We Made A Small World Clock! And It's SO SPARKLY

John and I have some readers-turned-friends, Chris and Brandon, who just bought their first house. They love all things Disney and mid-century modern, so when Chris asked if we could make them a Small World clock for the dining room, I jumped at the chance.

Here's a sneak peek to tide you over while I explain how we did it:

At first I thought we'd make the clock from scratch, but then, how to ship it? I wanted something big, at least 20 inches, and that meant finding custom packaging on top of the cost to mail it cross-country.

That's when John had the brilliant idea of buying an existing clock from Amazon - which ships free with Prime - modifying it, and then re-using the original packaging & box to mail to Chris & Brandon. Boom. No need to buy the wood, clock guts, OR the shipping box.

It took a little hunting, but here's the clock I finally purchased:

23" Round Decorative Clock

It's nearly two feet across, and don't let the wood "planks" fool you: the entire front of the clock is really a printed sticker on a solid piece of wood. Perfect for our dastardly plans. (Ok, so our plans aren't all that dastardly. I just like the word dastardly. Dastardly dastardly dastardly.)

First we removed the clock hardware and added a few coats of white satin paint with a small foam roller:

Foam rollers (like these) are the best option when you want a perfectly smooth surface; even spray paint can leave spatters and sagging areas, especially when you're working on large areas. And I hope this goes without saying, but NEVER use a brush if you want a perfectly smooth surface on top of another perfectly smooth surface; it'll leave brush marks galore.

John did the super tedious work of cleaning up the best Small World clipart we could find to get it ready to cut with our Cricut. This took 3 or 4 tries, as he kept going back to smooth out more lines, but eventually, it looked like this:

We cut this in sections since it's bigger than our Cricut mat, then pieced it all together on the counter with packing tape before applying the transfer paper.

I have to admit, I had no idea how hard it would be to transfer something this large. Hehehhehe whoops. Definitely a 2-person job, trying to get all the tiny bits to lift up onto the transfer paper!

One thing that helped was taking the peeled-off backing of the transfer paper - the part that nothing will stick to -  and placing it under half the design as we were getting it into position:

See the paper backing under the left half? This way we only had to worry about half of the vinyl sticking at a time, plus the backing paper made it easier to slide into position.

John had the Cricut cut a hole in the nose where the clock hands go, so we used that to line up the design in the exact center:

Ta-daaa!

Isn't it pretty?

Ahh, but we're not done yet!

Originally we planned to add gold vinyl accents to the cheeks and chin, but when we tested it out I felt like it was missing something. It all felt too flat.

See? Not bad, of course, just a little... meh.

So I got out some random glitter seals I had lying around, and...

Aw yeeeah, THERE 'TIS

We sent off the test pics to Chris, and happily she LOVED the glitter, I think maybe as much as I do!

Now for some beauty shots of the finished clock:

 

The clock mechanism on the back makes the clock stand out from the wall a bit, but I kind of like the extra shadow underneath.

  Chris chose simple dots in gold vinyl for the hour markers, but you could also use dashes or actual numbers in a fun mid-century font.

I really struggled with these photos, both because it was hard to nail the white balance and because it's nearly impossible to capture the metallic shine and glittery shimmer of this thing.

Seriously, y'all, it's just so pretty.

Here, we tried a little video to show off the sparkle:

 This gives you a little of the idea, but it's still better in person.

 The glitter adds dimension and motion as you move around it in the room, plus, c'mon, there is SO MUCH glitter on the original, this is only fitting.

Even though this build only cost about $45 to make ($30 for the original clock and $15 for a new roll of silver vinyl), John and I've been brainstorming ways you could make it even cheaper and easier. I think we've got it, too: FOAM CORE. Eh? I want to give it a try, so we're thinking we should build a second clock and film a tutorial along the way. Stay tuned! Oh, and of course I'll give you all our template files then, too.

Speaking of giving things away, our Squeegineers winners for August are Carissa W. & Ginger T.! Congrats, you two, and please check your inboxes for an e-mail from John, so you can select your prizes. (Remember you can also choose a custom mask set; it's just not in the gallery yet.)

And for the rest of you: if you have an idea for a fun build that's small enough to ship, throw them my way! John and I love our on-location projects like painting and home repairs, sure, but we also love building things like this - especially if we can share them here on the blog. So if you give me an idea we actually build, and assuming it's mail-able, then we'll ship it to you for free. How's that for a carrot? :D So get to brain-storming, my friends, and let me know what we can build for YOU.

Also have a great week. 'Cuz I love you. And people I love deserve to have great weeks.

::mwah::

*****

P.S. Looking for more Disney DIYs? Then check out my tutorial page for goodies like these: