Birth of a New Damn Hobby

Here's how it usually happens. I stumble across a photo of something that strikes me and I think, "I can make that." I stew on it for a while until the thought becomes "I WILL MAKE THAT." You know how it proceeds from there.

So flipping through a metal magazine I found this:

"THIS IS NO METAL BAND," I shouted. "This is music for dudes in ironic t-shirts and their blonde girlfriends. What is it doing in my metal mag AND WHY ARE THOSE ALIENS COMPLETELY RAD. IS THAT SCRATCHBOARD? I CAN MAKE THIS." (I did go ahead and check them out on Amazon, and it seems to be inoffensive stoner rock. Or like a decaf Ultra Vivid Scene. So they could be way worse.) (Also I can't remember which is the band name and which is the album. And the alien artist's name isn't listed anywhere.)

It probably isn't scratchboard. It's probably Photoshop or Windows Paint or something. But I decided it needed to be recreated in scratchboard. I was lucky enough to go to Hobby Lobby first, as they seem to be the only place that carries it. I picked up a three pack of 5x7 boards, a scratch tool and inks, and while all that was in my basket I found a booklet on how to work with scratchboard and sat down in the aisle and read it cover to cover. Screw you, Hobby Lobby!

Here's how it turned out:

Not bad, right? Also I learned to leave more space for the frame to cover up. Oh wait, I didn't learn that until I simultaneously made this next one for my friend's birthday. Remember how I always begin immediately foisting my new hobby on my friends? Regardless of the fact that this is literally my second project? Technically first and a half since I wasn't finished with the aliens when I started this?

That's my friend's guitar as depicted on the wall of a Mexican restaurant. I kept pestering her with annoying cryptic texts such as "Uh, there's a thing on your headstock that looks orange. I need to know what color it is. Like right now." To which she would reply, "WTF i'm driving." Fun Fact: I had to purchase reading glasses to finish that guitar. I am Officially Old.

Lucky for me, I was also in time for the BFF's birthday:

And I'm actually stealing his shot from FB because I either failed to take one (NO WAY!) or haven't retrieved it off the camera yet.

I need to start making badges for all these crafting techniques so I feel I'm accomplishing something. I can put them on a sash like I never had time to do that whole two weeks I was a Brownie. Surely all this useless knowledge will serve me well during the coming Apocalypse, right? Someone will need to be in charge of painting stupid shit on the cave walls for posterity, and bedazzling the torn rags that we're forced to wear by our overlords. Right? I'll just have to kill all the crafters that are better than me. I can do that.