craftgrrl | No decorated straps for me... I go all the way. Full guitar body modification, right here. (Reply)

On Saturday I bought a guitar for the hefty sum of sixty Great British Pounds. I intentionally bought a plain one so I could decorate it (not that I had that much choice at such a low price). This afternoon I rode my scooter to the Post Office and bought 300 one penny postage stamps and 100 two penny stamps. The man said 'are you sure?'. 'Hell yes' I replied, only without the swearing.

Then I rode home as fast as my speed-capped scooter would carry me (30mph) and got to work.

So here are the stamps (note Queen's head):

First I unscrewed the pick guard with a screwdriver I got in a Christmas cracker.

As you can see, the inside of an electric guitar is like a party:

I spent a few minutes poking around in there and singing along to Madonna (the soundtrack to this craft was The Immaculate Collection and Girls Get Busy by Bratmobile). Then I cleaned off the pick guard with a tissue and got sticking. Ideally I would have removed it completely which would have been lots easier, but I didn't have a spanner to take off the nuts around the control nobs, so it was held to the main body by a few wires. I stuck one 2p stamp right in the middle, then stuck others around it in a grid. When I came to the weirdly shaped edge, I either stuck the stamps to overlap the edge, or left a space which I could fill in with the offcuts of other stamps.

Then I ran up to my room and found some sharp but tiny scissors (designed for psychopath babies or something) which meant I could cut the stamps around the edges with relative ease. I trimmed them all off, filled in any gaps and glued down a couple of stamps that were peeling off. Sticking licky-back things onto shiny plastic isn't ideal, but I PVA glued over the top to seal them in and it seems to be ok.

By this time Madonna and Bratmobile had finished so I put on the television and listened to it so I didn't feel quite so crazy sitting in one place for hours and hours concentrating on postage stamps. I got started on the purple stamps in the same way as the green. I scratched a faint line about an inch in from the edge of the guitar to go up to; I thought the stamps would get too much wear if I put them right up to the side. I also scratched the outline of the pick guard with scissors. It was kind of scary to scratch a guitar like that. Then lick, stick, lick, stick, lick, stick, lick, stick, lick, stick, lick, stick, lick, stick, lick, stick, for a couple more hours. When I came to it I unscrewed the jack plate (where the amp lead plugs in) so I could stick the stamps going under it instead of cutting to size. There was a little space under there so I hid a few things that are important to me in the nook, to make me play better. Obviously. To get the stamps the right shape for the curve, I placed an unlicked stamp in the space and drew on the curve with a pencil. Then I cut the stamp, licked it and stuck it down.

It felt good to finish that bit. I screwed the pickups and pickup switch back into the pick plate, then screwed the whole plate back down. It was pretty satisfying when it was all back together. I didn't like to leave the head plain , so I used the last of my 2p stamps and some 1p stamps to cover that too.

I put sealing glue over the head and pickup plate (I'll do the main body later, with a wider brush) then fainted.

This is what my sofa looks like

except all over everything, not just the arms.

This is what I look like

And this is what my guitar looks like:

what next??
I've since put back the volume/tone knobs, but I plan on changing them later.
I was thinking of making a little cube and sticking a stamp on top of it to make a knob, but its touch and go as to whether I can ever look at a stamp again at the moment.
Any suggestions as to what I could replace the knobs with? Another thought was dice.
I was also thinking about painting Grrrl from Cat and Girl onto it (I emailed the artist and she said it was fine ^_^), possibly in glow in the dark paint so it looks awesome in dark bars.
I would love to hear any other suggestions, I personalising things so completely that they are like an extension of me.

I'm sure I remember someone telling me that defacing stamps was a crime because its the Queen's head and shit. If I mysteriously disappear, unleash hell!

Having a fun guitar is a great incentive to get good with my band so we can play somewhere and I can show off my stamp fun.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to throw up, 90% of which will be stamp glue.