The Chemists Clock

I have been wanting to share this idea with all of you ever since my husband and I thought up the idea. Yes, This is an original idea!!  Woot Woot!

First the back story:

Andrew’s sister was married in April. The man she married has his doctorate in chemistry. Andrew’s sister will be getting her doctorate in chemistry in December. So we wanted to do something geeky for them. I told Andrew that I just wanted to make a clock for them but use a picture of them as the face (Not a new idea) but Andrew thought up something to make it unique.

 

 

Here is what we came up with:

  

The numbers are the first 12 in the Periodic Table of the Elements. Genius I say! Genius!

Here is how we made it:

First the BIG job, making the clocks’ face. We used Gimp2 that is available free online (the poor man’s Photoshop- We are WAY to cheap to get the real thing). We first found a template for the clock numbers so we would place the numbers in the correct spots. (just Google for one) Then we decided on the picture and decided on an added geeky feature, we put atoms behind the picture in purple; one of the wedding colors.

Andrew worked his magic to get all the shading the way we wanted it and then we had to put white lining around all the letters so the ones in the dark portion could be seen. NOTE: You will be drilling a hole through this picture, right smack dab in the middle, so make sure that it won’t be through an eye or something! Ours went through his ear. He didn’t need that anyway...

After getting that perfect we had Sam’s Club print it off. This cost only 3-4 dollars. (I can’t remember which.) Our clock is 12x12 in size, and Sam’s doesn’t print that size so we added a portion of white off to one side to make it 12x16 for them.

 

 

Next we cut some 1/8” Masonite/hardwood board we had left over to 12x12 and painted the sides white, and Mod Podged the picture on.

 

Now for the scary part. The drilling. Please wait to do this after everything has dried, and double check it is in the center! We bought the clock parts at multiple places (since I bought one WAY too small first). You can do Hobby Lobby with their 40% coupon making that way cheap. The one we ended up using was from Michaels. They had a surprisingly good selection to choose from. Hobby Lobby only had black, mostly. Keep in mind that some of the clock parts come with a way of hanging it up like ours did. If yours doesn’t you’ll have to figure out a way to hang it up or put it on an easel .

One last look at the Original creation by SewCutPaste

Want to make your own but don’t want to do the work? Well Andrew has provided us with the files to make your own! Just need to add your picture and do your own shading.  You can download Gimp from this website

FYI: You’ll need to add that portion off to the side if you want to print it off at Sam’s.

Photoshop File

Gimp 2 File

Just click the download button and then you can create your own awesome clock. If any questions or problems let me know I’ll help as much as a I can and then I’ll refer you to Andrew. :)