I’ve had so much fun making DIY home decor projects with vintage-inspired folding rulers lately. I’ve made a few pieces of holiday door decor, a monogram photo display, and a heritage photo display. Folding rulers are so versatile, and can be used in a ton of different DIY projects. Today I’m sharing a cute and practical way to use vintage folding rulers–a DIY folding ruler clock!
If you’d like to see my other projects using the new Ruler Studio from We R Memory Keepers, you can catch my ruler wreaths HERE and HERE, find my monogram photo display HERE, and you can see my heritage photo display HERE.
If you’d like to make this easy DIY folding ruler clock, here’s what you’ll need:
1. 6 inch folding ruler, your choice of color
2. poster board
3. chipboard (or cereal box)
4. clock movement kit (with built-in hanger)
5. double-sided craft tape
6. glue dots and adhesive foam dots
7. craft knife
8. embellishments and letter stickers (optional)
Start by folding the ruler into your desired shape. The shape you choose needs to have a center large enough to fit a clock face. I chose a diamond shape, but you could also make a heart, square, rectangle, circle-like shape, triangle, hexagon, etc.
Secure the loose ends of your shape with an adhesive foam dot. Lay your shape flat on your poster board and trace the outline of the clock face around the outer edge of the folding ruler.
Cut out the shape from your poster board, and then place that onto your sheet of chipboard. Trace, and repeat the process so you have a chipboard shape that matches your poster board shape exactly. Adhere your poster board to the chipboard using double-sided craft tape. The chipboard provides additional stability for the poster board.
Using a ruler and pencil, mark the center of your poster board shape. Use the washer from the clock movement kit as a guide to trace a hole for your clock movement to fit through at the center mark. Cut out the hole with a craft knife.
Adhere your poster board + chipboard shape to the back of your ruler shape using glue dots and adhesive foam dots to account for the differences in height of the folding rulers. Add any embellishments or letter stickers to your poster board. I used my Silhouette and some Bazzill metallic gold cardstock to add a quote and some diamond accents.
Take off the clock hands and removable parts from the clock movement. Place some glue dots on the front of the clock movement and insert the shaft into the hole in the poster board. Be sure the built-in hanger is positioned properly for hanging the clock right-side up. Press the clock movement firmly into the poster board to set the glue dots securely.
Replace the clock hands and removable parts onto the clock movement in the correct order following the manufacturer’s instructions. Don’t forget to add your batteries! Set the clock to the appropriate time, and hang it on your wall.
These clocks are so fun and easy to make. They’re so versatile too! The possibilities are wide open. Watch for a video tutorial on the We R YouTube channel for how to make some star shape Ruler Studio clocks soon!
How fun!