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.