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 letterboxing (currently 5,124 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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| Twinville2 |
| Posted on: January 25th, 2007, 5:57am |
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| Yes, let's plan something for Spring, ok? |
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Reply: 15 - 27 |
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| rigama |
| Posted on: March 1st, 2007, 3:36pm |
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| Can someone give me this skinny on this? As far as I know, letterbox only applies to widescreen format movies! |
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Reply: 16 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: March 1st, 2007, 3:59pm |
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Go check out http://www.letterboxing.org or http://www.atlasquest.com.
Basically you get clues to a box from the lists on the websites. You go out prepared with a rubber stamp, stamppad, and a notebook and when you find the box you put an imprint of your stamp in the notebook provided in the box and put an imprint of the stamp in the box into your notebook. SO you know where you were and they know you found them. YOu can also get a login name on the sites and keep track of your boxes online.
It is totally fun, a little like geocaching, only without the GPS. It takes you to all sorts of spots you would never go, gets everyone outside for a hike.
I intend to set a date at some point to have a stamp making session (or someone else can set the date too, I won't mind) cuz currently we are using store bought stamps and i think it would be fun to have homemade stamps. |
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Reply: 17 - 27 |
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| Twinville2 |
| Posted on: March 2nd, 2007, 4:42am |
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How many have you discovered so far, Karen?
I am so impressed that you've already gotten started.
Jackson & Jeremiah keep asking when we are going to get out and "Letterbox". We already have our Navajo Blanket handmade stamp. I just need to get with it! hehehe  |
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Reply: 18 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: March 2nd, 2007, 5:05pm |
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Quite a few Lisa, some here, some in Phoenix, and some in the SW area of NM, Deming, Lordsburg. We tried to find one in Hatch, but it was waaaaay too windy so we bagged it, not to mention we needed to hop a fence into a ballpark to find it. . . this is the OCD part of me coming out. I get really obsessed with stuff sometimes(just not folding laundry)  |
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Reply: 19 - 27 |
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| Pandora |
| Posted on: March 8th, 2007, 3:57am |
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hey Lisa i crawled out of that rock I've been under and looked at Jax and Jem's Place. Very Cool! I need to do something to mine, haven't touched my blog in forever. But I also got to thinking our kids might like doing one too. Thank you guys, you made me smile, after a very long day.
Stacey |
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Reply: 20 - 27 |
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| Twinville2 |
| Posted on: March 8th, 2007, 4:14am |
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Nice to hear from you Stacey.
It's been a very long time. Maybe it's just me, but it
feels like this past winter has been a 'deep freeze', in that
my family has gotten out of the loop with old friends and
our usual activities.
We've also been feeling some burn-out here, too. Can't wait
for the more relaxed, warm days of summer to arrive.
Glad you enjoyed Jax & Jem's Blog. They like having their own
space on the web. I bet that Bailey would have fun with her own Blog, too.
Take care. Hopefully we can get together soon. |
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Reply: 21 - 27 |
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| mommom |
| Posted on: March 27th, 2007, 2:26pm |
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I'm tacking onto this thread - my apologies Karen! I had posted about getting an Orienteering group together (based on letterboxing) and now I can't find my original post to add to it.
Anyhow, I was in contact with a very enthusiastic but busy airwoman in training at KAFB. She loves orienteering and really wanted to teach a class or two but did warn me that her schedule was super busy - looks like it got the better of her because I haven't heard from her and she was supposed to leave town in March or April.
I have my ears open to find another teacher - because it's a fun sport. I just wanted to follow up on that. |
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Reply: 22 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: March 27th, 2007, 9:22pm |
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| excellent, Carol, keep us posted |
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Reply: 23 - 27 |
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| Twinville2 |
| Posted on: March 28th, 2007, 3:19am |
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We've been letterboxing for the last month or so and having a great time. I believe that an Orienteering lesson would be very beneficial and the perfect addition to our letterboxing hobby.
Karen and I were also talking about organizing a Letterboxing get-together soon for anyone interested. My family will be out of town most of April, but maybe we could do this in early May? Or whatever work for everyone is fine with us, too.... |
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Reply: 24 - 27 |
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: March 28th, 2007, 6:02pm |
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| let's plan that for may Lisa, I bought some of those locking plastic boxes at the store the other day, so now all i need is erasers for stamps and ideas on where to place. |
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| Twinville2 |
| Posted on: April 25th, 2007, 7:05am |
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Hey Karen,
I rediscovered this thread and noticed your post about not being able to reach the Hatch letterbox. We were lucky enough to come upon it on our trip out to the Tucson area last week. Only because their were workers doing stuff to the park inside, so the gates were open.
When you get back down to Hatch or the SW area of NM, you've got to stop in there to find that box. The hand-carved stamp is perfectly themed and very good!
Also, speaking of letterboxing, I've updated our Blog with new pics and stuff from our letterboxing trip to Arizona. Check it out when you get a chance 
So far we've done really well with the number of boxes weve found, although compass skills are an absolute must to search for letterboxes, in these thick Sonoran mesquite and palo verde parks and forests. There are not many landmarks like we have in the ABQ area. This has been our biggest challenge here, but we are learning and having fun discovering new places and new skills along the way, too.
We plan to search for a few more boxes before we drive back home to NM this weekend, as well as on the way home through NM.
We're also looking forward to searching for the boxes you've recently hid in ABQ, too!
Don't you just love letterboxing! I'm so glad you lit the fire under our butts to get us started with this wonderful addiction......er...hobby! 
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| akjlfarnold |
| Posted on: April 25th, 2007, 3:54pm |
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| cool lisa! and you are right about the addiction! |
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