Sunday, November 2, 2008

Colourvision Clock

I finally got some good photos of that project that I've mentioned a few times now! Hurray! It's an altered canvas clock that I was inspired to make after seeing a scrapbook canvas clock tutorial/thread on SCS. And in honour of the return to standard time from daylight savings, I thought I would upload this project. :D

The clockworks and hands came from a cheapie clock at Walmart (<$5); I saved the frame and face part of the clock for possibly another project. I bought the 11"x14" stretched canvas in a duo-pack from Hobby Lobby. I've got no immediate plans for the other canvas yet, aside from trying to store it in a way that won't damage it. I used swirly grungeboard stars for 12-3-6-9 hour markings, and plain grungeboard circles for the rest of the hours. To colour the canvas, I painted two coats of Watermelon gel paint by Keepsake Colours (Plaid). Then, after I let the gel paint cure for about two months because I had no idea where to go from there, I got inspired by the Inpsiration Challenge #150 on SCS and finished my canvas off by masking my base coat with some grungeboard flourishes and spraying Memories Mists by Stewart Superior. I used the dark Amaretto and Wheatgrass colours towards the edges of the canvas, and gradated to the centre with Strawberry Daiquiri, Orange Juice, and Mango Lemonade. Finally, I sealed with one layer of Royal Coat Decoupage medium by Plaid.

To make the hour markers, I knew I wanted to use my fancy-dancy Distress Crackle Paint in Spiced Marmalade, so I took the extra step of applying a coat of colour (Daiquiri scrapbook paint by Making Memories) under the crackle paint so it would show through and look awesome. It turns out I couldn't see the undercoat through the crackle anyways, but that's ok. To make the Spiced Marmalade blend more with the colours on the canvas, I stippled Coffee Bean Brilliance ink around the edges of each hour marker, and also rubbed some brown ink over each piece with a tissue so the cracks would have a brownish hue. To make the markers stand out from the canvas and take centre stage, I coated them with a layer of liquid glass product, and mounted them onto the canvas using foam dimensionals.

And yes, my clock really is as hypersaturated IRL as it is in the first photo; I love it! :) It's really tough to get a pic of that kind of colour (mebbe my camera was too busy moaning, "It burns, it burns!" to take a good pic?)

Some comments and tips:
  • Paint and Memories Mists can take a reeallly looonnnnggg time to dry on canvas. Usually MM dries within minutes on paper, but took a few hours on the duck canvas.
  • Don't use a heat gun on canvas the way you would on paper. It creates an alarming smell.
  • You'll want to glue your clockworks to the back of the canvas. Otherwise, it'll hang askew and interfere with the ability of the hands to move as they are supposed to.
  • If your clock is making a tic toc sound but the hands aren't moving, the hands are likely hung up on each other. To fix this, just push the hands into the motor lightly with one finger on the hand on each side of the centre of the clock, if that makes any sense.
  • I applied my Royal Coat satin finish using a plastic promotional card, like a credit card but not worth anything. The Royal Coat is less prone to showing brushmarks than Mod Podge is, and applying with a card allows for more consistent and smoother coverage.
  • You don't really have to let your paint cure for a few months on the canvas. I was just being silly saying that.

2 comments:

Lindsay Spencer said...

Way cool!!!

Tiff said...

WOW! This is gorgeous and definitely something I'd like to make in the future!