PLANTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you read that correctly. All 3 planted and happy and ready to be found! I wish I hadn't gotten around to posting them so late because I would have been content to sit here the entire day refreshing AQ until someone found one. I feel AWESOME and so happy that they're out there. Now go find them! They each start out with "Kitty Masquerade". I'm sure you can figure it out from there :)

Update!

1 box planted!!! And all by myself! Now I'm going downstairs to recruit Katee and we're going to go plant the other 2, wish me luck :)

A very sad and dejected marabelle.

The boxes are done. The log books are labeled, stamps stamped in my carving book, bags are sealed, first finder "awards" placed, boxes locked and.....I have no where to put them.

No where.


I thought I knew, I had a great idea. Given that they are Halloween themed, I was going to place them around local apple orchards. It was brilliant! It was thoughtful! It was....a no go. Katee was going to help me plant them Friday because we were both off but they weren't quite done yet and it was a day of torrential downpours. As mentioned before, I don't DO rain. Ever. So we decided that we would place them after we got out of work yesterday. I was really excited about this because it was a gorgeous day, perfect to run around some orchards placing boxes. I get home an hour before Katee does so I ate some lunch, took a 30 minute nap (because I fell a few days ago and am more and more convinced that when I hit my head, I have myself a slight concussion...it really is a great story though) and then got up a little after 4. To no Katee. I called, she was at Michaels and said she would be back soon. At 6:10 I was freaking out because she still wasn't back. I was convinced that it would be dark by the time we finally got out to planting and I was correct.

Here is a problem you may come across if YOU ever have the brilliant plan of trying to plant boxes in the dark near an orchard: people think you are going to steal apples. And by think, I mean they will stand in their doorways with all the lights on staring you down so you couldn't even dream of getting out of your car, let alone turning on a flashlight to find a suitable planting area.

So here I am, with 3 shiny new boxes just begging to be stamped and logged in to and nowhere to put them. I so wanted them up for the weekend so people could find them before the new week started but it just isn't meant to be. And I'm so sad about it. I have a few areas I am thinking of placing them but it's not as good as the apple orchard idea. And I have so much that I want to get done today that I really wanted them placed last night so I didn't even have to deal with it.

Oh well. Back to the drawing board, I guess. The next time I post, I hope it's to tell you that they're planted. I hope.

It's getting there....

Things to do:
-Paint boxes (done)
-Mount stamps on wood (done)
-Get one more log book (done)
-Get ziploc bags (done)
-Carve bonus stamp
-Get felt to cover stamps
-Put stamps and logbooks in bags with labels
-Write stamp names in log books
-NAME them. Oy.
-Write the "This is not garbage..blah blah" on the boxes
-Figure out exact locations to plant and place boxes
-Write clues and put them up


Man, I thought the carving was the hardest part of this. Turns out it's all the other stuff, who knew?

Tonight Katee (Katchick), Heidi (of the Scurvy Dogs) and myself are having the very first of what we hope becomes a monthly meeting for our boxing plans for the winter. We have a lot of plans and we need to get them organized although after this little series of mine, I don't want to think about planting anything for a long time.

Finished...sort of

I officially finished carving my very first "series" about a half hour ago. Already I'm noticing drastic improvements in my carving and that's really great to see. My third stamp is my favorite, but I feel that way with each new stamp. It's going to be so hard to plant these out into the world and let them go. I have one more to carve, a bonus stamp that will not have its own log book. I hadn't even planned this stamp as part of the original 3 but when searching for log books I found one with this image and I HAD to do it. If you find the series, you'll see why :)

So I have the main carving done, now I just have to get my lock and locks, spray paint them, get quality zip lock bags, one more log book, carve the bonus stamp, mount all the stamps on wood, name them all and prepare the log books and...oh yeah....figure out where I'm planting them and write the clues :P I do have a bit of an idea so I will scout out areas this weekend since I actually don't have to work Saturday (miracles DO happen!). I really want them out by next week, that's my goal.

Now I have this new found fever, like when I first started boxing. I want to show the world my stamps, whether they care to see them or not, because I am just so proud of what I've done. I can't wait to get other people's responses on them (besides the people I threaten unless they say my stamps are good :). It's like Christmas...a big fat work-filled Christmas, but the excitement is the same!

First stamp: DONE!

As I mentioned the other day, I finished carving my very first stamp for my very first plant. I took pictures of it throughout carving to see how I progressed and to hopefully look back at in a few months and see improvement. I don't want to put up all my stamps on here because I don't want everyone to see them before they get planted, but I'm going to choose a few periodically and post the carving process of them. I am making this plant a 3-part series and already finished the second stamp this morning. The first one was a lot more negative imaging than I wanted but it was my first so I took the easy route. I played around a lot more with positive imaging in the second stamp and I think it looks a lot better. I love them both in their own right though, since they ARE my first.

I hadn't intended on planting anything until spring but when I can across a scrub shirt with Halloween Hello Kitty's on it, I knew I needed to do something now. I want to make this a limited time plant and they will probably be out in general population by next week until November. For the first stamp I copied and manipulated the image on our copier at work and then found an image of flames on google. I then messed around with that image on Photoshop until I had what I wanted and then superimposed one image on the other and traced it. Tracing paper WILL be my saving grace in the carving game, I swear. Here is the image shorty after I transferred it to the PZCut:



I then let it sit on my coffee table staring at it overnight because I was afraid to cut into it. It just looked so cute and exactly what I had envisioned in my head that it was really intimidating. Finally, the next day I just picked it up and started carving it. I'm very thankful that I ordered the Staedtler #1 tool because it handles so much better (for me) than the Speedball cutters. I really need to order the rest of the set.



Once I got going, the image seemed to cut itself out. It was a lot easier than I remembered (I had previously one made 2 stamps months ago, for logging in). I'm still having issues with the small areas but I am learning different ways to do it and reading any and every tutorial/advice I can.



The flames turned out being the easiest part, my cutting tool just seemed to want to follow the edge of them. I had a little issue with the pitchfork since I didn't have the foresight to either place it fully on or fully off a flame so it's half negative and half positive. It looks a little awkward but I'm proud of myself for figuring out a solution.



I've also discovered an unforeseen problem in this carving process: I am really impatient and halfway through just want it done so I can stamp it and see what it looks like, haha! I did figure out that I need to almost full carve it first, then put ink on it and stamp it to see where I need to touch up. It just gets kind of difficult when you're staring at all that white to see what the problem areas are.



It really only took me about an hour or two of total time to carve the whole thing, which surprises me. I'm sure that will decrease as I get more used to it. I also need to work on my usual perfectionist attitude because it doesn't always turn out perfect and that doesn't mean I need to chuck the whole thing and start again (even if I want to). So here's the final image:



It's not mounted on wood with foam yet so it doesn't stamp exactly the way I want it to, but hopefully it does once it's finished. Then I get to figure out where they're going and plant them! I can't wait, I'm so excited to put my very first stamps out into the LB'ing world :)

What a day!

I started off today not having a clue what I was doing other than cleaning my house and going grocery shopping (neither of which I got to, incidentally). I woke up around 7:30 and started on my stamp series I'm carving (more on that to come later). Around 8 I decided that I really wanted to attempt to be the first finder for a box that went up last night so I headed off to find it. When I got to the park, I saw a car sitting in the parking lot with no condensation on it, which meant it had just gotten there. I already had the feeling that another boxer was there because who else would be out a diserted playground at 8 on a Sunday morning? I started following the clues and saw a woman with a bag walking across the same field I needed to be in. I then saw her come out of the EXACT area I needed to be in an was convinced she was a boxer. I went to the tree the box was hidden in and was getting very annoyed that I couldn't find it. A very new boxer planted it so I figured it wouldn't be hidden that hard and after about 5 minutes it occurred to me that the other woman had the box! After my epiphany I set out to find her and get it.

Well, I ended up finding the box alright, but I found it in the hands of Infinity! It was so cool to meet her out boxing because I had never met another boxer out on the trail before (and had never met her) and because I have loved her stamp since I saw it in the very first box I ever found. I wasn't even bummed that I didn't get to be the first finder. She was really nice and it was such a cool experience that I thought that was going to be the highlight of my day...but I was wrong...

After coming home, finishing my stamp, showering, etc, Brent and I finally decided to go out and get some boxes before going shopping. We found the first one in our hunt without incident but on our way to the second, we came across a group of people gathered around the tree that the clues listed we were looking for. I said to Brent, "If that's another group of boxers, I'll die. Twice in one day is too much". As we got closer one of the people called out, "You wouldn't happen to be a LETTERBOXER would you?" I laughed and said I was and he said "Which way's north?". Very cool to finally hear that on the trail.

It turns out it was Party Pig (who I had previously met at the WNY gathering) and Wes, who had happened across the newbies Hy 5 and then Brent and I. It's amazing how many people will come out of the woodwork when a new box is planted. They asked me if I was Katchick (which I am still miffed about because we almost always box together so how did she get a rep and I didn't??? WTF??? :P). Ironically she happened to call me almost that same minute so I told her to come over as we were having an impromptu mini-gathering. We exchanged stamps and I stamped into the boxes they had at the table (all the boxes I had been trying to find). I also realized then that I was in the same exact spot that I had met Inifinity this morning (I came in from the other side of the park and am bad with directions so it took a while to sink in). Katee (Katchick) finally showed up and we spent about an hour and a half talking about our adventures in LB'ing. I also found out the guy from Hy5 (I don't remember his name, how hard do I suck?) is from the same minuscule town I grew up in and where my mom still lives, and that Wes went to high school with my dad in an even SMALLER town in the Adirondacks. Small world isn't even fitting, it was surreal.

After we finally tore ourselves away (Party Pig and Wes have some GREAT stories and we can't wait to meet up with them again), Katee and I went to get some more boxes before we went back home. I still maintain that I HATE store bought stamps and I truly feel you should have to find a certain amount of boxes before you can plant any so you really get a feel for boxing. But, I'm sure this has been going on for long before I was around so I shouldn't have a say in it. I guess I'm just going to have to deal with it but it still annoys me.

Either way, today was amazing. I'm excited that I finished my first stamp and it came out fairly well and I can't wait to finish my other 2 stamps to plant my mini-Halloween series. I'm excited to get some boxes out there and see how it all works. It was also SO COOL to finally meet people on the trail and exchange some good stories and help some newbies get more excited about it all. This is why I love this hobby so much, you never know what you'll come across.

P0 F156 X32

Damn rain.

I had some big plans this weekend to get some boxes while I was camping at Darien Lake. Celtic Quinn (who I met in July at the WNY Gathering) has a large series planted there and I was excited to get it since I haven't seen any of his stamps. Unfortunately the rain prevented any of that. It was my friend's birthday this weekend, which is why we were going and I had prepared by telling everyone that Brent and I would be leaving at some point to go "hiking". We got up there Saturday night, raised the tent, rode some roller coasters and drank a good amount of alcohol without incident. Around 1am, shortly after I fell into a Captain Morgan induced slumber, it started to rain torrentially. I thought for sure it would end soon as we haven't had rain in months but of course, it persisted the ENTIRE night and ENTIRE next day. Despite it being my tent's inaugural voyage, I had sealed the seems within an inch of their life and Brent and I had a rain free night. Go me! Others weren't so lucky but in the end it didn't matter because the tear down and clean up of our camp site drenched us to the bone so none of us wanted to do anything but go home. I would like to say I am one of those boxers that will carry on no matter what the circumstance but I'm not. I hate being in the rain and being wet and I hate my log book getting wet and the rain making my ink run and my bag getting soaked. I'm just miserable the whole time and refuse to do it just for the sake of finds. I always want boxing to be fun, not just for the numbers. And I know I'll drag Brent back anyway.

In other news, I've decided what images I am going to use for my practice plants. I wanted to create a box to plant before we start carving this winter so we can "trouble shoot" and get a feel for planting before we send all the ones we have planned to create this winter off in the spring. As previously stated, I don't claim to be an artist so I am scouring places for images to use. I found 3 that are similar and I am going to make them into limited time "Halloween" plants. They won't be a series, per say, as I want to plant them in different areas but they will be related. Maybe using commercial images or ones I can google is lame but I still think the worst hand carved stamp is better than a store bought one. I don't like to spend my time and effort trying to hunt down a box only to find a store bought stamp that I could have picked up at Micheal's while buying new pens and ink. It's just so disappointing because anyone can buy a stamp, throw it in a lock and lock and stick it under a rock somewhere. I want people to at least know I put time and effort into my stamps, even if they aren't great. And just because I am a bad artist doesn't mean I'm a bad carver. Who knows, maybe as my carving gets better it will bring up some drawing ability, too. Either that or I'll resurrect my stick figure cartoons that I drew often in college, appropriately titled "Crappy Cartoons by Mary". You could only BE so lucky to see those artistic endeavors :)

A monumental day.

In addition to the creation of my new blog, another incredible thing happened today: I received my first order from Stampeaze consisting of 2 blocks of grade B PZ cut and a #1 cutting tool (AND a squirrel stamp on my invoice! Perfect for me, if you know about my squirrel obsession :P). So far in my LBing career I have carved 2 stamps for my personal use but have to yet to jump into the planting world. I wanted to wait until I had a full summer under my belt and a decent amount of finds so I knew what was expected of me as a planter. This winter Katchick (my partner in crime) and I will be carving like maniacs. The veterinary world slows down to a crawl in the winter (as does upstate NY) so what better to do with our time than carve? I'm very excited to see the evolution of my carving, to see if it gets better over time. I am not, I repeat, AM NOT artistically inclined. That gene almost completely skipped me and what little part of the double helix managed to graze me was of the musical persuasion. I can sing, fairly well actually, but am not an artist in any sense of the word. I have a scientific mind, one the needs to know why and how and when and for how long and does is it always that way and will it change over time and....you get the picture. I still want to try, though, and hopefully create some boxes that can make up in location what they may be lacking in design. I want to take pictures of my stamps and post them here I so I see how they change. Our initial goal was to carve, carve, carve all winter and then plant, plant, plant in the spring but I really think I want to create a "practice" box to test out and see what works and what doesn't. We'll see. For now I just have 2 beautiful pieces of perfect PZCut sitting on my coffee table that is just begging to be reborn. I can't wait!

Intro, Mary style.

For a while now I've wanted to start a new blog. I have been blogging for 8 years at an undisclosed location (which you will never get out of me) but I've been feeling this need to break free from myself. It's difficult to be tied to something I started when I was 19 and a completely different person than who I am now. Reading back entries makes me want to reach through time and somehow change my decisions about things and inevitably the outcome because I was so young an naiive. Unfortunately that can't be done and so I have 8 years of heartache and misfortune locked in internet land for all eternity. I could delete the whole thing but to do that would be to delete a part of myself and that's something I'm just not prepared to do yet.

Which brings me here: a brand new blog in a brand new site with a brand new hobby. Because what better to blog about than letterboxing? Especially since I started just a few months ago and have embraced it with a vengance so I doubt my love for it will die down any time soon. In hindsight I wish I had started this before I even found my first box but I didn't know then what it was all about. I had no idea that a new world would be opened to me as soon as I removed the plastic lid of that precious tupperware box. I had no idea that contained inside would be an entire ecosystem of people, gatherings, new friends, artistic outlets, environmental consciousness and just plain fun. Had I know, I would have documented my journey but alas, here I am 3 months and 143 boxes later and just starting. But I feel like there's so many things that I haven't even begun to learn yet that there's still time. Better late than never, right? :)