Eagle Slough Maintenance

Me & Lil Ewok soaking up some sun 

Today was a beautiful day so Lil Ewok and I went to the Eagle Slough to check on one of our boxes.  This area had just been under water and I was concerned that the box had been washed away.  I thought the area might be muddy so we wore our rubber boots.  The main trail was high and dry.

We looked for our box and it was missing :(  It was clear that someone or something had been digging at the base of the tree (and the one next to it) where the box was hidden.  So, I am not sure if it survived the flood or not.  The scratching appeared to be fresh or at least post-flood.

Very muddy wetlands 

Normally a missing box is not a huge deal.  I retire or recarve and move on.  But I got this stamp thru the GAQLBE (Great Atlas Quest LetterBox Exchange).  So I really feel bad about it being gone.  I am going to recarve a similar image a hide it in a different spot at the Eagle Slough.  There are no other boxes here and I think there should be one.

While we were there we explored the wetland area which was very muddy!  Lil Ewok was determined to follow the big red arrow and I am glad we wore our boots for that part.  We also looked for a geocache and couldn't find it but found 3 Munzee's.

Raccoon footprint?  

I really like Munzee.  Now, I know what you are thinking, "This woman can't find a geocache the size of a shoe box but she is having fun finding QR codes the size of a quarter?"  Let me explain, there are only so many places they can stick those buggers!  And I feel like my phone is the problem when geocaching but Munzee is GPS based too so maybe the problem is the caching app?  I don't know.  Munzee is additive.

Goose or crane footprint?

For more info about the Eagle Slough...
http://wchristmas6.blogspot.com/2014/06/exploring-planting-at-eagle-slough.html

Box of the Month (Jan-March)

The Princess & Lil Ewok helping to pull the Feb box

Hi guys.  Sorry I haven't been posting lately-boxing has been slow :(  So I thought I would talk about my box of the month.

In January, the local box I planted had 4 finders!  We had a mild January and I was surprised by how many folks came by.

Our February was very cold and snowy.  My kids missed 4 days of school and had 3-4 two hour delay days.  This box only had 2 finders (not counting my kids).  The box that I sent out didn't have any finders in February.  I am in SW Indiana and I am sending to Michigan. I think it is safe to say if it is cold and snowy here, it is worse there.

Trail in March

In March, the trail that I am planting on has been very wet.  Once again this box only had 2 finders (not counting my kids).  One of the finders was someone passing through.  It was the only box they got while in town.  Technically this box may have had 2 more finders.  There are 2 stamps without names and dates on them.  I am not sure if someone new found the box or if kids were messing around.  Hopefully things will dry up soon and the box will be easier to get to.

When I pulled the March box today I noticed some yarn bombing at the park so I stopped to take some pics.  I have heard folks talk about yarn bombing but had never seen it in person.  It was very pretty.  While I was out I got 2 Munzee's.  With letterboxing being so slow we are looking for other games to play.  I probably won't do this a lot but thought I would check it out.

Yarn Bomb at Wesselman Woods

Biggest Ball of Twine in MN LTC

Roadside America: Biggest Ball of Twine in MN

When the "Roadside America" LTC swap was posted I immediately thought of Weird Al's Biggest Ball of Twin in Minnesota.  I have never been there but I listened to Weird All a lot in the 90's.

My mom's favorite Weird Al song was the Biggest Ball of Twin in Minnesota and when it would come on (I had all of his cassettes at the time) she would crank it up and sing along.

About 10 years ago Weird Al came to our city.  It was close to my birthday and my mom offered to take me as a birthday present.  I turned her town because it has been a while since I was a fan and was worried he would play a lot of songs that we didn't know.  Looking back, I wish we would have gone.  

For my card, I wanted to use twine in it some how but couldn't figure out how to do it without making the card really thick.  So I used the twine as a stamp and stamped lines on my background paper with it.  Then I printed off pics of the twine ball and glued my stamp on top.  I should have cut a slit in the gazebo and slid my stamp image up inside.  But I didn't think about that until I had already mailed my cards off.

This tracker had brought back some good memories and I am looking forward to seeing the other cards :)

Camping LTC

Camping: Zero Tasking

It is too cold to camp here right now. We have 6 inches of snow on the ground and have broken several records for cold temps. But here's to wishful thinking ;)

I have joined another camping LTC swap.  My card is called, "Zero Tasking."  One of my favorite things about camping is that you don't have to do much.  Yeah, we'll go for a hike, visit the nature center, cook 3 meals a day over a fire, and we might go fishing but there is no set schedule.

I like the "Life is Good" images.  They are easy to carve and positive so that is what I started looking for when I joined this tracker.  I stamped my stamp on vellum using brown ink.  Then I attached the vellum to s'more paper.  I should have carved my stamp a little smaller but I was worried about the text.

Think warm thoughts.

Trying Gesso

I know nothing about Gesso but Team Awesome Pants twisted my arm and I joined her tracker.  The tracker is, "I Guess so...What Do You Think?" and my card is "Bloom."  I stole this idea entirely from Pinterest.

I cut my cards to size and tore some paper from a dictionary and glued it to two corners of the card using gesso on a sponge brush.  Then I covered the card with gesso, laid a stencil on, and put more gesso on top of the stencil.  You can't really see the text paper and I think I applied too much gesso in these spots.

While that was drying I carved my iris flower stamp.  Once the background was dry I painted it using watercolors.  I knew that my iris would be purple so I consulted the great and powerful color wheel to choose the perfect background color.  Green is opposite of purple so I used that but didn't want the whole background to be green.  That is why it faded to blue at the top.  I love how the one on Pinterest has so much yellow.  So I added some too.

I Guess so...What Do You Think?: Bloom

Then I painted my iris with watercolor paints.  While they were drying I stamped a text stamp on the background and printed/cut my "Bloom where you are planted text."  I put the whole thing together and I feel like it is missing something but I am not sure what.  I thought about adding a ribbon but was scared to do so and didn't want to hide the raised gesso.  I am not sure if I will use this technique again.

Log Cabin Quilt LTC

Crazy Quilters Bee: Log Cabin

This is my card for the "Crazy Quilters Bee" LTC swap.  I love the log cabin quilt block and that is what I carved.

My original idea was with the magazines.  We had a yard sale at the end of the summer with my mother-in-law.  She was getting rid of a stack of old National Geographic magazines.  At the end of the weekend they were still there and she said that I could have them.  They are so colorful, I thought they would be perfect for LTCs.

I carved my stamp and started with my first idea.  I stamped the stamp on the card with yellow, cut out parts of the magazine, glued them on, and stamped my stamp on again with black.  My stamps did not line up and some of the papers were the wrong size.  I decided that this was to much work and I went on to plan B.

For the final card, I stamped the stamp on white/cream felt and colored it in with Sharpies.  Then I stitched over it by hand using black thread and glued it to blue paper.  I like how they turned out but it was a lot of work!

Box of the Month & Gelli prints

Me, Daddy's Favorite Princess & Lil Ewok

This year we are participating in the Letterbox of the Month club.  Twelve people sign up, make a stamp and a logbook, and hide it for the first month.  Then, like a postal, you mail the logbook and stamp to the next person and they hide it for a month.  And it goes on and on until you get your own stuff back at the end of the year.  

Yesterday we got our box for February and we planted it today.  In the pic is me & the princess.  Lil Ewok was mad that I would not let him bring his blanket on the walk and he would not face the camera.

I have a cousin who is a geocacher and when she comes to town she caches.  The last few times she has loaded up all the kids and went off geocaching.  Now the princess thinks caching is more fun than boxing because you "get prizes."  So we have looked for a few and not had much luck.  We looked for one today and couldn't find it.  I give up; it is just too stressful looking for something with no directions.  

On a happier note: I told you that I got a Gelli plate last Friday and took it to a GS leader retreat.  I had a lot of fun playing with it.  These are my first prints.  I am using my Gelli plate on two cards and will probably use it a lot :)