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 letterboxing (currently 5,112 views) |
| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: January 2nd, 2007, 11:49pm |
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| mommom |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 5:27am |
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| Letterboxing is a lot of fun! We've done it before. We've never hidden our own box, but we've gone out in search of others. There are sites on the web that list the locations of letterboxes in particular states and cities. Well, they don't list the actual location but rather the clues to the location - it's fun to hunt for them and very exciting to find them! |
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Reply: 1 - 27 |
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| Twinville2 |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 5:45am |
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Thanks Karen. Great website. We've tried Letterboxing after I attended a workshop in September on how to do it and how to make your own Letterbox stamps.
I made a Navajo Blanket stamp and we are hoping to get a box made up to hide this Spring and then do some more hunting of Letterboxes.
There are not all that many Letterboxes hidden in our area yet. Quite a few in Santa Fe, though....and one hidden at the top of Sandia Mountain. (It has a Watermelon stamp. Get it?)
Geocaching seems to be the more popular thing to do in NM, but it's initially more expensive because you need to purchase a GPS unit. Most of the letterbox hunts are focused on landmarks and not GPS coordinates. But they are both fun and a great challenge for kids and families to do together...and especially to get outdoors and hike together!  |
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Reply: 2 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 5:18pm |
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| any ideas on how to make a stamp? I was kinda thinking of just buying one, but it seems people are into making them. Not that i am not crafty, but i ain't got the time! |
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Reply: 3 - 27 |
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| Twinville2 |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 9:46pm |
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Those who are serious into Letterboxing snub their noses at storebought stamps, but they are entirely acceptable, especially if you are able to buy one that relates to the area you live in and it isn't necessarily mass-marketed, if you know what I mean. You want the stamp to be unique.
But if you really want to make your own stamps, it actually pretty simple and fun. I had actually considered setting up a get-together for the older kids (6 and up) to do this as a craft/precursor to Letterboxing ventures.
Michaels sells a complete stampmaking kit, with the foam, carving tools and instructions. And you can also purchase all the supplies separately as well.
I bet that Hobby Lobby also sells stamp making kits, too. You can mount them on wood or plastic, but it's not really necessary, since the foam is quite thick and sturdy.
The main things to focus on are not making the designs to small. And to decide if you want a raised 'relief' design (a bit more complicated with more carving) or a simple 'crease' design.
Then design the stamp first on paper, then trace, by pressing the ink onto the foam. Next start cutting out the pattern/design using the carving tools. The stamp can be as large or as small as you'd like it to be. But keep in mind that if doing this for Letterboxing, many people use the stamp to record the finding of a Letterbox and stamp their Journal with it.
Most journals tend to be 4"X8" with space for either one stamp impression per page or several stamp impressions per page. Depends on the person...but stamps tend to be small to medium size so that the Letterboxer can record information, near the stamp impression, about where they found and how they discovered the hidden Letterbox.
It's a little like a stamp collection. And it's fun to collect all the many unique stamps in your journal.
Hope that wasn't too much info. I just realized I was rambling on and on.....hehhe |
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Reply: 4 - 27 |
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| antenzella |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 9:53pm |
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| That is so funny that you guys are talking about letterboxing. My husband and I were just saying that we were going to start doing that this spring. It sounds like a lot of fun. |
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Reply: 5 - 27 |
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| Twinville2 |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 9:57pm |
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Do you think, then, that there would be some interest if I set up a Letterboxing/stamp making event/get-together?
We could even do it at a large park and plan a small Letterbox hunt afterwards for practice.
Do you think anyone would be interested? |
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Reply: 6 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 10:12pm |
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| Ah Lisa, you are a font of information I say yes definitely, set it up, sounds like fun. Jack is itching to get out and start finding and i keep telling him we are going to wait till this snow melts.. . . |
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Reply: 7 - 27 |
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| mommom |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 10:53pm |
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Another way to make a stamp is to look around your house for an eraser and craft knife.
We had a hard plastic type eraser (harder than a rubber eraser, but I think those would work as well). We drew the design we wanted on a sheet of paper with pencil. We chose the very simple design of a Lego mini-fig head (because that's the extent of my drawing ability!) and then we drew over the lines with blue pen - over and over and pressed the eraser down on it and then we cut away around the head to make a homemade stamp.
We put our stamp, a stamp pad, a tiny little notebook, the directions and a compass in a ziploc bag - all ready to throw in our knapsack.
We'd love to join in on a "hunt" if there's going to be one in Spring - what fun!
Carol |
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Reply: 8 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: January 3rd, 2007, 11:14pm |
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| I think we will try your idea carol, on our way to michaels now to get an eraser. the kit might call to me off the shelf though, we will see when i see the price. |
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Reply: 9 - 27 |
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| mommom |
| Posted on: January 8th, 2007, 3:56am |
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Karen,
How did your stamp making work out?
Carol |
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Reply: 10 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: January 8th, 2007, 4:31pm |
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Well, my kids saw the nice premade stamps and i saw that they were 50% off so we went with those. i did make an attempt to locate the stamp kit, but the store was closing and I did not see it and didn't try too hard, just looked in the stamp aisle.
And I figure it is our first attempt so experienced letterboxers will have to just put up with us
My hope is to make a "real" homemade stamp if we do a letterboxing activity. Do you still want to do that Lisa? We can do it here if you want. We can spread out in the kitchen and dining room nd if someone has a card table that would work great. |
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Reply: 11 - 27 |
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| reb7mom |
| Posted on: January 24th, 2007, 11:23pm |
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| We are very interested in doing this and hope to start soon. Our first thing will be to try and find some boxes. But we would be very interested in any related activities that anyone comes up with. |
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Reply: 12 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: January 25th, 2007, 2:56am |
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| We found our first letterboxes this weekend in Phoeniix, it was really fun! Can't wait o hide a box! |
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Reply: 13 - 27 |
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| Cool2Learn |
| Posted on: January 25th, 2007, 5:18am |
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| This sounds incredibly fun! I just want to chime in that we'd be thrilled to participate in any letterboxing projects as an event. |
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Reply: 14 - 27 |
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