July Nonsense

July Nonsense: And I'm Cute

This is my card for the "July Nonsense" LTC swap.  She is Dot from the Animaniacs and the card is called, "And I'm Cute."

The Animaniacs was my favorite cartoon in middle/high school.  The three main characters were the Warner bothers and the Warner sister, Dot.

They made Animaniac fabric and my mom made me some shorts with it.  Later she made me a quilt and added some of the extra fabric to it.  I also had a small figure of Dot glued to the dash of my 1st car.

I carved this stamp for the "Whatever You Want to Carve" postal tracker last year.  But then I was to chicken to sign up and she has just been sitting in my extra stamp drawer.

I stamped the stamp on white cardstock with black ink.  Then I wanted to color the skirt and flower with some kind of blending markers.  I bought some Tim Holtz markers and a water brush/pen but it didn't really work how I would have liked.  For the nose I just used a fine red Sharpie.

I got a Cricut Cuttlebug for my birthday and I used it for the pink background.  I glued everything together with a glue stick.  I really hope I am able to find the blending markers next time I want them :(

Favorite Childhood Cartoon Character: Dot

EDIT: Of course as soon as I sent these cards off someone listed a LTC trackers for "Favorite Childhood Cartoon Character."  So I have made another version of the card.  This time I just stamped it with back ink on pink cardstock and rubbed a little ink around the edge.

Finding, Maintenance & Swimming

Lil Ewok at the walking rosary

For a few days each summer my kids that are potty trained go and stay at my sister in laws house.  They have a pool, four wheelers, cable tv, etc, and the kids love to spend a few days away from mom & dad.

Today was pick up day and Lil Ewok and I did some letterboxing on the way.  First, we stopped to get a new box in Ireland.  The box is hidden near a walking rosary.  This was really interesting.

The summer I graduated from high school (1997) I worked at a local Catholic summer camp as the cook and they walked the rosary there.  It wasn't anything fancy like this.  They would do it at night, with candles, and walk a big loop, praying the rosary.  So this spot brought back some old memories.

Overgrown Nature Preserve

Our second stop was to check on our Monster High boxes that I have blogged about in Huntingburg.  Half of the finders (2 of 4) have reported the box was not in it's hiding place when they found it but out in the open.  The last finders said that she put a rock on it but I wanted to check on it anyway.

The last finder who put the rock on it was just there 2 weeks ago but when we went today the box was out of it's hiding spot again!  So we moved it down the path a bit.  I checked the logbooks and it had no extra muggle sign ins.  I hope this helps keep it safe.

Swimming at Martys 

 I wanted to make a third stop and check on my boxes at Ferdinand State Forest but we didn't make it that far.  I told my sister in law that I would be at her house at noon and I didn't want her to worry about me.

At Ferdinand State Forest we have 4 boxes on a 3 mile trail and they have only recorded as found once.  I just wanted to make sure that all was well.  I will have to go back another day.  This fall, 3 of my 4 kids will be in school so that might be a good time to sneak off ;)

Independence Day Weekend

Playing at the beach

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.  It is always a busy one for us :)  We go out on the Ohio River with my family on the fourth.  The kids love swimming, playing at the beach, and watching the fireworks from the boat.

LCT with his cake 

In 2014 we are celebrating our birthdays with letterboxes.  Lego Clone Trooper turned 12 (OMG) on the 5th.  We always have his party at my parents river camp.  It's a great place for the kids to run around, swim, etc.

The box that we planted for his birthday is not near my parents camp.  This area floods every year so I had to look for higher ground.  We put it near downtown in an area that is easily accessible by car but it is also near the paved pedestrian path that goes around town.

It was a great weekend for the Christmas family.  I better get back to washing all the laundry that smells like river.    

Lil Ewok playing while planting :)

Red White & Blue

Red White & Blue: Papaw's River

This is my card for the "Red White & Blue" LTC swap.  My parents have a river camp on the Ohio River and we spend a lot of time there in the summer.  On the 4th of July we always go out and watch the fireworks from the boat.

All of my kids have called the Ohio River- "Papaw's" River.  I have even heard my cousins kids talk about "Uncle Bill's" River.

I carved this stamp a few years ago when I hid stamps at the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival.  It is noting fancy but I really enjoyed making this card :)

Gnome Day 2014

I have been so busy that I forgot to blog about Gnome Day.  It was Saturday and we were out of town most of the day so we planted our box on Thursday.  But someone planted a box for us!

On Sunday we found Gnome Day 2014: Friendship.  And it had a gnome hitchhiker.  It is so exciting to a find a new box in our own backyard.

In the pic-Daddy's Favorite Princess is playing with gloves from the bag, Lego Clone Trooper is stamping, and R2-D2 is playing with the compass.  Lil Ewok had fallen asleep so he and noxer hubby stayed in the van.

Exploring & Planting at Eagle Slough

Eagle Sloug

This is the second year that we have participated in the GAQLBE.  The people we were paired with said that they had children who liked Star Wars.  And I have children who like Star Wars so we decided to swap Star Wars stamps.  We sent them an AT AT Walker and they sent us a BIG Yoda.

I grew up in 80's and I am used to the old Star Wars and Yoda living in a swamp.  We already have several boxes in the local wetlands so we needed to look for another spot for our new stamp.  This afternoon the kids and I headed out to Eagle Slough.  We had never been here before and it was fancier than I thought it would be with lots of resting benches, trail markers, tree ID signs, etc.

I "Googled" slough and it says that it is a swap.  I thought it had to do with the movement of the river.  The Ohio River used to come higher into Indiana and we have several sloughs in this area.  Howell Wetlands and Hovey Lake are both sloughs.

Wetland area

Anyway, we enjoyed walking the trails at the slough but finding a good hiding spot for our box was tricky.  Like I said before the box was pretty big.  The stamp itself is almost 4x5.  So we had to find a hiding spot that was big enough for the box and would not float away in the annual floods in the area.

I think our spot is okay but we put a rock on it to help it stay put.  I will defiantly come back and check it later in the year.  This may need to be a late spring/summer/fall only box.  We will see.

Here is the website about the Eagle Slough if you would like more info :)
http://www.eagleslough.org/

Flowering Trees LTC

Can't wait for Spring: Flowering Trees 

I am in the LTC swap "Can't Wait for Spring."  I wasn't going to join this one because I had already made some spring cards and a summer card and I was ready to start thinking about a fall card.  But I felt like another boxer twisted my arm.

For a while I have been thinking about carving a stamp of a bare tree and using it for different seasons.  I had already carved it and was working on a different project when I decided I would use it for this swap.

So I stamped my tree on plain white card stock and I carved up a tiny birdhouse.  For the flowers and leaves I used pencil erasers.  Then I  mounted the whole thing to some green paper.

I like how this one and the summer one turned out.  I will work on the winter one next.  I am in a swap where you have to reuse a stamp you already have.  I was going to do something completely different but I can't find the stamp I had in mind so I think I will do the winter version of this tree for that.  You'll have to wait a little bit to see that one :)