First Postal Ring

I am kicking off 2014 with my very first postal ring.  It is supposed to start in a few days and I am so excited :)

Audubon State Park

Museum & Nature Center 

Today was a beautiful day in SW Indiana.  The temp was in the mid 60's, the sun was shining, and there was no wind.  I was a nice day to get out and stretch my cabin fever legs.

In the morning I made some logbooks for future plants and potato soup for a Indy 500 party tomorrow.

After lunch I went over to John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, Ky.  It is just across the Ohio River from where I live.  I was planning to have an event there in the fall but other boxers told me that you are not allowed to plant boxes there.

I was very disappointed because I already had envisioned a trail of bird stamps donated from letterboxers all over the country.  Audubon was a ornithologist, naturalist, and painter.  We was famous for his detailed paintings of birds in their natural habitats.  So I contacted the park and they said that they do allow letterboxing but not in the nature preserve.  They also sent me a park map and the nature preserve covers all the trails but one.  There are a few boxes there and they are all outside the preserve.

But I thought there was another trail (not on the map) that went around the main lake.  I went out today to check on it.  I was excited to see that there is a trail.  It is not maintained very well but there is one.  I think I will continue with my plans on having a fall event there.  I will wait a few months to reserve the shelter house, post the event, and list a tracker to collect my bird stamps.

(I forgot my camera today so I stole a pic from the web.)

Valentine's Day Quickie Swap

I am participating in my first "quickie" swap. You have one week to make the cards and you can only use things that you already have. I have a lot of stuff so that part of the swap was easy. But I am normally an "early bird" in LTC swaps. I usually have my cards in 2-3 months before the swap. So that part had me way out of my comfort zone!

I carved this stamp as a bonus box for the Girl Scout series that I planted over the summer. But I was worried that a bonus would be to much for the girls. I also thought about sending it off as a hitchhiker but it got buried and forgotten about.

I found the background paper while looking for ideas for my Easter card background. You take a piece of cardstock and a piece of tissue paper a little bigger than the cardstock. Crumple up the tissue paper and lay it on the cardstock on a craft mat. Then liberally spray Glimmer Mist and rub out the air bubbles. Let it dry and you have a beautiful sheet of cardstock and tissue paper.

I wanted to add a flower so I looked online for ideas. I had a hard time deciding what to put in the middle of the flower.  I wanted a button but couldn't find any. I did find some sequins and rind stones but I didn't like the look. I finally remembered that I had some plain brads.

I think they turned out okay for my first time throwing a card together in a week :)

Here is the background paper video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpEVjaFAhAs

We Didn't Start the Fire

I made these stamps for the "We Didn't Start the Fire @ Camp Woodsmoke" event.  I chose Buddy Holly & British Beatle Mania.  The event is in Greensburgh, In, which is about 3.5 hours from me.  I hope I can talk my noxer hubby into going.