Digitally created Clock Face - manly style

I altered the face of this CHEAP walmart 9" wall clock.... I replaced the plain paper face with a digitally created one suited for my Dad's automotive shop.
He recently had his home built off the back end of his shop, so that is where he lives and works. He likes "Oldie" styles and, of course, cars or anything with an engine.

I don't have step by step photos, but I do have step by step directions written and a finished photo of my clock.
Here's the clock all ready to be hung.

All car images from Doodle Pantry, Classic Cars 1, Classic Cars 2, Classic Cars 3, Classic Clunkers 1, Corvette, Big Rigs, Motorcycle Mania, VW and Gas Can, Hot Rod Pickup.


So here's what I did:

1. Bought a $3.88 wall clock from Walmart.
2. Unscrewed the 6 small screws from the backside (they hold in the rim and glass over the front, but they screw in from the back)   SOME CLOCKS might not have screws, but perhaps the front cover snaps off.... you'll have to do your research to find out what kind of clock you have and how they have secured the clear cover.
3. Carefully turn the clock around and pull up on the rim which hugs the glass. Once the rim is removed, you can tilt the clock sideways a little and hold your hand out to catch the flat glass piece.
4. Now on mine, the clock face paper was stuck down with adhesive, but perhaps you might find some with paper that pops out.
5. So I just measured the entire width of the inside face, so that I would know what size circle to fill up with cool digital manliness. 
6. The clock hands are not screwed in, they merely fit snugly over the mechanism crank. So carefully using your fingertips and only touching the CENTER of the hand (not the parts that stick out), lift up the second hand until it comes off. Repeat same gentle effort of lifting the minute and hour hands, touching only the center sections that encircle the crank.
7. If you want to paint the second hand, now is a good time, spray paint is best, allow to fully dry.
8. I set all that stuff aside while I go to my computer to use Photoshop to create a manly clock face.

In Photoshop, heres what I did:

1. I created a new document about 1/8" to 1/4" larger than the size of the measured circle. In my case, the clock face insert was 6-3/8" diameter, so I made my Photoshop document a 6-1/2" square.
2. On the document settings, you want to be sure you are set at the highest resolution (300) and a transparent background.
3. Create 15 new layers in your layers panel.
4. Go back and click on the Layer 1.  While on the first layer, create a circle fill shape at 6-3/8" (size of your clock face diameter).
5. Click to second layer, insert the check paper from the 50's Diner Check Digi Paper on the Doodle Pantry FREEBIE page.
6. Uniformly stretch the paper so that it covers the circle entirely, and this makes it overhang the top and bottom of my boundary, which is OK.
7. Then while you are still on the second layer with the check paper, use the CTRL+ALT+G command to "clip" the paper to the circle shape in layer 1.  In order for this to work right, your layer 1 must be BELOW the layer 2 when you press the CTRL+ALT+G.
8. Now your circle should be filled with the check pattern and all around the circle should be blank.
9. On layer 3 through 14, you insert whatever image you want (but must be PNG) for each of the numbers on the clock face. One image per each layer.
10. When you insert on each layer, apply the image and then click on it to move it around or scale it down and place it in the spot you want.   On mine, I used all the different car images and placed them around so that the cars were in place of numbers.
11. If you want some of them to be numbers instead of an image, you can use the Text command on that given layer, or you can insert a digital number PNG.
12. If you want to use this document later, save it so that you can modify later for a future clock face of the same size.
13. To save your new clock face as a PNG, just go to "save as" and then when the pop up box appears, choose PNG as your filetype, make sure the settings of resolution are at least 300 ppi, and give it a name, ok, select your folder to save in, and finish.
14. Now you have your saved clock face as a PNG which you can print from whatever program you print from. I use Word to print.
15. Print your clock face at full scale, preferably medium cardstock, not copy paper.
16. Cut it out and cut a hole in the center just barely big enough to fit around the clock crank mechanism. 
17. Place it into the clock to see it if fits. Once you have it trimmed to fit perfect, use whatever adhesive (NOT DIMENSIONAL) to place it down, making sure the "12 o'clock" is at the top.
18. Replace the hour hand carefully over any one of the hour numbers, gently push until it feels secure. It takes LITTLE effort, do not over push, and be sure to only handle the center area, not the parts that point out. Replace the minute hand carefully over the 12, handling only the center that encircles the crank, do not touch the pointer. Replace the second hand carefully over the minute hand and 12, not touching the pointers, only handling the center, gentle pressure until it feels secure and won't go down further.
19. Replace the glass and rim, hold in place while turning around to the back. Insert the screws throw the holes in the back to secure rim in place.

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So that's my simple little project for today!   I already have more ideas for other clock faces for people I know, now I can't wait to go buy more clocks to alter!

Hope you have a blessed and safe weekend, thanks for visiting!