First Carve & New Sig Stamp

My youngest son, Lil Ewok, has been letterboxing since before he was born.  We started boxing in 2010 and he was born in 2012.  My other children were interested in boxing and stamp carving right away.  The Princess carved her first stamp when she was 4 years old.  For some reason, Lil Ewok has just now got the stamp carving bug.  He carved his first stamps this week.  He really likes turtles, so I transferred this image to rubber for him and he did the rest.  Then he got into my scrap bucket and carved 3 other stamps that he drew himself.  He is pretty proud :)

Lil Ewok has been using the same signature stamp forever.  In 2016, we went to a Homerdoodle event.  On the way home, my kids complained about having to stamp their stamps and write their trail names in all of the tabletop boxes.  I decided I would carve them new stamps with their names on them.  At this time, my 2 older kids changed their trail names and everyone got a new stamp but Lil Ewok.  We are going back to Homerdoodle this weekend and I have carved a new sig stamp for Lil Ewok.  Hopefully the rain they are forecasting will keep away. 

Valentines Owls

The Month of Love: Whoo loves you

Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in The Month of Love LTC swap.  Someone recently posted a kids only swap but it filled up before the princess could join.  She was excited about making cards so I signed her up for this tracker.

It just so happens that we both made owl cards.  I did mine first and it was a long drawn out process with lots of testing to line things up.  The owl and hearts are hand carved stamps.  The letters and stitching are store bought stamps.

I got this idea from Pinterest but I followed the link and discovered that at one point these were being sold on Etsy.  They were very time consuming to make but I am happy with how they turned out.

The Month of Love: Owl's Heart

The princess picked her image, carved it, and stamped it on pink paper.  I recently bought some new washi tape and she had to use it.  I think her cards look good too.

I have carved a few owl stamps over the years.  I dug around in my stamp box and found three more.  We will be planting five owl stamps in the month of love.

Keep Calm and Craft On

This is my card for aMAZEing adventure frogs "Summer Craft & Swap 2019."  I have been participating in these swaps for a while now.  The princess was in the mood to make cards so I signed her up first and I joined a little later.  I like these swaps because they have no theme.

I found the stamp image and tried to think of a fun way to make the card colorful and crafty.  I really like the bleeding tissue paper and this is my third time to use it.  I cut my cards to size, stamped them with a text stamp, got the cards wet, and laid down the tissue paper.  I let them sit for a little while and peeled the tissue paper off.  They sat over night to dry completely.

Then I stamped the stamp and embossed it with a black glittery embossing powder.  I punched two of the corners and attached the solid background paper.  I have a box of paper that I cut and didn't use on cards.  Sometimes I cut too much and sometimes I wanted the card to go in a different direction.  I decided that I would use up some of the already cut paper.  I ended up with many different color backgrounds.

Summer Craft & Swap: Keep Calm

I thought the cards needed something else and I added some sequins to the cards.  I also considered adding ribbon but decided that would be too much.  I'm very happy with how my cards turned out.



The Princess's card is called, "Yummy Lemonade."  She carved all of the stamp herself (I usually do the outside).  I cut the paper and she assembled them.  I teased her that she was copping my sweet tea shaker card.

Summer Craft & Swap: Yummy Lemonade

Southern Indiana Event

Found at local hybrid :)

Last Saturday, the princess and I had a very busy day.  Luckily, we managed to plant a box and look for two hybrid boxes between the many activities going on.

That evening we squeezed in a local letterbox event.  There were 10 or 11 people there and half of them were folks that I had met before.

Southern Indiana Meet, Eat & Stamp

We enjoyed stamping, talking, and eating.  The host planned an activity where they asked everyone to carve a St Patrick's Day stamp.  They locked them in boxes and we had to solve puzzles to get the stamps.  We suck at this kind of thing and didn't get one of the stamps.  Oh well :/

I only took one pic and it is not the best.

The Princesses LTCs

Special Present & Super Rainbow

Every now and then The Princess really gets the urge to carve stamps and make cards.  She was asking me about it back in the fall and I posted a kids Christmas swap.

Daddy's Favorite Princess made this LTC all by herself; she picked the background paper, the image, carved the stamp, made the bows, and assembled the cards.  She did a pretty good job.  I just wish I could talk her into using the #1 gauge instead of the #2 on everything.

Then she came to me again earlier this month, asking about making cards.  I suggested that she make some for Marjorie's Potpourri.  This swap requires only 5 cards, it is a monthly swap, it has no theme, etc.  She carved up her stamp and made the shaving cream background.  She loves this background technique and has made it a few times before.  If you are participating Marjorie's Potpourri this month, you may get one :)

Happy Solar Eclipse Day!

Lil Ewok (in black) and his Kindergarten class

I live in southwest Indiana and we were supposed to be 99% totality for the solar eclipse today.  I originally planned on going down to Hopkinsville, Ky to watch the eclipse with some other letterboxers.  But about a month out, they were talking about all the crowds/traffic and we decided to stay home.

Daddy's Favorite Princess (red w/ hands on head)
and 3rd grade class

Boxing Turtle in 7th grade

I went and watched at my kids school.  We had a few thin clouds but we had a great view.  I was disappointed with the point of "totality".  I thought being 99% it would be darker, we would be able to see stars, the corona, etc.   When looking away, it seemed like a big cloud covered the sun.  The street lights came on and the crickets/cicada were buzzing.  My 2 older boys were disappointed too :(

On Sunday, I planted a box for the eclipse.  Two other boxers have planted boxes within an hour of me while they were traveling to see the event too :)

I have already started looking at the maps for the solar eclipse 2024 and it looks like we will be in totality then.  Wow!  I guess all the crazies will come to us  ;)

Back to School & Smores

My kids went back to school this week.  This year all of my kids are in school!

Bantha Rider is a sophomore.  He texted on the first day that he couldn't get his locker open.

Boxing Turtle is in 7th grade.  He says that he likes it.

Daddy's Favorite Princess is in 3rd grade.  She thought she wouldn't like her teacher but now she thinks the teacher is nice.

Lil Ewok is in Kindergarten and is having a rough go at it.  He says school is too long, he doesn't have enough time to eat lunch, some people are not nice, he misses me, he doesn't have enough home time, etc.  He was crying when I dropped him off this morning because I wouldn't walk him to his room. Hopefully he will be better on Monday.

Yesterday was National S'mores Day!  As a Girl Scout and an avid camper I had to plant a box to celebrate.  I also carved a s'more stamp for my local GS council to give away at an upcoming event.  So I carved two s'mores for the delicious holiday :)

National S'mores Day

Hello Kitty LTCs

Hello Kitty Wonder Woman

Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in jlsd0218's "Hello Kitty Superheros and Villains" LTC swap.  It was my idea to join but it didn't take much to talk the Princess into making a card too ;)

Hello Kitty Luke & Leia

The Princess did Wonder Woman and I did Luke & Leia.  There were so many fun Hello Kitty Star Wars characters that I had a hard time picking which one to do.

I sent our stamps off to Cherryontop when we were done with the cards.  So if you live in Cali you may see them.

Kids Winter LTC Swap

Kids Winter Swap: Snowflake

The princess participated in a kids only LTC swap.  Her card is, "Snowflake".  We probably should have dropped from this tracker.  Christmas is such a busy time, I had a hard time getting her to work on the card.

So, I confess that I did everything but carve the stamp.  And she didn't carve it the way I wanted her to but she started without talking to me.

Our inspiration for the background was a snowman that Lil Ewok brought home from prek.  You mix shaving cream and glue, spread it on the paper, and add some glitter.  The shaving cream/glue mix was supposed to stay thick, soft, and squishy.  But during the night it went flat.  I was worried about the cards fitting in sleeves and binder pages; it was for the best that it didn't work as we planned.  But they were pretty and we were running out of time so we sent them off.  Very glad that this swap is over.

New Year & Box of the Month

BOTM Fall 2016

Happy New Year!  We spent the first day of the new year like we would any other Sunday.  We went to church and out to lunch.  We tried to see the movie SING but were turned away because the seats were full.  They have recently remodeled one of the theaters in town.  They took out every other row of seats and put in reclining seats.  So, less people can see the movie.  Sounds like a bad idea to me but they didn't ask what I thought :/

BOTM Fall 2016

I participated in BOTM for 2015 & 2016.  I got to thinking, that I posted about BOTM every month in 2015 but almost never in 2016.  I guess 2016 was pretty uneventful as far as BOTM goes.  It didn't go missing like 2015, it was a drive by and much easier to get to by all.

In the fall I took a few pics of changing leaves in the cemetery but never posted them.  I tried to take more pics but my phone died.  I am thinking of carving a stamp of the Celtic cross and hiding it near by.

A local boxer is taking my place in BOTM in 2017.  I am so excited!  I get to be a finder this go round.  She posted the new box yesterday and we found it today after we saw the movie SING.  We loved the location of the box.  The kids goofed off while I stamped and I had to have a pic of the wall.  The box had a HH in it and I had 2 but they were are home.  I will make sure to drop them in my bag so I can pass one on next month.

BOTM January 2017

As for 2017, it will probably be pretty low key.  No planting 100 boxes for an event.  I have joined the "Google Doodle" postal, I am back in the ornament swap, I have some event donations in my pile of stamps to carve,  I hope to make it to the Ohio prairie event, of course LTCs and a few traditional boxes.  TTFN :)

Fast Food LTCs

Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in Mommy's HERBs "National Fast Food Day 2016" LTC swap.

This was the princesses idea and of course she picked McDonald's.  She carved the golden arches and I carved her text.  We looked for a way to make her card more interesting and found the burger & fry washi tape on Etsy.

I picked Jimmy John's for my card.  My husband and I ate lunch there shortly after I joined this swap and I asked for an extra sandwich paper for the background of my cards.

I think our cards look great and we will look for a place to hide them on November 16th, National Fast Food Day.

Event Planting Part 2

I have been planning for months to go out to the park on Saturday and plant more of my event boxes but they are calling for rain.  So I decided I would go out today with Lil Ewok.  There was an issue with my kids school, Turtle Boxer & Daddy's Favorite Princess were off today, and I had extra "help".

There is a big road construction project less than a block from the school.  They turned off the water and when they turned it back on again something at the school broke.  They tried to fix it during the night but were not able to get the job done.  They had to have the water off to work on it.  That meant no sink, toilets, or school.

We headed out to the park to plant another 28 boxes.  The kids about drove me crazy.  (Short trip, I know.)  They wanted to just put the box in the hiding spot and run off to find another spot.  I had to explain to them that I had to make notes, write down landmarks, tree names, get left/right correct, etc.  After a while they did settle down.

It sprinkled on us for just a few minutes but being in the woods we didn't really get wet.  We mainly heard it hitting the leaves of the trees.  I only took one picture on the trip.  Lil Ewok played games on my phone the whole way over and ran my battery down.  My phone died and I don't know how many steps I walked!!

I just have 38 more boxes to plant.  I will watch the weather on Saturday and if the rain holds up I will have to go out on Tuesday.  The event is just over a week away :D

Rainbow!!! LTC

Rainbow!!!: Rainbow Milkshake

Daddy's Favorite Princess loves to carve stamps and make LTCs.  She is participating in the "Rainbow!!!" swap, hosted by GreaseLightning.

Not sure why but she picked a rainbow milkshake.  She picked the image and carved the stamp herself.

She really enjoyed making the background.  I have used this technique a few times myself and it is fun to play around with.  You take a cookie sheet and cover it with shaving cream.  Put a few drops of food coloring on and swirl it around.  Lay a piece of card stock on top and push down all over the paper.  Any place where the paper doesn't touch the shaving cream will be white.  Then you scrape the shaving cream off with an old gift card.

I cut the cards to size and helped her stamp them.  I stamped and she glued them to the red background.  Some of the cards turned out better that others but she is pretty proud of them :)

New Trail Names & Sig Stamps

A few months ago Daddy's Favorite Princess asked me to carve her a new trail stamp.  Her original stamp was a Hello Kitty face.  It was about the size of a quarter and she lost it.  Then I carved a Jewel Sparkles Lalaloopsy and she has been using it for a while.  But the stamp warped and it is hard for her to get a good image with it.

While we were at the Homerdoodle event she said that her trail name was too long, after a while she was just stamping table top box boxes, and not writing her name.  So we discussed the new stamp and she wanted a Shopkins image.  I added her trail name to make it easier for her when stamping a lot boxes.

While we were out hiking the trails at Homerdoodle, R2-D2 said that he would like to change his trail name.  He said if he could change it he would be more willing to go letterboxing.  Now, I don't believe that for a second but agreed to change his name and carve him a new stamp.

He said that he wanted to be Boxing Turtle.  He loves turtles right now.  But we really went back and forth on the stamp image.  He drew something up with his finger on his iPad and said do this.  I got on my laptop and designed a stamp using clipart.  He didn't like it and said "just wing it."  I said, "Have we met?  I don't wing it!"  We have been boxing for 5 years, I have 150+ traditional plants, and I never hand draw them.  We finally found something we both could agree on and I added his name to it too.

Lego Clone Trooper didn't ask for a new stamp or trail name but he got one.  When he graduated from 8th grade a few months ago, he got a phone and started using social media.  His Facebook name is Bantha Rider and is a big Star Wars fan.  So I changed his trail name to Bantha Rider and carved him a new stamp.  I really like his and he does too.

Lil Ewok is only 4 and he is staying the same.  If I gave him the chance to change it now he would probably pick a ninja turtle.  We will stick with his current name & stamp for now.


PENNY UPDATE:  I have decided not to carve more pennies.  I am in the process of painting a labeling the boxes for the event.  I don't have anymore round Lock n Locks; if I carve more pennies, I have to order more boxes.  As of right now, I have just enough boxes for the stamps that are supposed to come.  I had one person drop and I have a feeling that 1-2 more people will be removed.  That adds a few more stamps to my list but the boxes will be ready when I finish the carves.  

Back to School

I started this blog 4 years ago when my kids went back to school from summer vacation.  Now all the kids are in school in some way.  

Lego Clone Trooper is 14 and a freshman in high school.  This was his first year riding a school bus and using a combination lock.  He gets a little confused about where his classes are but I know he will get his schedule down soon.

R2-D2 (who will be changing his trail name soon) is 11 and in 6th grade.  He goes to a private school and has moved up to the middle school hall way.

Daddy's Favorite Princess will be 8 at the end of the month and she is in 2nd grade.  She was very excited to go back to school and see all of her girl friends.

Lil Ewok is 4 1/2 and he started prek today.   He will only be gone a few hours 3 days a week but we are both excited about it.

I've got a confession to make, I'm a little burned out on letterboxing :(  I think every year I'm a little disappointed about how few finders my boxes get.  I'm hosting my event next month and I am signed up for a few LTC swaps but once those are all done, I'm going to take a little break.  My noxer husband asked if I could walk away from it for a year.  I think that is unrealistic!  But some sort of time off will be coming.

Kids Event Stamps

Raggedy Ann by Daddy's Favorite Princess

I am hosting an letterboxing event on Saturday, September 24th at Lincoln State Park.  The name is 200 years in Indiana.

I am going to have two trails of stamps with an Indiana theme.  One is All About Indiana.  It will have the state flag, tree, flower, motto, etc.

The other is called Famous Hooisers.  It will be a trail of stamps for people who were born or lived in Indiana.  For this set I asked my kids to help out.

Little John by Lego Clone Trooper

Daddy's Favorite Princess (7) volunteered to carve Raggedy Ann (I helped clean up the face a little bit).  Johnny Gruelle was the creator of Raggedy Ann.  He was born in Ill but his family moved to Indy was he was two.

Lego Clone Trooper (13) carved Little John from Disney's Robin Hood.  Wonga Phillip Harris was born in Linton, Indiana.  He was a famous comedian, jazz musician, and singer.  Harris voiced the characters of Baloo from the Jungle Book, Thomas O'Malley of The Aristocats, and Little John from Robin Hood.

Someone signed up for my Famous Hooiser tracker and said that they would carve a stamp for Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield.  But then something happened and they backed out.  R2-D2 (11) was happy to carve it for me.  Davis was born in Marion, Indiana and grew up on a farm in Fairmount with 25 cats.

Garfield by R2-D2

Today I am working on the event stamp.  I have played around with a few ideas and finally picked one.  Next week my kids will be away at my sister-in-laws for their annual get away.  I plan on going to the state park and walking some of the trails I will be planting on.  I will be looking for good hiding spots :)

Oops!

Daddy's Favorite Princess has been asking a lot lately to make cards.  She participated in the kids Valentines and wanted to make more.   We searched thru the open trackers and she wanted to do the "Gift Card" swap.  You were supposed to make cards like regular cards that were blank on the inside so people could write a message and sign their name.

I asked the host if she could participate (being a kid) and she said yes.  We both signed up and made our cards.  I had gotten a free lolly pop stamp when I purchased a stamp on Etsy and she used it on her cards.  I carved up something Valentine-ish because the cards were due late January and I played with the "old school" label maker.

We finished our cards and mailed them off.  When I get the cards back I see that we didn't read/follow the directions!  The cards were supposed to be 4.5"x 5.5".  Oops, I totally didn't read that part of the tracker!  I guess I better read them more carefully in the future :/

Kids Valentines LTCs

Kids Valentines: BB-8 & Roses

Daddy's Favorite Princess and Lil Ewok are participating in the Kids Valentines LTC swap.

DFP's cards are simply called, "Roses."  She carved the stamp herself, punched the corners of the paper, and added the rind stones.  I did help her stamp the stamp.  I colored the red and she colored the green.  DFP is 7.

Lil Ewok just turned 4 and I did most of his card for him.  I gave him the heart stamp and let him go to town on the backgrounds.  After a while he got tired and I finished them off.  I thought I had an old school label maker but couldn't find it.  I ordered another one knowing if I had one I would use it on cards.  His card is "BB-8."

They had to make 15 cards for this swap and I think they did a good job.  I really enjoy these kids swaps because I want to see what all the kids came up with.  

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.

Think Spring LTCs

Up in the sky butterfly by DFP

Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in my "Think Spring" LTC tracker.

For DFP's cards she carved her butterfly stamp and stamped it to some paper that she found.  The paper kinda fades from blue to green.  Then she colored the image.  The stamp was supposed to have antenna but that was to hard for her so she drew them.  I have borrowed this stamp for a Gelli Plate LTC tracker due in August.

For my card I used my Gelli Plate for the background.  I put two different shades of green paint on the plate and rolled them out with the brayer roller.  I scraped some of the paint away with a fancy comb.  And then I took a toilet paper tube, dipped the end in yellow paint, and put that on the plate too.  I placed my darker green paper on and rubbed it.  I think they turned out pretty good but they are all different.

Tulips by christmas6

The stamp is embossed and then colored with Sharpies.  This is not at all what I had originally imaged for my card.  I was going to do some sewing on this card.  But I love playing with the Gelli Plate :)