Christmas

Thank you Book Hoarder :)

Yesterday I got my stamp from my Secret Santa and I love it.  This is my 4th Peanuts stamp and it goes right with the Christmas postcard I made this year.  However, I am not sure what to do with it.  I would like to use it as a PT or event box but we rarely go to events/meet other boxers.  I also think it would be cool to plant them all as traditional boxes but there are only 2-3 active boxers here.  I will probably make some LTCs and think about it some more.

Speaking of my Christmas postcard, I dropped the last batch off at the post office this morning!  If you count the 10 that I send off for the tracker, I have mailed out more than 130 of these suckers.  Wow, more than I expected.  It seemed like every time I sat down to work on them another new address showed up.  So, if you haven't gotten one yet (and you think I have your addy) it could be in the batch I sent out today. 

Lil Ewok with his favorite nativity, Charlie Brown. 

Lastly, we had a Christmas miracle over the weekend.  Someone other than me planted a letterbox in my city.  Woo hoo!  It was a store bought stamp but beggars can't be choosers right?  And they were serving cookies so that makes up for the stamp.

The box was planted at a church having a large creche (nativity) display.  The gym of the church was filled with all different ones.  Large, small, wood, glass, ceramic, from other countries, etc.  It was really cool.  Lil Ewok and I enjoyed the displays, cookies, and letterbox.  

 I hope everyone has a very awesome Christmas!

Cupcakes!! LTCs

Cupcakes!!: Cupcake with glitter & sequins

Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in the LTC swap "Caupcakes!!"

DFP was very excited about this swap and carved her stamp right after it was posted and made her cards a few weeks later.  All of her cards are a little different because she used all sorts of glitter & sequins.  The background paper is also glittery.

I wasn't sure about what to do with my card and almost dropped from the tracker but stuck with it because of the princess.  I found the cherry paper first and then started looking for images of a cupcake with a cherry on top.

Cupcakes!!: Cherry on Top

I stamped my image on cardstock and colored it in with watercolor pencils and went over it with a water brush pen thing.  I glued that to the cherry paper and then to the chocolate ;) paper.

We had fun making our cards and will be excited to see what the other participants make.

Thanksgiving Leftovers LTC

This is my card for the "Post Thanksgiving Leftovers" LTC swap.  This is my second time to participate in one of Team Awesome Pants "quickie" swaps.  She gives you about a week to make the cards and it is supposed to made completely of items you already have on hand.

I carved this stamps for our fall event in 2012.  I signed up for the tracker with the intention of using this stamp and then I thought it might be too big.  I dug around and found it and it fit.

The background paper has pumpkins and a strip from a dictionary.  Then the top layer of paper is a brown grocery bag.  I stamped my stamp first and did the stitching around the edge.  After that I glued everything together.  I really like how they turned out :)

Peanuts Christmas Postcard

This is my postcard for Housepitality Hostess "Christmas Postcard III" swap.  She set up 4 of these swaps with 10 people in each.

I carved up the large group stamp right after I joined the tracker in November (2013).  This is now the biggest stamp I have ever carved.  I carved up Snoopy & Woodstock earlier this year and used it on a Valentines theme card.

I found the "Festive Garland" on Etsy.  I like to buy stamps from other people to see what materials and techniques they are using.  The seller was not a letterboxer but she said that she had just recently heard of the hobby.

I am going to make a few extras so if I have your addy, you may get one ;)

Beetle's Christmas Cards

For the second year I am participating in Beetle's Christmas Card LTC swap.  I carved this stamp in the fall of 2012 and used it for Shrinky Dink quips.  I have been wanted to reuse it and I finally did :)

Once again I found this background idea on Pinterest.  I really like using alcohol inks because all the cards look so different.  For this set, I squirted the inks and blending solution onto the craft mat and smeared my glossy card stock cards thru it.

Then you tape the cards to a stencil.  Take a little blending solution on to the fancy rubber and rub over the stencil and cards.  When I was done with that I stamped my Mary stamp onto the cards.

They needed something else so I dug around in my store bought stamp box and found the pretty "Merry Christmas" text.  I glued the whole thing to brown card stock.  I love how they turned out!

Christmas Cards 2014: Mary did you know

Our Cake (and candy) Day

Today is our 4 year letterboxing anniversary.  We didn't do much boxing.  Lil Ewok and I did maintenance on one box and got another ready to plant but that was it.

We had a busy day though.  I made homemade chicken noodle soup for a meeting that my husband has tomorrow.  I got my hair cut.  And I have been working on SWAPS for a Girl Scout event tomorrow.  I feel like I should have more but I am worn out.

Of course with it being Halloween we went around the neighborhood getting candy.  In the pic, Lil Ewok is a Minion, Daddy's Favorite Princess is Elsa, Lego Clone Trooper is too cool for a costume, and R2-D2 is Bilbo Baggins.  It got cold really fast but we had a good time.

Thanksgiving LTC

This is my card for the Thanksgiving LTC tracker.  It is obviously called, "Cornucopia."

This image came on an envelope in the mail.  The envelope was addressed to my husband from the American Bible Society.  He probably thought I was crazy, but I asked him to save it for me.

I carved up the stamp and then a missionary friend sent me a message that she and her family were going to Macedonia again.  She had paid me to cave her a stamp of the Macedonian flag not to long ago.

As a fundraiser for her trip they are having an auction and she asked if I would donate an item.  I decided that after I finished my cards I would send her this stamp.  I am including a felt pouch and a $25 Etsy gift card.  I like the stamp so much that I may carve it again.

I stamped the stamp on the cardstock with white ink.  I probably should have rubbed some white ink around the edge or punched the corners :/

Pumpkin Carving

I have been very busy lately caring stamps for my Etsy shop.  You might remember that I opened it in September of last year to get my husband off my back about selling stamps.  I never thought it would do so well.  I have had 70+ sales in a little over a year.  On Saturday, I took a break from stamp carving to carve some pumpkins.

We have a pumpkin carving party with my family every year.  A few years ago it was moved from my parents house to their river camp.  The weather for the party this year was perfect.  Here are a few pics :) 

Here is my crew carving pumpkins.  Tie dye in the back is Lego Clone Trooper, next to him in the straw hat is R2-D2, Noxer Dave in the red IH hat, Lil Ewok in the white t-shirt, skip one, then Daddy's Favorite Princess in the blue/purple tie dye.

Lil Ewok is very proud of the pumpkin he and daddy made :)

Group pic of the final result.

My pumpkin :) 

Autumn Abundance & Halloween 2014 LTCs

Autumn Abundance: Colorful Tree

Today I am gonna squeeze two LTCs into one blog post :)  

This is my third year participating in Housepitality Hostess's autumn LTC swap and this is the third of my cards using my plain tree for different seasons.

For the background I tore pages from a book and stamped my tree trunk on them.  I took some Tim Holtz Distressed Ink and rubbed it around the edge with a small piece of felt.  I cut up fall colored papers with my Bind it All and used them as leaves.  I just glued them on with school glue.  I glued the whole thing to brown paper.  I got to looking at it and decided that it needed another stamp.  So, I carved up the leaf and stamped it orange on the cards.  I think this is my favorite of these season cards.

(Spring: http://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2014/06/flowering-trees-ltc.html)

(Summer: http://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2014/08/mixed-media-tree.html)

Halloween 2014: Spooky Spider

I am also in the Halloween 2014 tracker and the cards are due just a few days apart.

I got the idea for this card on Pinterest.  I took some mixed media paper and Mod Podged strips of black tissue paper on it.  When it was dry, I wrapped the white yarn around the card to look like a spider web.

I glued that to the light grey background.  I carved up the spider and the fly stamps and stamped them on light grey paper too.  I embossed the spiders eyes with red glittery embossing powder.  I attached the fly with a small glue dot and the spider was attached with a 3D glue dot.  These turned out ok, but I got sick of making them pretty fast.

Day Out With Thomas

Today we went to French Lick to ride Thomas the Train.  We did this about 8 years ago when Lego Clone Trooper was 4 and R2-D2 was just a few months old.  We decided it would be fun to do it again.  This time is was a lot closer to home.  French Lick is almost 2 hours away.



At a Day Out With Thomas you get to ride the train, listen to stories, color pictures, play in a bounce house, blow bubbles, check out other trains, have your picture taken with Thomas and/or Sir Topham Hat and more.  The kids had a great time but after a few hours we were tired and hungry.  We left to get lunch and letterbox :)

I had boxed there last summer but a new box had been planted there just a few months ago.  We had a hard time finding it at first so we gave up and planted a 2 box series of our own.

On the way back to the car we started asking people for help.  It turns out that we needed to go behind the resort.  After that we had no problems finding the box.

We had a great day in French Lick :)

First Finder Ice Cream :)

Trail of Love 

Today my boxing buddy, G-MA, Lil Ewok, and I went boxing in New Harmony, In.  We started off at Harmonie State Park.

There is a small trail with 4 stamps on it.  G-MA had tried looking for them once and could not find them.  My family had looked for them once and found 3 of the 4.  So today we went and looked together.

We didn't try to look for the first one because it had been missing for a while.  We did find the last 3.  It was a beautiful day to be out boxing and it was also G-MA's birthday :)

We were supposed to make this trip on Friday but her mother was feeling ill at the last minute and we had to postpone our trip.

After our walk, we checked on 2 other drive bys in the park.  One was there and the other was missing.

When we were done at the state park we headed to Pop's Grill in the town of New Harmony.  This box has only been here a month or two.  We went in for lunch and grabbed the box.  The clue says that there will be a prize for the first two finders but there was noting extra in the box.

We asked about it and the owner said that it was too big for the box.  After we had been eating for a little bit she brought us an envelope.  It was a certificate to buy one/get one free Banana Split.  We were too full to get it today but promised we would be back.

I think G-MA had a pretty good boxing birthday :)

Whatever!! LTC

Whatever!! Patient Pumpkin

This is my card for the "Whatever!!" LTC swap.  I got the idea for the background on Pinterest.  I took brown scrapbook paper and cut it to size.  Then, I rubbed a dark brown Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad on to my embossing folder.  I laid the paper on and ran it through my Cuttlebug embossing machine.  Some of the papers tore when pulling them off of the folder but I love how they turned out.

I carved up a simple pumpkin.  I have been looking for some kind of blendy markers but decided to try watercolor colored pencils.  I like how that part turned out too.

I needed to add something else to my card and I tried some tan raffia that I had laying around.  I liked the look but the color was off.  So I bought some green raffia and used it as grass under the pumpkin.  I think they turned out okay :)

Interesting Find

This year we are planting letterboxes for each family member near their birthday.  Today we planted the last one for my noxer hubby.  He is on the cemetery board for Barnett Cemetery.  This is a rural cemetery in Warrick County.

It was about 9am and the grass was wet so Lil Ewok refused to walk.  I carried him around looking for a good hiding spot and taking notes.  When we discovered a bee hive in a big tree.

When we first pulled up I thought that the big multi trunk tree with another tree with it would be a good hiding spot.  The other tree had a note in a plastic bag tied to the limb.  When I stopped to check out the note I noticed the bees.  I sat Lil Ewok down and snuck up to take a pic.  I have never seen anything like it.  Both of the trunks had bees on them.

Pretty cool find for us today :)

Mixed Media Tree

I am in the "Mixed Media Frenzy" LTC swap.  I really don't know what "mixed media" is but I have received several collage cards recently so that is what I wanted to do.

I stated before that I had an idea to carve a plain tree stamp and use it for several seasons.  This is actually the first card that I started using it on.

For the background I took playing cards and Mod Podged strips of paper on them.  I used a phone book, old map, and parts of the news paper.

Then I took my tree trunk and stamped it on the cards.  For the leaves I placed a stencil on the card and painted the leaves.  I put the stencil on one way and used one shade of acrylic green paint.  Then I moved it a little and used a different shade of paint.

I wanted the cards to have a quote about trees but it needed to be short and sweet.  I found one by Ralph Waldo Emerson that says, "The creation of a thousand forest is in one acorn."  I liked it so I printed it off and carved up a small acorn stamp.

I glued the strips of text on with a glue stick and used raised glue dots for the acorn.  Then I glued the whole thing to some tree scrapbook paper.  I added that the quote was by Emerson on the back.

When I had the idea to make these tree cards I really didn't plan to make them all so close together.

Vincennes Again & Lepidoptera

Caboose at Princeton Train Depot

My letterboxing buddy, G-MA, and I went boxing together on Friday.  About 2 weeks ago someone passing through planted a box in Vincennes.  It is about an hour away so I was not in a big hurry to go get it.  But when MiSs cHiEvOuS nEsS was in town for our recent event she planted a box in Princeton which is half way between Evansville and Vincennes.  I had planned on going for the boxes on Friday and G-MA contacted me to see if we wanted to go together and I said yes.

The Princeton box was at the Princeton Depot.  There is another box here but G-MA and I already had it so we didn't check on it.  We did look around inside the building for a bit a talked with the workers who were not very friendly.

Gibson Co Quilt Square

Gibson County has a trail of quilt squares.  We saw several on out trip and this is the one at the depot.  G-MA thinks I should plant a box at each one.  There are 212!!  I can not do that but I do need to check them out and see if any of them have good hiding spots.  Maybe that can be an idea for next year. I don't know, plant a quilt square once a month?

The box in Vincennes is planted near a running track.  It was a beautiful day so G-MA and I sat at the bleachers and talked for a while.  We ate lunch at a Chinese place in Vincennes and then headed home.

Lepidoptera  II: Question Mark Butterfly

This is my card for the Lepidoptera II tracker.  When I first made the card I really liked it.  But the more I look at it the more I hate it :(

It's Back!

Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice 

I just got my Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice back from being quilted!  I just have to trim the edge and add the binding and I am all done :)  Now I know what you are thinking, "What does all this quilting have to do with letterboxing?"  But I discovered the quilt on Atlas Quest.

I believe that I have talked about this quilt before but I thought I would explain it again.  This is a mystery quilt.  I didn't do it that way but that is how it started.

Back in November, Bonnie Hunter posted on her blog what fabrics you needed for the quilt (what colors, sizes, etc).  Then once a week for 5 weeks she posted what blocks to make, what size, color, etc.  She gave step by step instructions.

Quilting up close.

As people when along they posted pics of their progress on the Facebook page.  Then on Jan 1st, Bonnie Hunter reveled what the finished quilt should look like.  Everyone also posted pics of their finished quilts and I fell in love with them.  So I made one too and I love it!

I probably should have made it a little wider but my husband can sleep on the short side :)~

Something Old, Something New...

Make Mine a Double!:Roses

I am in a LTC swap that was originally called "Make Mine a Double."  Then the name was changed to "Pete & Repeat."  But I have been calling it the "Something Old, Something New"
swap.

For this swap you had to use a stamp that you had before the swap was listed and use one that you got/carved after the swap was listed.  You also had to use stuff (paper, ink, embellishments, etc) that you had before and some that you got after.

I had a lot of ideas for this card.  For one of my ideas I couldn't find the old stamp that I wanted.  While I was thinking about this card I got the news that Housepitality Hostess's husband was killed in a card accident.  Then, I wanted my card to be meaningful.

For this card I used my old rose stamp.  This is the third card that I have used it on.  The stamp and all the papers are old.  The rose stamp is embossed.  The quote about thorns is new and so is the bee.  I think they turned out pretty good.

Today is the first day of school.  If you are keeping track, I started this blog 2 years ago when my kids went back to school.  Now it is just me and Lil Ewok at home.  Bitter sweet :)

TN to Turoni's Event

Last night we met at Turoni's for a little event.  MiSs cHiEvOuS nEsS was in town from Tn.  Her son attended a local summer camp and Team Awesome Pants organized the event for the day they were picking up their son.

I am always surprised how people travel far and wide for events.  We had MiSs cHiEvOuS nEsS from Tn, BBStacker & Cootie Queen from Va, aMAZEing adventure frog came over from St Louis, Team Awesome Pants is from the Indy area, and the Gumbies came from Ill.

We had a lot of fun talking and passing around stamps.  The event was at 8pm so we ate before we went.  Daddy's Favorite Princess and I enjoyed a brownie but Lego Clone Trooper and R2-D2 brought their own money and ordered a pizza.  Silly boys :)

Paducah, Ky

4 different Log Cabin quilt tops

This year has been the year of quilts.  Back in the fall I found a Facebook group making a mystery quilt.  (I actually found the group through AQ.)  The group was making Bonnie Hunters Celtic Solstice.  I had never heard of a mystery quilt but at the beginning Bonnie Hunter tells on her blog how much fabric to buy, what colors, etc.  She gives you a few weeks to get everything together and then every week for 5 weeks she tells you what quilt square to make.  She tells what size, colors, gives step by step instructions, etc.

On January 1st, Bonnie Hunter has the big reveal and shows how to assemble the squares into her Celtic Solstice quilt.  Every one on the Facebook page was showing their progress and finished quilts.  Earlier this year I decided that I had to make the quilt.  I got all my materials together and completed the top in just a few weeks.  When I was done I sent it to a local woman to quilt it and I am eagerly waiting for it to be finished.

Outside the National Quilt Museum

During this process my kids have really enjoyed watching me make the quilt and then they all wanted quilts.  The first quilt I ever made was a Log Cabin quilt.  So I told the kids that I would make a bunch of Log Cabin squares and they could arrange them.  I just finished the tops this week and to celebrate we went to the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky.

Paducah is about 2 hrs southwest of us and it has 5 letterboxes (now 6).

You are not allowed to take photos inside the quilt museum but here are the kids goofing off with a sculpture outside.  While we were there we planted a box nearby.

 Also in Paducah is a RR museum and it has a letterbox inside. You might recall that we went to a train museum on spring break and it was awesome.  Well this one was not so much.  Oh well, you win some you loose some.

Oak Grove Cemetery

There were two boxes in a local cemetery and they were easy to find.  However, the grounds crew had nothing to do on this gloomy rainy day so they drove in circles the whole time we were there.  We ended up taking the first box with us to the second box because they were hanging out too close to the first one.  We eventually were able to get everything back where it belonged.

Just down the road was a nice large park.  It had a cool amphitheater that the kids ran around on while I stamped the near by box.  We were almost attacked by ducks on the way back to the car.  The park had several play grounds so we had to stop and play for a little while.

The last box we looked for was another Whispering Giant mystery box.  This is our third one to look for and the second one that we have found.  These stamps are amazing!  If you haven't looked for one, you should!

Wacinton made of Red Oak 

We had a great trip.  The quilt museum was nice, we found all of the letterboxes that we looked for, and the kids were pretty well behaved.  We did miss our turn on the way home and went a little out of our way.  I always tell the kids that letterboxing is all about driving in circles ;)

July Nonsense

July Nonsense: And I'm Cute

This is my card for the "July Nonsense" LTC swap.  She is Dot from the Animaniacs and the card is called, "And I'm Cute."

The Animaniacs was my favorite cartoon in middle/high school.  The three main characters were the Warner bothers and the Warner sister, Dot.

They made Animaniac fabric and my mom made me some shorts with it.  Later she made me a quilt and added some of the extra fabric to it.  I also had a small figure of Dot glued to the dash of my 1st car.

I carved this stamp for the "Whatever You Want to Carve" postal tracker last year.  But then I was to chicken to sign up and she has just been sitting in my extra stamp drawer.

I stamped the stamp on white cardstock with black ink.  Then I wanted to color the skirt and flower with some kind of blending markers.  I bought some Tim Holtz markers and a water brush/pen but it didn't really work how I would have liked.  For the nose I just used a fine red Sharpie.

I got a Cricut Cuttlebug for my birthday and I used it for the pink background.  I glued everything together with a glue stick.  I really hope I am able to find the blending markers next time I want them :(

Favorite Childhood Cartoon Character: Dot

EDIT: Of course as soon as I sent these cards off someone listed a LTC trackers for "Favorite Childhood Cartoon Character."  So I have made another version of the card.  This time I just stamped it with back ink on pink cardstock and rubbed a little ink around the edge.

Finding, Maintenance & Swimming

Lil Ewok at the walking rosary

For a few days each summer my kids that are potty trained go and stay at my sister in laws house.  They have a pool, four wheelers, cable tv, etc, and the kids love to spend a few days away from mom & dad.

Today was pick up day and Lil Ewok and I did some letterboxing on the way.  First, we stopped to get a new box in Ireland.  The box is hidden near a walking rosary.  This was really interesting.

The summer I graduated from high school (1997) I worked at a local Catholic summer camp as the cook and they walked the rosary there.  It wasn't anything fancy like this.  They would do it at night, with candles, and walk a big loop, praying the rosary.  So this spot brought back some old memories.

Overgrown Nature Preserve

Our second stop was to check on our Monster High boxes that I have blogged about in Huntingburg.  Half of the finders (2 of 4) have reported the box was not in it's hiding place when they found it but out in the open.  The last finders said that she put a rock on it but I wanted to check on it anyway.

The last finder who put the rock on it was just there 2 weeks ago but when we went today the box was out of it's hiding spot again!  So we moved it down the path a bit.  I checked the logbooks and it had no extra muggle sign ins.  I hope this helps keep it safe.

Swimming at Martys 

 I wanted to make a third stop and check on my boxes at Ferdinand State Forest but we didn't make it that far.  I told my sister in law that I would be at her house at noon and I didn't want her to worry about me.

At Ferdinand State Forest we have 4 boxes on a 3 mile trail and they have only recorded as found once.  I just wanted to make sure that all was well.  I will have to go back another day.  This fall, 3 of my 4 kids will be in school so that might be a good time to sneak off ;)

Independence Day Weekend

Playing at the beach

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.  It is always a busy one for us :)  We go out on the Ohio River with my family on the fourth.  The kids love swimming, playing at the beach, and watching the fireworks from the boat.

LCT with his cake 

In 2014 we are celebrating our birthdays with letterboxes.  Lego Clone Trooper turned 12 (OMG) on the 5th.  We always have his party at my parents river camp.  It's a great place for the kids to run around, swim, etc.

The box that we planted for his birthday is not near my parents camp.  This area floods every year so I had to look for higher ground.  We put it near downtown in an area that is easily accessible by car but it is also near the paved pedestrian path that goes around town.

It was a great weekend for the Christmas family.  I better get back to washing all the laundry that smells like river.    

Lil Ewok playing while planting :)

Red White & Blue

Red White & Blue: Papaw's River

This is my card for the "Red White & Blue" LTC swap.  My parents have a river camp on the Ohio River and we spend a lot of time there in the summer.  On the 4th of July we always go out and watch the fireworks from the boat.

All of my kids have called the Ohio River- "Papaw's" River.  I have even heard my cousins kids talk about "Uncle Bill's" River.

I carved this stamp a few years ago when I hid stamps at the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival.  It is noting fancy but I really enjoyed making this card :)