The official letterboxing thread
I figured we could use this thread to talk about letterboxing instead of talking about it in the aimless thread. If you want to see what it is all about, go to letterboxing.org. Kate deserves credit for introducing me to this cool hobby. My husband & I decided on the name "Smoochies" and I handcarved our stamp. It's a celtic knot trinity symbol intertwined with a heart.
So far I have been pretty disappointed in my letterboxing. There was supposed to be two of them in the dog park near my house. The first one was missing & the second had a paper to stap in, but no stamp for me to put in my book.
I went to Atlanic City on Sunday and decided to hunt for two seperate boxes when we were there. Both boxes were missing. Even when the letterboxes are missing, it is still fun to hunt for them because it gives you something to do & you end up going someplace a little different or noticing something you wouldn't normally notice.
Then I figured out on the website how to check if someone has recently found a box, or if a few people have just attempted it & therefore it was probably not there, so the next one I hunt for was just found this past March, so its likely going to be there.
how do you check "the status" of the boxes?
i noticed a lot in my area were missing. boo.
When you are in the search list, click on the little green flag next to the box you are interested in. The screen that will take you to is for reporting the date you found the box or if you think it is missing. That screen also gives you the History so you will see who searched for the box when and whether they found it or not.
BP, What does your personal stamp look like? Have you found any letterboxes yet?
Yeah, you have to see if it was found recently. If it says it was, but it is not there, you should probably contact the placer. And make sure you report your finds!
Your stamp sounds cool, lisa!
So far I've attempted maybe 7 and found 4. I like the walks even if I don't find them, though it is a bit anticlimactic.
i haven't "done" any yet, but i looked at the site a couple times and daydreamed about going hunting. i'm trying to talk cammers and DR into doing it with me. there is one by the state museum, which is a nice walk for me. the others in ALB aren't acutally in town, for the most part, but in towns i don't know where they are. ::) it's what happens when you're a transplant.
i imagine my stamp will have a puppy head, maybe with a V in it. heh heh. or BP
hey Baypuppy, I'm confused......I thought cammers was DR......cammers isn't your roommate?
Kate, What did the stamps look like that you found? were any of them in really cool hiding places? I agree that it's fun just to follow the clues even if you don't find anything. One in Atlantic City had us asking casino security guards if they knew where the Mr. Peanut statue was ;D
Here is the image I used for my stamp (It took me hours to carve). On our log book cover I colored the heart purple, the outside trinity dark green & the inside one light blue.
haha, I like how we are doing lots of new threads with "the official..." ;)
haha, I like how we are doing lots of new threads with "the official..." ;)
As if there are unofficial, imposter threads out there....
Lisa, pretty much all of my stamps have been in trees, tree stumps, or logs. Some of them were really pretty stamps: Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, the White Tree of Gondor, lots of good ones. My stamp is pretty plain. I carved it in maybe 15 minutes because I was so excited to start!
This sounds like fun!! I may have to look into this ;)b
DH and I "found" our first letterbox yesterday. I put the quotations marks in because the letterbox was at Barney's Toilet Seat Museum in San Antonio. Barney is the nicest, sweetest guy you'd ever meet. He's 86 years old and has filled his garage with toilet seats that he has decorated, drawn on and carved into with pictures, souvenirs and artifacts. He has made 640-something seats and they honor and commemorate events such as the 1986 Challenger Disaster and the past few Presidential elections. It's a lot of fun to see all his "artwork".
I'll scan my stamp and post the pic later. I'm all thumbs when it comes to working with sharp tools so I concocted my three-part stamp out of letter stamps and one of a rabbit (my spirit animal is a rabbit) that I bought at a craft store.
We're planning on looking for San Antonio letterboxes everytime we go into town. We were in town yesterday to see the play "Spamalot". Thankfully, they didn't sing the "Spam Song".
Oh I am so excited about this :)>>>
Thank you kmk and others for letting me in on this secret fun! I looked online and there are ton by me in the cuyahoga valley trails. Awesome! I am going to get started today....I need to make a stamp though...
Also, my lb name is vegansapien...duh,right?
eta: so yeah, I went to the library...and when I came out it was raining...arg...I was hoping it would clear up...but now my city's tornado siren is going off! So, I guess I will have to wait on the letterboxing :'(
boo...cursed weather!
This sounds like so much fun Lisa! Thanks for the link--there are like 20+ boxes in my area (at leastthat are listed, don't know if they are still there or not). I'm thinking this will be a fun summer activity--guess I better go get a stamp!!! Thanks again!
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj67/ToniaO/lb_stamp.jpg
I plan to make a better stamp but for now this one works. The little rabbit is so cute. I doubt that I could carve a stamp with so much detail.
tt, your stamp is really cute! I want to try to carve mine. But right now I am just using an owl and signing my name.
I ended up going out on Sunday even though it stormed. It finally let up around 8:00 so I was determined to go. Luckily, it was easy to find. I got really muddy but I also discovered and awesome view near my home! Awesome.
We are going to Assateague Island for vacation next week so I want to plan ahead and see if there are any letterboxes there. Fun!
I found a file on the letterboxingtexas Yahoo group that other beginning boxes may find helpful. I'm attaching a text file copy so y'all don't have to join the group to read it.
In the file is a link to http://www.simonstamp.com/ where you can have custom stamps made. My DH and I have been discussing the letterboxes we want to create and this may be a way to have very nice stamps for them.
Just wanted to post this video link on how to carve your stamp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ib99VurQQk
Doesn't look so hard.It reminds me of something I did in art class.
I carved my stamp. It's a cursive Q. I cut it into an eraser with an exacto knife and a safety pin.Now all I need is a stamp pad and a nice book to keep my stamps in. I'm so excited.
I got my first three stamps this weekend! Smooch & I took the doggies out to a State Park about 15 minutes from our house & went letterboxing on the 4th. There was a bit of hiking involved. The clues were really easy to follow & the boxes were all in good shape & the stamps were really nice looking. The dogs got to cool off in a pond between the second & third box & we also picked wild blueberries while we were out, which I put in pancakes the next morning. The whole thing was so fun! I can't wait to go back there to find the remaining three!
I did the search thing and there are about a hundred in my area! Too bad I'll probably never do it. lol
I guess there are some letterboxes in the mountains around my house..I suppose I better go find one before another forest fire burns em up.
I found another letterbox this past Sunday. The wilflife refuge where I volunteer had a picnic for all the volunteers & afterwards Smooch & I went letterboxing. This one was really fun. We had to go the education center (which is like the main office) and borrow a map of the refuge and get our first clue, then there were a series of I think three other clues before we found the actual letter box.
The clues were things like: Find the animal cage with a new American flag inside it. Face the front of the cage and read the sign on the upper left. What is the first number written on the sign? walk that many paces down the path on your right....
It made it feel like a real scavenger hunt. The stamp was a hand carved bald eagle
Letterboxing has consumed my free time! I spend my work breaks either reading clues, searching for images for the stamps/boxes I have planned or working modifiying the pics to make more carvable images. It's been a while since I've posted on vegweb. DH, aka Big Red Coyote, and I have taken two vacation trips, one on our anniversary and one a trip to visit my mother. We found boxes along the way both trips and our count is now 37 found and 7 attempted. I changed my trail name from ToniaO to Purple Veg*n on letterboxing.org and Purple Vegan on atlasquest. Atlasquest doesn't let you have an "*' in your trail name. This has been so much fun. Both finding and planting and the preparation of the boxes is just a blast. I want to thank again, whoever originally posted and "turned me on" to leterboxing. :)>>>
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