Tired of giving chocolates and cards? Make this elegant vintage Valentine Clock - and your sweetie's heart will take flight! On time!

(click here for a larger Valentine Clock craft image)

A Valentine clock? Isn't that about as traditional as the Easter pig? You'll change your mind about that and fall in love with this easy and elegant Valentine craft.

The beauty behind this lovely clock gift is its simple construction. Start with an empty, 7" cardboard heart-shaped candy box (You may have to empty several, so have an appetite). Glue on a vintage image clock face. Punch a hole and insert a battery clock. Add a cardboard support in back. Now embellish with gold braid and fluffy, feathered wings. That's it - basically paper, scissors, glue and a clock.

Materials for Valentine Clock Craft

• Vintage Image and Templates (FREE PDF download) printed on matte or glossy photo paper. Print the wings and stand templates on plain paper. Print the text on translucent vellum.
• Heart-shaped cardboard candy box, 7" high, 7" wide and about 1" deep. (see Tips).
• Battery clock movement (see Tips).
• Gold braid or gimp, 30".
• Narrow ribbon, 7", any color.
• White feathers (see Tips).
• Medium cardboard, like tagboard.
• Tacky craft glue (like Alene's) or spray adhesive.
• Glue stick.
• Hot glue gun.
• Double stick tape.
• Spray paint (optional) (see Tips).
• Decorative edge scissors (deckle edge).
• Scissors.
• Hole punch (1/8" hole).

Instructions

1. Print out the vintage image clock face and all templates. Position the clock face in the center of the box lid, trace the lid shape on the back of the image, and cut it out (see Tips). Glue the image to the box lid with tacky white glue or spray adhesive. Press it flat until the glue is dry.
2. Cut or punch a 1/4" hole in the center of the clock face (marked with a small + just below the heart) for the clock stem.



3. Cut a 2 1/2" square of 3/16" foamcore or corrugated cardboard (adjust the thickness of the foamcore or cardboard according to the length of the clock stem (see Tips). Mark the center of the square with two diagonal lines, and punch or cut a 1/4" hole. Align the hole with the hole in the lid and glue the foamcore inside the box lid.
4. Secure the clock movement to the foam core in the lid with double stick tape. Attach the hands and hex nut on the face of the clock.
   
   
5. Cut the vellum with the printed Valentine text into a 6" long strip with decorative edge scissors. Paint the edges with a gold paint pen. Attach the strip to the face of the clock at an angle with a few dabs of glue stick. Trim the ends even with the edges of the box lid.
   
   
6. Glue the gold braid (Martha Stewart calls it gimp) around the outside edge of the box lid with the hot glue gun. Start and end at the bottom point of the heart and trim the excess braid.
   
   
7. Trace the Valentine clock stand template onto tagboard. Score and fold the top of the stand and glue it to the top of the back of the box. Punch 1/8" holes at the bottom of the back of the box and the center of the bottom of the stand. Knot the 7" ribbon at one end, thread it through the hole in the box and the hole in the stand, and knot it at the other end.
8. Trace the wings templates onto tagboard and cut them out. Glue them to the back of the box. Glue feathers onto the front of the wings (see Tips).
9. Now, replace the top on the box and stand your clock up. Yes, you can embellish further if you wish. Perhaps some glitter on the face of your Valentine clock? Victorians would have loved that.

Tips

• We chose the most common heart-shaped Valentine candy box size we could find: 7" high, 7" wide, and 1" deep. Good old Russell Stover candy. The box should be entirely cardboard. Some boxes have molded plastic between the lids, but these will take a lot of cutting to allow room for the clock mechanism inside. If the top of the box is embossed, just burnish the embossing flat or add another layer of paper under the vintage image clock face.
• Clock mechanisms are available at craft stores. We used one manufactured by Walnut Hollow labeled "quartz clock movement for 1/4 inch surfaces." This means that the stem for the hands is a little over 1/4" long. If the face of your clock is 1/4" thick, this movement allows a fraction more for the threaded hex bolt to secure it to the face of the clock. Since our cardboard box lid was too thin, we glued a small square of 3/16" thick foamcore between the clock and the lid. Perfect! By the way, these flimsy little clock movements are expensive in a craft store. When we see cheap battery clocks at the Dollar Store or a thrift store, we buy them just for the movements. 
• The easiest way to position the clock face image on the box lid is to lay the image on the lid, hold it up to a window, and shift them until it looks perfectly centered. Then lay it face down and trace around the lid. Alternatively, you can find the center of the lid by cutting a paper pattern of the lid, folding it into perfect quarters, and marking the intersection of the folds. Match this up with the center of the clock face (the tiny + sign just below the heart), and trace around it.
• This is the first time we've worked with feathers, and the experience was eye-opening. We used filmy white maribou feathers, as opposed to studier turkey feathers. When we were done, there was feather-fuzz floating everywhere. Beware, and have a vacuum cleaner nearby. The easiest way we found to attach the feathers was one by one, with a thin line of hot glue down the back spine of each feather. It didn't take many to cover a wing - maybe 6-8 feathers. Feather-phobic? Cut out a small feather pattern from plain white paper, score lengthwise  for dimension and fringe the edges with scissors. Layer them on and you'll have much the same look.
• We used fancy gold braid (or what Matha Stewart calls gimp) around the face of our Valentine clock, but almost anything will work. We also tried out a string of pearls and some tiny lace trim, and both looked smashing.