Make a wall clock out of your favorite photos

Guest post by Ange

DSC05718I’m always looking for photo ideas for displaying my photographs and this wall clock is a quick and easy way to display your work. It’s also a great way to show off your wedding, baby, birthday or Christmas photos without forcing your friends and family to watch 37 slide shows on your laptop.

You will need:

  • 12 4×6 photographs
  • A set of scrap booking (or photo safe) numbers or letters. Remember you will need five number 1s.
  • Photo dots (like little bits of photo safe sticky tack for sticking your photos to the wall)
  • A clock mechanism (I got mine by pulling apart an old clock I found at the recycling centre)
  • A protractor or an old clock face
  • A pencil and a long ruler

Step 1: Decide which photos you will use for your clock. If they’re digital, get them printed with a border so they all match together when you put together your clock. I used a plain black frame. Look for photos that use a similar colour scheme. I used photos with blues and browns in them to give the photo clock a consistent look.

I used the angles on the old clock face because I haven't owned a protractor since high school.
I used the angles on the old clock face because I haven’t owned a protractor since high school.

Step 2: Measure up your wall space by finding the centre of the wall. Use a protractor (or an old clock face) to make a big star shape (measure out lines every 30 degrees to give you 12 divisions). I drew my lines in pencil but if you own the wall you could do your lines in a permanent marker and make them a feature of the clock

Step 3: Mount the clock mechanism on the wall in the exact centre. You may want to add your own hands to the mechanism like I did (I stuck them over the original hands) or leave the originals on. Remember if the hands are too heavy your clock may go too slow! Because I don’t own the wall I used a temporary adhesive like Blu Tack. Ideally, and if I owned the wall, I would have cut a hole in the gib and made the clock mechanism level with the wall.

Step 4: Arrange your photographs. I put mine at random making sure each photograph sat somewhere on the line for its time.

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Step 5: When you have the arrangement you like, add the numbers. You can use numerals or spell out the numbers.

Step 6: Check the time and see how long it took!

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