Salvaged Metal Clock

Last month I attended my fourth  Haven Conference in Atlanta GA with 300+ wonderfully creative DIY bloggers.  Haven is know for it’s incredible sponsors.  Every year the attendees are loaded down with incredible samples and products that make our DIY lives run more smoothly.  This year again did not disappoint.  My salvaged metal clock was inspired by these products!

The lovely Jeanie Emmert from Create and Babble has organized this little challenge to create something using our SWAG (Stuff We All Get).

It might seems silly, but I was simple enamored by these tin snips that were in my SWAG bag!  They are from M-D Building Products, Inc.  via Home Depot.  Oh the possibilities for creating rusty treasures.

I grabbed some metal from an old barn.  The barn belonged to my friend Gina Luker from The Shabby Creek Cottage.  Her dad and grandfather had built it years ago.  Gina was building a new studio where the barn stood so she graciously offered me some of the salvaged vintage metal walls.  Here is a project I previously completed with the barn metal.

I traced a large circle onto the metal and used the tin snips to cut out a circle.  The snips cut relatively easily through the old metal.  This was much easier than I had anticipated.

The cut ends were not as sharp as I had anticipated either, but I still sanded the edges anyway.  I used my sandpaper from 3M that was in my SWAG bag.

You should ALWAYS wear gloves when dealing with metal.  Metal tends to have tiny shards or splinters.   Wear your gloves AND safety glasses!  Please!  Every single time!

Here is my circle.  It is a little wonky, but that is the beauty of vintage materials.  The imperfections blend to make a one of a kind creation.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out stencils for the numbers and hands for the clock.

I grabbed my black milk paint compliments of Plaid Enterprises.

I dabbed the black paint onto the stencils.  

And voila!

This project only took about an hour from start to finish!  I think I will make the numbers a little bit bigger and thicker next time!  But for now, I’m happy with this little prize!

Thank you to all of the wonderful sponsors noted above.

Please hop over to the following blogs to see ALL of the wonderful projects that were inspired by the Haven sponsors!  Simply click on the frog below!