Paint Chip Clock

This clock is one of my favorite projects. It’s a paint chip craft taken to a different level. There are some really awesome paint chip projects out there, but I was determined to come up with something a little different. That’s when crackle medium entered the picture and this paint chip clock was born!

UPDATE: This paint chip clock is available in my Etsy shop.

I’ve had this rooster clock for quite a few years. It was one of those clocks you buy on a gift website or in a gift shop. Nothing special, but it was cute. However, it really didn’t fit in my decor anymore so I took it down from the wall and tucked it away in a cabinet in my craft room. Last week I had picked up a bunch of red toned paint chips from WalMart. I knew I wanted to make something with them, I just hadn’t decided what yet. Then one day it just hit me. The clock!

If you want to make one of these or something similar, you will need:

an old clock
paint chips
sand paper
crackle medium

Vintage white acrylic paint
paintbrushes
Mod Podge
antiquing gel
scrapbook paper

So I pulled out the clock, removed the mechanism and sanded down the face.

I laid out the paint chips across the front of the clock to make sure I had enough and that there would be enough to cover. I made sure to alternate the colors as well. I even changed them around a bit after taking this picture, positioning most of the dark colors toward the center. I was careful to keep them in the order that I wanted them as I laid them down on the work surface.

I really wanted to do something different. There’s a lot of awesome paint chip art out there, and they are all awesome, but I wanted mine to be a bit more unique. So I pulled out the crackling medium and gave each paint chip a thin coat.

When the crackle medium dried I added a coat of Vintage White. The beauty of this is that you don’t have to paint a base coat because the paint chips serve as the base coat! The crackle medium went to work and started “aging” the finish right away.

When the paint chips are dry, add a coat of acrylic matte finish spray sealer.

After the paint chip strips had dried for a while, I started in the middle of the clock and using some Mod Podge and a paintbrush attached them to the clock. I did not Mod Podge the top yet, just the side that attached to the clock.

NOTE: You can see where I accidentally removed some of the Vintage White. That was from me trying to smooth the paint chips down on to the Mod Podge. That’s when I realized that I needed to add the spray sealer to the paint chips, to keep the crackled finish from peeling off. It worked out ok, made it look chippy where I made my oops :) 

After attaching all the paint chips to the clock I let it dry a bit, then turned it over and used a box cutter to trim away the excess. I turned it face up again and trimmed away about an 1/8″ or so from the edge.

It was looking pretty cool so far, but I thought it needed something else…

So I thinned some antiquing gel with water and applied it with an old rag. I rubbed it on gently then wiped it off. I repeated this step in a few areas until I was happy with the result. I wasn’t completely sure how this would work since I had to add a coat of sealer to the chips earlier, but it worked like a charm.

I set the clock aside to dry for a while and went to work on the numbers. Unfortunately there’s something wrong with my Silhouette machine or I would have just cut the numbers with that. But since I couldn’t I just used a piece of scrapbook paper and printed reversed numbers on the back. They have to be reversed so that when you cut them out the colored side of the paper will have the numbers in the right direction.

After cutting out one of the numbers I realized that the numbers were blending with the clock colors rather than standing out. Easy fix! I pulled out the antiquing gel and used it to make the scrapbook paper darker. Paint on, wipe off.

It took a while to get all the numbers cut out!

I began by adding the numbers 3, 6, 9, and 12 with Mod Podge. I did add Mod Podge over the top of the numbers at this point.

Once all the numbers were in place, I gave the entire surface a good coat of Mod Podge.

When it was completely dry, I put the mechanism back on the clock and hung it on the wall! I’m happy with how it turned out. hope you like it too!

Print Project

Paint Chip Clock

Author: Amanda Formaro

Supplies

• an old clock
• paint chips
• 
sand paper
• 
crackle medium
• Vintage white acrylic paint
• paintbrushes
• Mod Podge
• 
antiquing gel
• scrapbook paper

Instructions

• So I pulled out the clock, removed the mechanism and sanded down the face.
• I laid out the paint chips across the front of the clock to make sure I had enough and that there would be enough to cover. I made sure to alternate the colors as well. I even changed them around a bit after taking this picture, positioning most of the dark colors toward the center. I was careful to keep them in the order that I wanted them as I laid them down on the work surface.
• I pulled out the crackling medium and gave each paint chip a thin coat.
• When the crackle medium dried I added a coat of Vintage White.
• When the paint chips are dry, add a coat of acrylic matte finish spray sealer.
• After the paint chip strips had dried for a while, I started in the middle of the clock and using some Mod Podge and a paintbrush attached them to the clock. I did not Mod Podge the top yet, just the side that attached to the clock.
• After attaching all the paint chips to the clock I let it dry a bit, then turned it over and used a box cutter to trim away the excess. I turned it face up again and trimmed away about an 1/8″ or so from the edge.
• I thinned some antiquing gel with water and applied it with an old rag. I rubbed it on gently then wiped it off. I repeated this step in a few areas until I was happy with the result.
• I just used a piece of scrapbook paper and printed reversed numbers on the back. They have to be reversed so that when you cut them out the colored side of the paper will have the numbers in the right direction.
• I began by adding the numbers 3, 6, 9, and 12 with Mod Podge. I did add Mod Podge over the top of the numbers at this point.
• Once all the numbers were in place, I gave the entire surface a good coat of Mod Podge.
• When it was completely dry, I put the mechanism back on the clock and hung it on the wall!

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