Experimenting with Vellum

Pitch a Tent 

I just got my cards back from the "TGIF" LTC swap.  They came in the mail on Friday and I had to look at them and go because we were going camping.

This was my first time to use vellum.  I had heard several people talking about it on the LTC Facebook page and I decided to give it a try.  This was also my first time to use a brad on my card.  But I recently joined a tracker called "Bring on the Brads" where you had to use a brad on the card.  I'm starting to step out of my comfort zone a little bit.

I carved the stamp OZ and I will be donating it to some Girl Scouts in Ill who are trying to get more people interested in the hobby.

Peddling my Wares

My husband has been bugging me for a while that I need to find a way to sell my stamps and logbooks.  So I gave in started an Etsy shop.  I am starting off slow.  Right now I have a few logbooks and a pre-made letterbox for Brownie Girl Scouts.

I am not sure how I will go about selling stamps.  I think if people need a stamp they will just go to the store and buy one.  I will probably hold off on those until the spring.

Pre-made letterbox
(Lock & Lock, logbook, stamp, and pouch)

Now that I decided to do this I can only find time to make logbooks once the kids are in bed :(  In November, I plan to add some cross stitch Christmas ornaments.  My shop will have letterboxing stuff and some misc crafts.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Christmas6Creations

Calling All Sea Lovers LTCs

We just got our cards back from the "Calling All Sea Lovers" LTC swap.  I made the sand castle, Lego Clone Trooper (11) made the crab, R2-D2 (8) made the sea turtle, and Daddy's Favorite Princess (5) made the shell.  We got back an awesome set of cards.  It think this has been my favorite swap yet.

To Vincennes and beyond

Wooden sculpture of Tecumseh

Yesterday I went letterboxing in Vincennes.  I went with my boxing buddy who recently turned 70.  It is great boxing with her because she doesn't give up easily.  She was stung by a hornet on the head while we were out and she really didn't fuss about it.  If it would have been one of my kids we probably would have just turned around and went back home even though we were an hour away.

We started off in Vincennes.  Vincennes is in Knox county on the Wabash River in southwest Indiana.  It was founded in 1732 and is the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in Indiana and one of the oldest settlements west of the Appalachians.  The city has a lot of history and I would love to plant a box there.  For more information you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincennes,_Indiana.

All together we looked for six boxes there and found two (if you count web boxes).  One of the boxes that we could not find was a mystery box planted near the wooden sculpture of Tecumseh.  I was very disappointed that it was missing.  We also when to Ouabache (Wabash) Park.  It was supposed to have 3 boxes.  Two of them were planted by a park ranger in January but we could not find them and no one else has found them either.

George Rogers Clark Memorail

When we left Vincennes we came back south and grabbed a letterbox/geocache hybrid and went on to Mt Carmel, Il.  We found that one and moved on to Bone Gap.  We could not find that one and it was the end of the clues that I brought.

But my boxing buddy took me to one in Albion and she had brought a clue for a box in Fairfield.  We found both of those and started heading for home.  We had dinner at a Subway and made it back to Evansville just before 8pm.

It was a beautiful day to be out letterboxing.  We only found 6 of the 11 boxes we went for but it was so nice to be out and about.

The baby destroyed my cards

I spent this morning working on my cards for the "Trail Stamps Through The Years" tracker.  I was finished except for stamping the back and I left them on the table to get stuff together for my Girl Scout meeting tonight.  After a while I thought that the house sounded to quiet.  Sure enough, Lil Ewok (who will be 2 in January) was in the ink pads.

The tracker called for 11 cards, I made 12, and the baby messed up 4.  On the outside are our original stamps that I bought in November 2010.  At that time we were just christmas5.  Lil Ewok was born in January of 2012.  I didn't want to change our name because we had planted boxes as christmas5 and we never box together.  But I gave in to my noxer husband and changed to christmas6.

I like the little store bought stamps because the kids could all have a stamp of their own.  When I discovered letterboxing in Ocotober 2010 my kids were 8, 5, and 2.  I thought that they would enjoy stamping their own stamps in the boxes that we found.

I believe that I carved the big holly stamp with hearts in August 2012.  At first the holly and hearts were one piece and I colored them different colors.  After a while I decided that that took to long and I cut the hearts out and ink them separate.  I like using ink pads instead of markers.  

So that is where we are right now.  We use the little stamps in small logbooks and HHs and the big one for medium/big logbooks and exchanges.  I like this stamp(s) just the way it is.  It has our trail name and where we are from.  I really have no desire to change it.

PS-I also have a small signature stamp for the back of my LTCs.  It was carved by nosox in August(?) 2012.

Boxing in Warrick County

Today Lil Ewok and I went letterboxing in Warrick Co. We found all 5 boxes that we looked for!

The first box was in Chandler and it was planted by a Girl Scout troop. This is the 3rd box in our area planted by Brownies earning their Letterboxing Badge and it was the best. I'm glad that some of the leaders are getting it.

Lil Ewok celebrating our 5th find of the day.  

The other 4 that we looked for were in Newbrugh. They were all planted by the same boxer. All the boxes were in planters pouches in cemeteries and businesses along one road in town.

It is so rare to find all the letterboxes we go for. Great boxing day :)

Cooties!

GS Cookie Cooties

I just got my cards back from an LTC swap where you made a card from cooties.  I made up 8 cooties when I taught letterboxing at Girl Scout camp this summer (2 of them when missing).

I used two different papers for the background because I couldn't decide which one I liked better.  I got the paper from my mom.  She is a big scrapbooker and I go to her for a lot of card stuff.  The card has 3 stamps on the front and one on the back :)

Labor Day Weekend

My husband & kids in the pool.

I spent my Labor Day weekend relaxing at my sister-in-laws home in Taswell, In.  It is about an hour and a half from our house.  They have a pool, cable TV, and four wheelers so my kids love going up there.

Taswell is about 30 minutes from French Lick & West Baden.  These towns both have historic resort hotels.  And they also have letterboxes that I do not have :)  So on Sunday morning I went looking for them.

French Lick Resort & Casino  (btw Larry Bird grew up here) 

The first box that I went for was at French Lick.  It was just planted there in July by a boxer who was vacationing there.  The box was listed as a stroll (30 min or less) but I looked for an hour and could not find it.  Pretty sure the clue was very wrong.  I left that one and went up to West Baden.

West Baden was famous for their natural springs and the grounds were beautiful.  It had nice flowers, fountains, buildings, etc.  I had no problems finding the box.  The clue was very informative, the grounds were nice, location of the box was good, and the stamp was great.  I am really surprised that it is not a blue diamond box.

When I left West Baden I went back to French Lick and had lunch.  I was boxing alone and as I sat there I thought more about the clue for the first box.  Since I didn't have my kids I went back and looked again.  Altogether I looked for 1.5 hours and never found it.

Oh well.  I went back to my sister-in-laws, well I tried to anyway.  During the time that I was gone a tree fell on the road and I had to find another way to her house.  I am not familiar with the area and was surprised at how easily I found another route.

I found half of the boxes I looked for and spent the rest of the holiday weekend around the pool :)