Flower Power

Flower Power: Water Lily

This is my card for Damselfly's Flower Power LTC swap.  Can you believe I made a set of cards and took almost no pictures?!  I guess I got busy with all the layers and simply forgot.  My card is called, "Water Lily." 

I joined the swap and thought about making a rose or a daisy.  But then a request was made for stamps in memory of p green frog.  I decided to carve the water lily and send the stamp off. 

I have a lot of flower cards on my LTC Pinterest board and HERE is the one that was the inspiration for this card.  A few years ago I participated in a swap called "Lumpy Card Lovers Unite."  I really enjoyed making that card and I have been thinking about hosting a swap with the same theme.  But this card helped fill my need to make something layered and lumpy. 

For this card, I cut my paper into tag shape, stamped a text stamp with brown ink, smeared some texture paste on with a knife, rubbed some Mustard Seed Distress Ink on the dried texture paste with an ink applicator.  Then, I put down a stencil and rubbed Mowed Lawn Distress Ink down the left side and Spun Sugar on the right but you can't really see it.  I ordered a glitter brush pen from Scrapbook.com and brushed it over the yellow texture paste.  After that, I attached my vellum and misc text scrapbook papers with glue dots.  I LOVED the use of thread in my inspiration card.  I wound some pink thread up and attached it and my stamp image with a foam square.  I also went around the edge of the card with a dark brown ink.  I am thrilled with how my cards turned out. 

These are the stamps that I am donating to the p green frog box. On her profile page on Atlas Quest, her quote is "Life is Good."  I added this message to one of the cards and sent it off to TeachJR who was good friends with p green frog.  p green frog passed away late last year and they are making a event box in her memory.

The 7 Cent Solution

This swap is hosted by Team Awesome Pants.  She found some scrapbook paper on sale that she couldn't pass up.  She bought it, cut it to size, and put the cards in envelopes.  When you joined the tracker, she sent you a random envelope of cut paper.

My paper arrived and I thought it was okay.  It wasn't something I would normally buy.  The first thing I saw when I looked at the paper was a frog.  But it wasn't a frog at all, it was a suitcase.  I keep seeing a frog.

My first idea for a stamp was a bicycle with a basket of flowers on the front.  That idea didn't really work well with the papers being cut vertically.  I had another idea but again the paper needed to be horizontal.

The 7 Cent Solution: Toad Town

I went back to the frog idea and looked for images with frogs in clothes or with flowers.  My papers have a flower shop on them so I also looked at many bouquets of flowers.  I eventually found the frog on the bike and thought it would work well.  The cards need a little something.  I looked at stickers, washi tape, and flowers.  Think these little flowers look nice on my cards.

Not all the cards have the frog suitcase on them, but the for the ones that do, I tried to position my stamp so that you could still see the frog.   

I'm very curious to see what papers other people got :)

Mermaids & Hearts

Under the Sea: Seamaid

 I have 3 cards due in a span of three days so I decided I would just make one blog post.  The the one set is supposed to be a secret and I will wait to post that one until I get my cards back.

This first one is called, "Seamaid" for jlsd0218's "Under the Sea" LTC swap.  I wanted to carve a mermaid but I wanted her to be more of a sea creature than a happy little mermaid.  I looked at images for a long time and made a Pinterest board just for mermaids.  I went back and forth forever but finally settled on this image.

For the background, I rubbed my distress inks/oxides on my craft mat, sprayed with water, and tapped the cards in the ink.  I did it a few times and when that was dry I sprayed the cards with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Moss.  Then I stamped my image and embossed with gold powder.

I thought they needed something and I carved up some small fish scales and tried stamping it on the boarder paper.  I didn't like that and stamped it on the background paper in the corners with gold.  It just barley shows up.  I still think they need something but I was running out of time and sent them off.



This card is for Linden Leaf's "I Got a Jar of Dirt" quisp swap.  I carved the jar for the last quisp swap she hosted and she said it was ok to recycle jar stamps.

I Got a Jar of Dirt: Jar of Hearts

I carved my heart, stamped it on three different colored paper, embossed one with glitter red embossing powder and glued it all together.

I got the idea from the song Jar of Hearts.  There is a line in the song that says, " You're gonna catch a cold, from the ice inside your soul."  That is why I did the blue paper.  I felt like it should be more gloomy and have gray paper but I went with the blue because of the song.

Boxing & Cheering in Lafayette

Last weekend my daughter and I went to a Lutheran basketball tournament in Lafayette, Indiana.  My daughter cheered and I had to letterbox. 

The kids were supposed to leave school at 11 am and my daughter had already made arrangements to ride with a friend.  So I dropped my kids off at school, ran home to get something I forgot, went thru a fast food drive thru, and left town.

Terre Haute is about 2 hours north of Evansville (where we live) and I have been wanting to box there for a long time.  I went to college there and have only driven thru a few times.  I looked for 12 boxes and found 6. 

Next, I went to Indy.  I wanted to grab a few boxes on the west side as I was passing thru.  I went get a box at a high school and wasted a lot of time looking because I didn't want to count the steps.  I thought I would just look in trees that fit the description.  But in the end, I walked the steps like the clue said.  Then I went for a box at the local Girl Scout office. You had to ask for it and they had no idea where it was.  The woman called around and asked every person she could find.  I probably spent 20-30 there and walked away with no stamp in my book.

My goal was to arrive in Lafayette at 4 but arrived at 5.  I actually beat the car my daughter was in.  We went out to dinner, the cheer girls did their nails, and we went to bed. 

We got up the next morning and we had to cheer at 8:45.  The boys lost and we didn't play again until 3:30.  My daughter went back to the hotel with friends and I went letterboxing.  I looked for 9 boxes, found 4, and planted one.  It looks like no one lives in Lafayette, people plant when passing thru, and they are not maintained. 

My daughter cheered at the second game and we lost again.  We went back to the hotel, then to a Lutheran service, some 3 point & free throw contests in the gym, and the kids stayed at the school for a dance.  Then they came back to the hotel and someone ordered pizza.  We hung out in the lobby for a while, then went back to our room, and watched a movie.

They next day we didn't cheer until 12:30.  We slept in and went out for breakfast instead of eating at the hotel.  Check out time was noon so we got our stuff together and went back to the school.  The boys won their last game.  It was really nice to leave with a win. 

We went thru a fast food drive thru and got on the road.  It was snowing/raining and we didn't stop for the other boxes I wanted to get on the way out of town.  We made many stops on the way home-wreck on the interstate, rest area potty stop, get gas and more food, etc. 

I love Cracker Barrel.  When I saw there was a box there I had to stop even though it was raining.  We got another restaurant box close by.  We still had almost 3 hours of driving to get home but it was nice to find some easy boxes at the end of our trip. 

I found 13 boxes, planted 1, and left a few hitchhikers.  This basketball tournament has been going on for over 40 years.  I hope my daughter continues to cheer because I am already thinking of next year :) 

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.

Dream Catcher LTCs

This is my card for crosscresent's Native American LTC swap.  I made a dream catcher card a few years ago but I have been wanting to do another.  Someone actually posted a Dream Catcher swap last year but the timing was bad and I didn't join.

I have been wanting to make a card with Yupo paper for a while and this was my first time.  I see a lot of alcohol ink art on social media and this was my first go at it.  I'm pretty happy with my cards :)

For some of the cards I added the ink first and on others I added the blending solution first.  There were 2-3 cards where I did not add the blending solution at all just to see how they would look.  I tried moving the ink around with a straw, puffer, and heat tool.

Yupo paper is not supposed to warp, but it will with too much heat.  I had to throw a few away because of this.

I had a hard time stamping my stamp.  It kept wanting to smear.  I eventually gave in and used my stamping platform and they turned out much better. 

I'm very happy with my cards but it sounds like they got lost in the mail :(  I've got so many things going on, I really don't have time to remake them.

Happy New Year

Kids and I electioneering at the mall

Hello 2020.  I usually do a blog post recapping the previous year and talk about what the new year holds.

Surprisingly, 2019 was a great find year for me.  I say "surprisingly" because my husband ran for city council and it consumed 9 months of the year.  I felt like it was the only thing I did in 2019.  But it was actually my highest find year ever!  I found 315 boxes in 2019 and the last one was my 1500th letterbox, woo hoo!  My second highest year was 2015 with 225 boxes.

I totally credit all those finds to attending some amazing events.  In May, Daddy's Favorite Princess, my boxing buddy, and I attended A Walk in the Park at Shakamak SP in Indiana.  In June, Daddy's Favorite Princess, Boxing Turtle, and I attended the Big Top on the Prairie event in Ohio.  On the way home from this event we boxed in Spring Grove Cemetery and found many boxes.  In November, Boxing Turtle and I attended the Four Seasons event in Chandler, In.

In my last year recap post, I said that in 2019 I would be planting boxes that went with silly holidays.  My plan was to hide one a month.  I planted 25 of these boxes and a hitchhiker too.  Most of these were planted in my county but I did spread the love to Ky & Oh.

Events!

I made an average number of LTCs in 2019 (28).  Again, I expected this number to be lower with my husband running for city council.  I know there were swaps that I wanted to join but didn't because the timing was bad.  Sadly, there were a few that I dropped from because I knew I wouldn't finish on time.

All in all, 2019 was a good year.  I don't really make letterboxing goals.  I don't have any plans for this year and my planting will probably be down.  I am running out of ideas and hiding places.  I hope to get back to the Homerdoodle event in Il.  My 10th letterboxing anniversary will be in October and I have thought about hosting an event to celebrate.  But we will have to see how the year goes.

Unfortunately, my boxing buddy fell late in 2019 and she is not able to get out much.  She going to have to have her knees replaced.  The dr that she has chosen is so backed up that her surgery won't be until summer.  If you could say a prayer for her, I'd really appreciate it. 

I hope you all have a great 2020!