came out.

If you have a 10 (or older) computer game obsessed boy in your home then you'll know what Minecraft is. I made this for my 5th grader who is Minecraft obsessed. This simple design is a virtual creature called a creeper. This shirt was very quick to make using Celtic Mommy's easy tutorial on freezer paper painting. I have used this tutorial before and I really like how simple it is. Freezer paper acts like a simple silkscreen once you iron it onto your fabric. It took me less than an hour to make this design (not including drying time.)

This is another creeper shirt I did for my 8th grader who is also a big fan of Minecraft. I used this tutorial from a great blog called The Craft Patch. I ironed on a square piece of an old black tee shirt using Wonder Under. For the creeper's face I used a piece of light green fabric from my stash, which I then colored with darker and brighter squares in a grid pattern using Prismacolor Markers. I Wonder Undered this over my black piece, marked off where I wanted the creepers face to be and sewed around those lines with green thread. Then I carefully cut away the fabric on top revealing the black. This took me about two hours but I think it was because I had to color those squares onto my fabric. If I hadn't, it would've taken at least a half hour less.

I'm definitely planning other projects using these techniques, they were easy and fun to do! The first one is pretty kid friendly. You do the ironing, they paint inside the design.

It's the middle of March...

And I've now gotten one thing crossed off my UFO list. 
At this rate, I should get 4 things done all year...

This was what my son's gamer chair looked like.  He, and his siblings, have a habit of standing up on it and eventually it popped a hole right through the seat.

 

The thing that amazed me most was how cheaply made this chair was.  It was basically hollow inside. 

I shored up the seat with this piece of pine which I screwed into the frame.  Then on top of this I put a block of foam rubber for extra padding.  I cut off all of the vinyl and reused the foam from the original covering.

After visiting JoAnne's remnants table (twice due to not paying attention to how I cut my side pieces) I used the original vinyl as a pattern to sew these tweedy bits of upholstery, added a little headrest pillow and then stapled it all in place.  I have another vinyl gamer chair that is going to need the same treatment.  #2 son says he wants royal blue and black.  We'll see what the remnant table holds :)