Girl Scout Day Camp

Last week I helped 40 Daisy/Brownie Girl Scouts earn the Letterboxer badge.  I did this two years ago and I guess I will be doing it every two years.

We did about the same thing this year.  On Monday, I went thru what letterboxing is, what you need, what you do, etc.  The girls made stamps with foam stickers and milk jug lids.  And they decorated their journals/tested their stamps.

On Tuesday, we broke them into smaller groups and took them out boxing.  My sons, Lego Clone Trooper & R2-D2, each took a group and showed them the ropes.

On Wednesday, the girls solved puzzles to find boxes.  This seems like an odd badge requirement to me because 99.9% of the boxes in my area have straight forward directions to the box.  But that is what the badge says so that is what we did.  I hid 3 boxes using 3 different puzzles and the girls worked with a partner to solve and find the boxes.

Thursday was our last day of letterboxing and I did a recap of the terms we were learning all week.  We talking about camouflage, good hiding spots, being discreet around muggles, etc.  They added exchange to their letterboxing lingo and did it with the girls in their group.  I told them to exchange with 2-3 girls around them but in the end they all wanted to exchange with everyone.

I think the girls had a great time learning about letterboxing and earning their badge :)




This last pic is Daddy's Favorite Princess.  They did an egg drop and she & her partner were the only ones in their group who's egg didn't break.  She was very proud.  On her STEM journal she drew the egg ok and how happy she was that it made it.

Storytime on the Prairie Event

This weekend we went to the Storytime on the Prairie Event in Greenville, OH.  We had a funeral on Friday so I got up at 4 a.m. on Saturday, drug 3 of my 4 kids from their beds, and drove 4.5 hours to the event.  The drive up, mostly in the dark & rain, went fast.

My 500th find!

We arrived at 10 a.m. and jumped right into table tops, event boxes, exchanges, and other indoor boxes.  My kids love the table tops with all the interesting boxes people put their stamps in.  One of the indoor sets gave me my 500th find!

Lunch was at 12:30 and a raffle afterward.  The princess's name was called right away and she was so excited.  R2-D2's name was also called.  Then we went out to the trails.  We were told that the trails would be muddy so we brought rubber boots.  We had also heard people talking about standing water on the trails and the kids wanted to do those first.  All of the stamps were awesome.  There are so many talented carvers out there.

Kids playing Pooh Sticks :)

They kicked us out at 4, we went to our hotel, ordered a pizza, watched tv, and rested.  In the morning I ran into some boxers in the elevator that we didn't exchange with the day before so we did it in the parking lot.  After we loaded up and ate breakfast we headed back to the event site to get boxes that we missed.  We also went to a park with more event boxes.  The stamps were great but the mosquitoes were horrible and we missed 2 boxes fighting them.

After we had almost all of the event boxes we headed to a local cemetery and several other boxers did too.  We exchanged with some folks there and helped/got help from boxers there.  If someone was watching, I am sure it was funny watching us all driving in circles, scurrying out to stones and trees and back to the vehicles, and then off again.

Local place we stopped for lunch.

We had lunch in Greenville, got a box there and one down the road.  Then we headed for home.  I had a Girl Scout Day Camp meeting Sunday night that I needed to go to.  The ride home was bad.  The kids fought a lot and we stopped a lot for food, potty breaks, etc.  I haven't done the math myself, but AQ says that I am up to 599 boxes, wow!

Owl LTC

Owls: Gelli Owl

I am in the "Owl you need is love" LTC swap.  My card is called, "Gelli Owl."  I got my Gelli plate in January and I really like playing with it.

When I got it I bought a book too with many ideas, tips for tools to use, examples of others work, etc.  I have also watched a lot of videos and pined ideas on Pinterest.

This technique is laid out step by step in my book but I thought it would be easier to show you the video.  I love this way to use my Gelli plate and I will definitely use it again.  In this technique you use packing tape.  (Video at the bottom.)

I got the idea for leaves on Pinterest.  I wasn't a huge fan of Gesso when I used it before but now I have a whole jar of it sitting around so why not use it, right?

So, I cut my dictionary pages to size, took a craft knife thing, and smeared a thin layer of Gesso across the page.  When that was dry I did the same thing with green paint.  I did the dark green, let it dry, then the light green, and let it dry.  Then I drew the edge & vein with a fine Sharpie, and cut them out.  I glued the whole thing together and decided that it needed something so I added the brad.  I recently got a big hole punch/grommet thing so you should see some of those in the future.

Jurassic World Postal

Jurassic World: Mosquito in Amber

I am participating in the "Jurassic World: A Movie Premiere" postal tracker.  When the tracker was first listed I thought about joining but I wasn't sure what to carve.  At our event a few weeks ago one of the local ladies said that she was doing it and encouraged me to do it too.

I have only been in one other postal ring (not counting the BOTM) and I was interested in doing it again.  The only problem was that I was super busy.  I had some LTCs that I needed to finish, lots of Etsy orders rolling in, and all the end of the school year stuff.

Tattoo inspiration 

But once I got all that wrapped up I decided to do it.  Now I just had to pick an image.  I started looking online for Jurassic World/Park images and found a tattoo that caught my attention.  I started carving it and I think it turned out pretty good.  I had to make some LTCs too just in case something happened and I never saw my stamp again.

I posted the pic of my stamp & LTCs on Facebook and aMAZEing adventure frog suggested that I start a tracker for it.  So, I started the "2015 Movies" LTC tracker.  It is open to all movies coming out in 2015.

Dr Seuss Stamps

Dr. Seuss: The Lorax

This is my LTC for the "Dr. Seuss favorite characters" swap.  My card is called, "The Lorax." I choose The Lorax because I thought he would be easy to plant in one of the state parks that we camp in.  But then I decided that I would make him an event box.

I carved up my stamp and I knew that I had to use flocking for his mustache.  I glued some on but it either didn't stick well or didn't stand out with the orange paper so I ended up putting it on twice.  I used a white gel pen for his eyes.

The Lorax "speaks for the trees" and they are very colorful in Dr Seuss's world.  I pondered the background for a long time.  Then someone sent me a table top event box and inside was large bubble wrap.  I knew then what to do.  I stole some of the bubble wrap from the box, dipped it in blue paint, and pressed it on some dictionary paper.  Then I took some of my own regular size bubble wrap, dipped it in purple paint, and pressed it on the paper.  I glued the whole thing to yellow paper to go with the stache.  I love how they turned out.

Dr. Seuss Characters event box

I said before that I decided to use the stamp for an event box.  I have never hollowed out a book before but it sounded like fun.  I ran to the Goodwill, bought a thick book, Googled what to do, and went at it.  I also carved a fish and Horton to complete the set.  Everyone at our event really liked them :)