Happy Cake Day!

Today is our second letterboxing anniversary!  We got two boxes, finished some LTCs, and spent the evening trick-or-treating.  We have had a great second year.  We attended our first events, co-hosted an event, started LTCs, and found our 200th box.  Woo hoo!

Stamp Shirt

Earlier this month someone posted on Atlas Quest that Wal Mart had a shirt out for Halloween that had a stamped image of an owl on it.  I really didn't think much of it at first but last week I was at Wal Mart and I decided to look for it.  I was very surprised to see that the image was the same one I had carved and planted during Spring Break.  I got the shirt, went to my box, and took my picture wearing the shirt with the stamp.  I'm sure my husband and kids really think I'm nuts now!

Fantastic Fall Foliage

We picked up a Hitchhiker and a Flea while we were letterboxing in Cannelton a few weeks ago.  I didn't want to hold onto them too long so I decided to bring them to the University of Southern Indiana. USI has about a dozen boxes that are very popular. I thought that by taking them out there that they would be picked up and passed along quickly.

It is a wonderful time to be out letterboxing in Indiana.  The temp this week has been in the 80s and the leaves are beautiful.

The Princess was a little fussy but the baby is always happy to be out and about.  He did get upset when I slipped and brushed him against a tree with thorns.  I didn't take a look at it until we got back to the car; the poor guy had a scratch all the way down his arm :(  I'll have to be more careful when I'm hauling him around on my back.

Something New For Christmas??

I am in the "Something New For Christmas" LTC tracker.  I had an idea that I would carve a simple nativity silhouette and then my "something new" would be a fancy background.  The tracker had a link to a blog with  more than 50 background techniques; should be easy to find something I could do, right?

My favorite idea was covering your paper with torn masking tape, inking the tape, and then stamping the image on the taped card.  One problem I had was that the ink on the tape would not dry.  I was stamping the ink pad directly onto the card.  After a while I started putting the ink on the card with a makeup sponge.  This helped the ink to dry but the color was much lighter than I wanted.  Also, the stamp looked bad because of the uneven card surface.

Then I tried several different ink & salt techniques.  I tried ink & salt on card stock and ink & salt on photo paper.  I bought several kinds of inks and even made my own alcohol inks (I now have blue hands).  I like the photo paper look but I was afraid that that was the background that everyone was going to use.  I had discussed my tape issues on Facebook and others said what techniques they were using for the swap.


I went back to the background blog and found another to try.  You simply put rubber bands on a jar, roll it through your embossing ink pad, roll it on the paper, add embossing powder, and heat set.  Then you ink up the card with ink pads, spray inks, etc.  I really liked this one too but not for the stamp I had carved.  I may have liked it better if I would have used a colored embossing powder instead of clear.



Again I went to the internet searching for ATC's and ATC backgrounds.  I watched a few videos on YouTube and decided to try bubble paper.  I didn't think it would work for this project but wanted to give it a try.  I played around with it and this is the background technique that I have finally settled on!  I used store bought bubbles, food coloring, and photo paper.

I also tried pigment inks and dye inks on this card.  Sometimes the pigment ink didn't want to stick to the card.  And sometimes that effect looked nice but sometimes it didn't.  I didn't really like the dye ink look because it was to light.  So the cards I sent off are a mix of inks.  I can't wait to see what everyone else has done for this swap :)

Sandstones of Time Event

We had a great time letterboxing at the Sandstones of Time event yesterday in Cannelton, In.  The weather was nice and the changing leaves were beautiful.  Cannelton was celebrating their 175 Anniversary and had a festival on one of its main streets downtown.  There was food, crafts, activities for the kids, bands, etc.  When we were done finding the event boxes we looked for other boxes close by.

This is the Indiana Cotton Mill.  It is the first stop on the LB tour.  It was built in 1849 and was in use until 1954.

Lil Ewok, Daddy's Favorite Princess, and Lego Clone Trooper panning for gold.

This is the old courthouse now a museum.  In the background you can see St Michael's Church.  Both of these locations were on the LB tour of historic Cannelton.

Found a camouflage frog while boxing. 

Celtic Cross in Cannelton.  This is one of the boxes that we got after the  LB event.  Beautiful location and cross.  They are carving another cross just up the road.  

Bookworm

My boys love to carve stamps.  This stamp was made by Lego Clone Trooper (age 10).  I made the cards for the Holidays of November swap (Young Reader's Day).  We are hoping to get permission to plant the stamp in a local library.  I believe that this card will be in the next issue of the LetterPost.

Fall Festival 2012

My Fall Festival 2012 boxes only had three finders. I was very disappointed that I had made three stamps and so few people showed up.  It was cold and it rained several days so maybe that kept people away.  I wish we had more active boxers here in town :(

Phineas and Ferb

We recently got back our LTCs from the Phineas and Ferb swap.  We made three cards for the swap.  The Princess wanted to make Candace but she is to young to carve.  I made the stamp and she decorated the cards.

R2-D2 really likes carving and seems to be better at it than Lego Clone Trooper.  R2-D2 made the Agent P & Doofenshmirtz.  He also decorated the cards.

Lego Clone Trooper picked the image for the tidal wave card but it was to hard for him to carve.  It was almost more than I could handle.  I started coloring the cards myself but about half way through the boys wanted to set up an assembly line.  So, both of the boys helped color that card.

I plan on planting these stamps in the wild but I thought there was something missing.  Then I made the logo stamp to finish the set.  I only made five cards of it.  I will use three for first finder gifts and use the others for different swaps.

Logo stamp
carved & colored by christmas6

Driving your sister insane
carved by christmas6 & painted by The Princess

Curse you, Perry the Platypus
carved & colored by R2-D2

Surfing tidal waves
carved & mostly colored by christmas6