Christmas Carols LTC

Christmas Carols: Go Tell it on the Mountain 

This my card for the "Christmas Carols" LTC swap.  It is a little plainer than I had planned.  I was going to layer the paper but the stamp is just to big.  It is hard to tell from this pic but the paper has music notes on it.  It didn't work out like I planned but I like it :)

Pre-Thanksgiving Leftovers and Secret Santa

I know I am a little late getting this post out.  I participated in TAP's Pre-Thanksgiving Leftover LTC swap.  I was hoping that she would do a "post" swap too and I would do one blog for both.  But my husband had a hunting accident the day before Thanksgiving, we spent 3 days in the hospital that was an hour from home, and there is no way I could have worked on cards if she did two swaps.  But I took pics to make a blog post so here it is.

The background for this card was really fun to make :)  I got the idea on Pinterest, of course.  I made a stencil out of hot glue on my fancy craft mat.  I stuck half of a sheet of paper behind the mat so I knew how big to make my stencil.

You let the glue dry/harden and pull it up.  I tried this with regular and glossy card stock.  I sprayed fall colored alcohol inks on.  For the regular card stock I also sprayed a little water.  I liked the regular card stock best.

Pre-Thanksgiving Leftovers-
Proud Pumpkin

For these "left over" swaps you are supposed to use only materials that you have on hand.  So, I can't tell you what colors I used because they were already in the spray bottles.  I ran out of hot glue making my stencil but lucky my husband had some in his garage.

I just got a new sewing machine and I wanted to try it out on this project.  I played around with it a few different ways.  I wanted to do a zig zag stitch but thought it was to busy.  I still think it needs something...

Secret Santa stamp from Porras Posse 

I got my stamp from my AQ Secret Santa!  Porras Posse sent me this cute gingerbread man, stamp pouch, and logbook.  I think I am going to send him off as a Hitchhiker.  I love Hitchhikers :)

Christmas Ornament Swap

Christmas Ornament 2015:
Poinsettia 

This was my first year to participate in the Christmas Ornament swap on AQ.  I had an idea and carved my stamp right away.  But I got distracted and didn't make my ornaments until the last minute.

The great stuff I got :D

I was really surprised by all the cool ornaments that I got from the swap.  I thought I would wait until I got my ornaments to sign up for next year.  Well, that was a mistake because now the swap is full for next year :(  I guess I could make something and hope that someone drops out.

Anyway, this is a fun swap.  If you haven't participated (and are able to get in) you should give it a try :)

Thanksgiving LTC

Thanksgiving: Thank Full

This is my card for the "Thanksgiving" LTC tracker.  I love the simple Life is Good images so I looked for a Thanksgiving theme one.  I liked this one but thought that I would have to make it really big to get the detail and text to look nice.  Then I decided to make the stamp into a shrinky dink.  I probably should have made it bigger but I was worried about using too much carving material.

Shrinky Dinks

The start of this card is a lot like my Gesso one.  I cut my paper to be tag shaped.  Then I tore some old music paper and glued it to the card using Gesso and a knife.  I put the stencil on and put more Gesso on and let it dry.  I hadn't played around with alcohol inks in a while so I wanted to try that again.  I put the ink on the craft mat, sprayed it with a little water, and rubbed my card thru it.

Background before and after the inks

They started off really colorful but I quickly learned that alcohol ink doesn't take well to Gesso.  The color quickly faded.  I still thought they were pretty so I rolled with it.  To jazz it up a bit I sprayed the card with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist gold spray.

Then came the leaf.  I looked around the craft store for a leaf punch but didn't see one big enough.  I thought about printing one off on card stock to make a template and cutting out my own.  But I ending up ordering some die cut leaves  from Etsy.  They came in 3 shapes and 5 colors.  I took a Distress Stain ink pad and a alcohol ink applicator and rubbed the ink onto the edge of the leaves.

Added ink to the leaves

I glued the whole think together with school glue which was probably a mistake.  Some of the color behind the shrinky dink bled and looked odd.  But it is too late now.  I think they turned out pretty good.

Christmas Card LTC

This is my card for the "Christmas Card LTC 2015" tracker.  This is my 3rd year to participate in this swap.  My card is called, "Kisses from heaven."

I got the idea for this background from the Tim Holtz website via Pinterest.  It looked easy, wintery, and I wanted to give it a try.  But I had some issues.  I wanted to use the same ink colors as the website but had problems finding one of the colors.  And I couldn't find a small brayer.

For this technique you stamp your distress ink pads on the craft, mist with water, roll the brayer thru the ink, and roll onto paper.  I like that it looked like a dreary winter day.  I ended up ordering the small brayer online because I couldn't find one locally and I didn't like the look from my large brayer.

On the website they splatter some silver paint on the tag.  I like the idea so I reused some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist spray.  It is not as dark but worked.

I wanted to add some text and thought about buying a "Let it snow" stamp.  But I made this card in September and couldn't find one.  I searched the web for a quote about snow.  The one I used says, "Snowflakes are kisses from heaven."  I printed them off my printer, drew the black box around the edge, cut them out and glued them on with a glue stick.

My stamp for the card is a simple snowflake.  I probably should have carved a fancier snowflake.  I stamped & embossed them, cut them out and glued them on.  For some of the cards I rubbed a silver Sharpe around the edge.  I didn't do it to all the cards because I wasn't sure if I liked it.  I guess my cards are more winter than Christmas but I really wanted to play with this background.  I think they turned out ok.

October Box of the Month

2015 Pumpkin Carving Party

This weekend we took a break from stamp carving to carve some pumpkins.  We always have a pumpkin carving party with my parents, sisters, and nieces.  This year we also celebrated one of my nieces 16th birthday and she invited a few friends.  Fun was had by all.

I just retired my October BOTM.  It has had a few extra finders lately.  There is a family from Ky and another from Al that has been coming up to Evansville once or twice a month.  They have been finding my boxes for the past few months.  It is nice to have some new finders but I wish they could plant something for me.

Lake near my BOTM

In my previous post I told that I planted a letterbox/geocache hybrid.  Well, it was not approved :(  I was disappointed, frustrated, and angry.  I had to go out pull the box and find a new hiding spot.  I hid it this morning and got word this evening that it had been approved.  I will never plant another geocache again.  Why do they make it so hard?  Oh well, it's over now.

I am feeling lazy and I think next month I will hide my BOTM closer to the trail head.  If we get any snow the locals will thank me.

Waterfall near BOTM

Friday is my 5 year letterboxing anniversary.  I will celebrate with a new box of course.  I wanted to plant it today but Lil Ewok wouldn't cooperate.  We are going to do it first thing tomorrow morning.

Planted my first hybrid

Lil Ewok at the trail head

Lil Ewok and I were very busy this morning.  We spent about an hour and a half planting letterboxes.

A few years ago I started getting LTCs with food ingredients in the mail.  I had no idea who was sending them or what was meeting made but I loved the idea.  Something happened and I never got all the ingredients but I was inspired to try it as a traditional series.

Angel Mounds

Today we planted a 12 boxes series called, "What's Cooking?"  There are 8 ingredients and few other things.  You gotta have something to wash it down.  And you can't eat alone.  I had a lot of fun making the boxes but where was I going to hide them?

Indiana Jones LEGO Minigif

I have posted about the trails as Angel Mounds before.  There are miles of trails and I believe that there are only 1-2 boxes there.  The Indiana Jones box that I planted there went missing after a year.  I wanted to recarve and replant but I never got around to it.

That's when I saw the LEGO Minifigure LTC swap.  I decided that I would carve up Indy and hide him at Angel Mounds again.  I have been thinking for a while now about planting a hybrid so I thought this was my chance.  A friend had given me an ammo can and I got to work.

We hid all 13 this morning.  It may take a few days for my geocache to get approved but I am excited :)  It was a beautiful day to be out and we got a lot accomplished!

PS-I discovered that my geocache is not approved :(  I am very disappointed.  I guess I need to change out the container and remove the swag.

Fireflies LTC

Things that Glow: Fireflies

I am in the "Things that Glow" LTC tracker and I had a lot of fun making my card.

I quickly found an image that I liked and carved my stamp.  But I wasn't sure how to make it glow.  I searched the web for a glow in the dark ink pad but didn't find anything.  So I used the next best thing-glow in the dark embossing powder.

I stamped my stamp in yellow ink and then used the glow embossing powder.  They look pretty cool but need something.

Adding some splatter to the edge

I used to have some glow in the dark tape that could be used as a border but I couldn't find it.  I cleaned the basement during Spring Break and I must have gotten rid of it because I never used it.  I also thought about trimming the edge of the card and adding a layer of glow paper.  I found some glow origami paper online but decided to try glow paint.  I found some old glow puffy paint and tried painting a border but I didn't like it.  I bought some glow in the dark paint, covered my stamp image, and splatted the paint on.  I really liked this because it looked like fireflies in the distance.

I finished my cards early and planted the stamp in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indy and few months ago :)

Back to Hemlock Clifts

Swimming at SIL 

On PAL Day 2013 I was gung ho and planted 6 boxes.  One was at a library here in Evansville celebrating their 100 anniversary.  Then I planted 4 boxes on a 3 mile trail at Ferdinand State Forest.  And the last box of the day was at Hemlock Cliffs in Crawford Co.

Hemlock Cliffs

We drive past the sign for Hemlock Cliffs 4-5 times a year when we go visit my sister-in-law.  I wanted to see the area so I planted a box there.  Based on my online research I knew there was a mile trail loop and some rocky/waterfall areas.  I didn't want to stay to long and I was alone so I planted the box, viewed the main waterfall and left.

We were up at my sister-in-laws this weekend and before we left home my husband and I had talked about going on a hike.  My sister-in-law has 40 acres and we usually just walk her property but I suggested that we go to the cliffs.

Cool steps in the rocks

Saturday afternoon rolls around and some of the kids were tired of swimming and I suggest that we go to Hemlock Cliffs.  Three of the kids wanted to go and we took off.  It's about a 20 minute drive to the cliffs.

Checking out a "cave"

Two years ago I had planted the box at the parking area to make it easy to get to. I figured that it would not get many finders since folks would not want to go that far off the interstate to grab the box.

I walked up and found the box out in the open but it was in great shape.  According to AQ it only had 2 finders in 2013.  I was excited to see that it had 2 other finders this year :)  I initialed one of the corners of the logbook (which I often do when performing maintenance) and put it back where it was supposed to be.  I was very happy that it was still there, in good shape, and had a few more finders.

Selfie :)  Me, the princess & Lil Ewok.
Lego Clone trooper is to cool for selfies 

After that, the kids and I walked the 1 mile trail loop.  The kids liked the part that followed the rocks and stream but fussed when the trail started to head back to the cars.  Lil Ewok asked me to carry him right as we could start to see cars thru the trees.  The trail was pretty and I am glad that we walked it.  We didn't find any boxes/caches/Munzee but had a great weekend.

Labor Day Weekend

Looking for a good spot to plant

We just had a great weekend camping at Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, In.  It was about 3 hrs from home.  I was in high school the last time that I was there.  This was my husbands and kids first time.

I looked on Atlas Quest while planning for the trip and I was excited to see that there was one box there.  But we looked for it and could not find it.  It had not been found in 2 years.  We did plant a box while we were there so now they have one box again.  My noxer husband said that I should have brought more boxes to plant.  I guess that means we will have to come back another day.

Creek Peek program

One of the great things about Clifty Falls is the creek stomping.  One of the tails is directly thru the creek.  The kids loved this trail.  Also, the creek is full of fossils.  I picked up a little one for Lil Ewok and the princess asked me to help her find one.  I told her if she can't find a fossil she must have her eyes closed.

Fossils

We did a few nature programs while we were there.  One was a creek peek.  They gave the kids nets and encouraged them to catch fish and bugs from the water.  Two of my kids scooped up crayfish.  They were so excited to get to chase all the little critters around in the puddles.

 We also made bubbles at the nature center and took an owl walk.  My kids were so tired and we probably should have skipped the owl walk.  The naturalist called for 3 owls and the one that called back is the Barred owl that you hear all the time.

Big Clifty

The trails at Clifty Falls are pretty rugged.  There is no trail strait down to the creek; they are very rocky with lots of switch backs.  There are 3 big waterfalls-Big Clifty Falls, Little Clifty Falls, and the Tunnel falls.  It sounds odd but the railroad made a 600 foot long tunnel down by the creek.  But the railroad went bankrupt and never finished the project.  Seems like it would have been much easier to go around the creek/valley/ravine.

The campground was nice.  We were in the primitive area which was very flat but it had little shade and for a few hours each day we hid in the shade of the tents, van, etc.  The kids were happy with the nearby playground.

Fat man squeeze

With all the hiking (and heat) we ran out of water/Gatorade.  The two big kids and I ran to town to get more drinks and grabbed 2 letterboxes in Madison.  It was dark at this point but we had fun finding them.  Good weekend overall :)

Tombstone Tales Event

On Saturday, my boxing buddy (G-MA) and I went to the Tombstone Tales event in St Louis, Mo.  I picked her up at 7 and we drove 2.5-3 hrs to Bellefontaine Cemetery.

We arrived about 2 hours before the event to get the 2 large series of boxes planted there.  One of the series was easy to find.  They went along with the different symbols used on graves.  It was a very interesting series.

The other series was harder.  You were supposed to do your homework before you came to find the boxes.  But I had jury duty last week and my buddy didn't realize that there was homework.  And we discovered that we probably could not have found them anyway because we didn't have the right map.

So it maybe "slackboxing" but we would stop anytime we saw other people stopped.  Some folks were very helpful and said come on over and stamp on the back of my car.  And other folks said let us put it back and then you can find it.  When we stopped another car for help they just said I think it is over there somewhere :(

With all the issues we had with the clues, I was surprised that we actually found more than half of the hard series.

The event itself was just 2 hours.  We had a pitch in lunch and exchanged.  I really enjoy this part but I know G-MA does not.  She would rather be out boxing.  I got my exchanges quickly and we got out of there.  I got to exchange with wandaandpete!  We ended up leaving before the group photo but we were both ok with that.

I am now officially a member of the "Been Locked in a Cemetery" club.  The cemetery closed at 5 but we thought with the event they would be open longer.  We arrived at the gate a little after 5 and it was locked.  We called the number and about 15 minutes later (we should have got another box) the security guard came and let us out.  I guess she was out driving around the cemetery to see if anyone was locked in.  When she arrived there was another car with her that I had seen driving around taking pictures.

We found 26 boxes in 5 hours and are determined to come back and get more :)

Frogs, Toads, and Turtles

Frogs, Toads & Turtles: Toad Friend

I am in the Frogs, Toads & Turtles LTC tracker.  My oldest and youngest boys love toads/frogs.  In the warm evenings you can hear them croaking around our house.  Lil Ewok says that he wants to see them.  So he and Lego Clone Trooper get flash lights and go looking.  Lil Ewok always comes back excited about all the critters they found.  Below are some pics of the toad/frogs we have seen in our yard.

For this card I needed camouflage paper.  I thought the best way to do that was with my Gelli plate (of course).  I tried a few different things but for most of the cards I put down tan paint first, put a circle stencil, and pulled a print.  I didn't clean the plate and put the green paint down, stuck a swirly dry embossing folder on it, and pulled a print on top on the previous paper.  I think they turned out really well.

I stamped the stamp, applied a layer of antique Mod Podge, let them dry, cut them out, glued them to the textured grey paper.  They needed a little something so I took the same brown stamp pad that I used to stamp the toads and rubbed it on the edge of the cards.  I am very happy with the whole thing :)

Frog in the holly bush.

Frog on kitchen window.

Frog on the kitchen door.

3 States in 1 Day

Sword and the stone

Today my 2 younger kids, my boxing buddy, and I boxed in 3 states- In, Ky & Tn.

So there are some folks in Hopkinsville, Ky (about 1 1/2 hrs south) that have been boxing up here a lot lately.  I was thinking that even though there is only one box there I should go there and plant a box for them.  But before I could they planted a new box in Hopkinsville.  So this meant that I really had to go down there!

Getting ready to stamp at the round table

The two boxes there were both on a college campus.  They were easy to find and fun.  My kids loved playing with the sword and the stone.  The princess was determined that we could pull it out.  When we found the box there we stamped in at the round table and then played around at the amphitheater.

After playing for a while we left to plant my box.  I knew that I wanted to put it at a military memorial park.  It was bigger than it looked on Google maps.  We walked around for a while, planted, and found two geocaches.   When we left the park we had lunch and a potty break.

Statue selfie

Then we continued south and found two more boxes (and one geocache) in Clarksville, Tn about 30 minutes south of Hopkinsville.  These were cool boxes too in neat locations but they needed maintenance.  We replaced all the baggies in the boxes today except for the new box.

Now for the 2 hour trip home.  The kids were pretty fussy and the princess napped for a little while.  She would have napped longer but Lil Ewok kept yelling at her.

Memorial Park

When we got back to town we dropped the kids off at home and looked for a new box planted by a geocacher.  This is his third letterbox/hybrid.  So far I'm not impressed.  He left a clue for letterboxers but it was very vague.  I am pretty sure we were in the right spot but couldn't find it.

We had a pretty good trip.  It sprinkled early but it cleared up and was nice.  Now if I can get my kids to act better on car trips.

Cute Narwhal LTC

Kid Collaboration: Cute Narwhal 

Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in the Kid Collaboration LTC tracker.  The tracker says that you should work together and the princess tried to make sure that we each did equal parts.

She picked the image and carved it by herself.  Normally, I clean it up but I didn't this time.  She glued it to the paper and did all of the glitter horn embossing herself and part of the glow in the dark embossing on the waves.

I cut the paper, stamped the image, cut them out, and did half of the embossing stripes on the water.  She put the labels on the back and I stamped her sig stamp on.

We usually don't work well together but it went fine this time.

July BOTM

Found a geocache

July has been busy and it is time again remove our Box of the Month.  The box had only one finder again :(

When we dropped it off there were many fungi on the trail.  They were white, tan, orange, and yellow.  It was neat to see so many different colors on one trail.

First Finders on 2 new letterboxes

When we retired the box we looked for a geocache in the area.  It was this dinosaur in a tree with a Bison Tube in it's mouth.  The tube has a logbook in it.  Now don't tell, but we couldn't get the logbook out!  We counted it as a find anyway but I guess we need to add tweezers to our letterboxing bag.  I have some in a pocket knife in my purse but I locked it in the car.  Oh well, the young ins had a great time finding the cache.  I believe that there are others in our area like this that are Disney characters.  We may have to try to look for them too.

Cool leaf bug :)

So while we were out we found 3 Munzee, 2 Letterboxes, and 1 dino in a tree Geocache.  And a cool leaf bug :)  I don't know why the person who planted two new boxes here didn't look for my box.  It's really frustrating.  I am pretty sure that I won't do this BOTM thing again.

Boxing in Indy

Crown Hill Gates selfie

On Tuesday I boxed in Indy :)  Each summer my sister-in-law lets my potty trained kids stay at her house for a few days.  This year all my kids are potty trained, woo hoo!  Which meant that I would have a few days all to myself.  

Downtown Indy in the background

My original plan was to box in Kentucky.  I was going to print off 8 clues and look for 6 boxes in Ky and then look for 2 in Ill.  I was afraid that I wouldn't find many boxes.  The last group to go thru the area marked 4 of the boxes as missing :(

My husband asked what I would do with the kids gone and I told him I was going boxing in Ky.  He didn't like the idea of me going off alone.  But it is a lot easier to letterbox alone.  Have you ever tried boxing with 4 screaming kids?  It's tough.

I saw 4 deer while boxing

My husband had work meetings in Indy on Tuesday and he usually goes up the night before so he doesn't have to drive 3+ hours in the morning.  It just so happened that he was going to be gone while the kids were gone and said that I could come with him.

President Benjamin Harrison's grave

Now, I don't know the difference between boxing alone in Kentucky and boxing alone in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, but I jumped on the opportunity to box in Indy.  (Men, you can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em.)

On Monday I loaded up my bag, printed clues, highlighted my cemetery map, and put the finishing touches on a box to plant.  I love boxing at Crown Hill; it is beautiful, peaceful, and has many hiding spots.  I easily found a place to put my box.  I was there about 5 1/2 hours and I found 26 boxes.  Only 1-2 of the ones I looked for were missing.  The only problem with boxing on Tuesday was they had a storm roll through on Monday night and many branches were down along with a few trees.   There were a few times I had sticks stuck under my car and I had to back up to get them loose.  

Beautiful grave w/ a matching
LB close by

This was my 3rd time to box at Crown Hill and my noxer husband was surprised that I wanted to box there again.  Well, now there are only 4 boxes there that I need.  So I guess next time I go to Indy I will have to find another place to get lots of boxes.  Or the Indy folks will have to plant more boxes at Crown Hill for me ;)