It is very likely that copier/printer manufacturer have altered their toner formulas. Good old (CH3)2CO may not be a viable solvent anymore for the stuff that holds the new stuff together. :-(

Cheers,

Le Bug

They are trying to hold on to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTmfwklFM-M

How about some eevil:

https://www.atlasquest.com/people/profile.php?memberId=63558

Good one.

I've actually been wondering about that. Cheaper perhaps? Like other companies are doing with other products.

You wouldn't necessarily need a book to learn how to clicker train a cat, but I used Naughty No More by Marilyn Krieger. I honestly think my cat had fun with the clicker training. I think he's the result of back yard breeding and an early separation from his mother--hence the "Naughty No More," but I think plenty of smart cats would enjoy it.

Congratulations on the find, RIclimber. Glad you were successful!

Clues are posted here:

https://elanachivani.com/elana/#/

There is a new set posted every Saturday and they appear to be spread out across the country. If one isn’t near you now, keep checking cause there might be one in the future.

Yes, actually I have. The new bottle won't work for me like the old ones did for transferring. Now I use a different method. Took a while to figure out what would work for me. Now I'm transparencies... all the way! ;)

Awww, your babies sound WONDERFUL! Perfectly normal behavior for kitties. I too have an old one who is a bit senile. Crazy, crazy cat. We all just let her do what she wants. She grumbles all the time and she startles us when we are not prepared for it. It's just the way.

We have had experience with pack animals. Yes, rest easy knowing you will need another cat when the older one dies. Honest. It won't take long to get one. Just keep your eye open.

Animals who are depend on others due morn. It's so sad to watch. We have had a number of animals die due to sorrow and broke heart. On those occasions, we just wouldn't replace the companion when it was needed and we lost the pet with the broken heart. It happens.

Try not to borrow trouble from tomorrow, ok. Let it ride and know something will come along. Honest. I too love my newest kitty. Hard not becoming a crazy cat lady. Maybe I am. Keeps us living longer. Hehehehe

Just ordered it! Thanks!

I once carved a PopTart for an event and used the foil wrapping from a real PopTart as the sleeve for my event stamp (I sewed it to cotton batting and fabric in a quilting fashion) and I also have a purse someone made for me using a 1 lb Reese’s cup wrapper (same way. It was quilted using batting and cotton fabric). There are no residual smells especially after working with the part that was touching food. I would assume animals would leave it alone after working with it?

OK, so don’t know that I ever mentioned it, but I was a vet tech for 22 years before I retired due to my disability and my special interest during that time has always been cats. Not only that, but I’m currently in training as an end of life Doula!

It’s always hard for bonded pairs to lose a buddy and it definitely sounds like you guys are bonded. Not just that though every cat grieves. I’ve had cats that hated the other cat in the house, but would look for them anyway after they passed.

The solution honestly? I started fostering kittens. It gave her something to do, and it also helped her become more resilient with cats leaving, and until she passed away herself, she loved being the auntie and teaching kittens the ropes. And along the way, she did find one special baby that she loved so much that we adopted.

I don’t know your situation now (whether it’s possible to get another cat or if you even want that responsibility, etc.) but it also might be worth looking into finding a buddy for him now, so that when he loses Major, he won’t be trying to acclimate to his loss and a new cat at the same time.

If you have any questions or want any more info or advice, let me know! ❤️ 🐾

Here in Colorado Springs. And have 4 other friends here who go out locally and in Santa Fe quite often. If anyone local to Colo Spgs carves and would be willing to do one on one carving sessions, I would be interested in getting some much needed advice on my carving technique.

Ohmygoodness I'm so glad you read my post. I appreciate you for responding. I would have at least a dozen fur babies because we get so attached. Terra would give me the big blue eyed Precious Moments look. Lol, actually, that's how we got major.
In 2012, Terra's brothers BFF asked if his kitten "Cash" could stay for a couple weeks while he went to N. Dakota and of coarse we said yes. It got our past cat (Harley ✝️) up and playing again. He was a very large cat and the kitten would "Superman" jump onto Harley. We still laugh when think about it.
Anyways! About a month later, he comes to visit and we assumed "Cash" would go home. Nope, did t happen that way, obviously. Lol. He does not have that "Cash" look to him so now he's Major 😁 I'm so sorry. I talk way too much and am theatrically dramatic with my stories. It's a flaw, or so most people think 🤔 so I apologize 🤐
I think it would be worth trying, though. I'm not sure if there is a place around here that fosters outside of the Humane Society, but I'm gonna look into it.
Wow, I'm still so grateful for you. I have so many questions (that require long, dramatic stories 😉), but I'm gonna let my novel rest for now. I imagine you way different now 🫣. I tend to create back stories and visualize what faceless friends look like. Lol
I'm gonna go, bit I'll get back to you soon. 🫶🏼
Thankful,
D

I tend to foster for small organizations, and a great way to keep yourself from foster failing 200 times is to make sure they have some sort of graduation plan! The organization I foster for most recently has a kind of kitten kindergarten type thing where once the kitten gets spayed and is at a certain age, they go to another foster who specifically takes kittens for socialization!

So at eight weeks, like it or not, the babies get fixed and taken to their next adventure. I also don’t have as much trouble because I generally bottle raise kittens, and after being up every two hours with them, wiping their butts, and having their tiny needle like claws digging into my skin, I’m ready to see them off!

https://www.atlasquest.com/gallery/view-photo.php?photoId=173775

It's much easier to maintain the clues if they are in a series. If there are 6 boxes and a trail is rerouted or a landmark no longer exists, you only need to edit 1 clue instead of 6.

This is so important! I think people have a skewed view of cat's traits and abilities. I'd always had dogs, so when I got my first cat 4 years ago, I raised him just like a dog. Everyone told me he'd become aloof and start ignoring me like a "normal" cat, but that never happened. And research has backed me up saying cats tend to reciprocate the attention their owners give them.

Anyhow, Sunny Bear rolls over, sits pretty, goes on hikes and bike rides, camps, and loves bouldering. He also has talking buttons that he bosses me around with, which I highly recommend if you have a cat like mine who started getting bitey out of frustration when he couldn't tell me what he wanted. The 1st set had 4 or 5 buttons and it took him about 12 hours to learn which button does what. Whenever a new order of buttons comes in, he runs over to the box, hits a button, and stares at me to see what I do, and I have to remind him it's not programmed yet. 😂 For the talking buttons to be effective, the pet parent needs to be consistent.

Perhaps today.

My advice is to allow yourself a good amount of time and don't skip anything that you may need to decode. I made an assumption about something and was wrong! Also cell service is very spotty in that part of the county.

Every now and then, I see a post on the Facebook AQ page about newer carvers lacking confidence in carving, and I get it because I used to feel the same way.

I wanted to share that I think you should keep trying. It probably took me about 100 carves (thank you Power Plant Challenge of 2018/19) before I felt good about how my carves looked and eventually got a compliment along the lines of “wow, this stamp looks wonderful, you’ve really come a long way!” We all start at different places, but with practice, people can really come a long way quickly. Letterboxers that have been around awhile can see it all the time.

I once heard a linocut artist say “if you can carve a heart, you can carve anything” because hearts have straight lines, inside/outside corners, and curves. My recommendation if you want to start carving something is practice or warm up with a heart.

Lastly, I hope you plant the letterboxes with image quality that you aren’t confident in, because it can really encourage new carvers. All the time, newer ‘boxers will comment on a stamp image quality and make a comment along the lines of ‘I could never do that.’ And my response is always “I used to think that too” and I’ll send an image of the first few stamps I carved and we can laugh at my beginning inexperienced carving skills together. Being a beginning ‘boxer and seeing other people beginning ‘boxes can be really encouraging. On top of that, when you can practice carving and planting simultaneously, you improve on both skills. Goodness knows, our first few plants are not in the best spots and are not at the caliber of a letterbox planted by the same person a few years later.

Anyway, I’m done with my rant of unsolicited advice. I just wanted to get it off my chest and throw it into the AQ message board void in hopes that it encourages someone. :)

I like the print-on-old-label-paper method anyway. The backings of UPS labels are just the right shine amount.

I tried buttons with my cat Perry, but they didn't seem to connect with him the way that clicker training and walks did. Sunny Bear sounds awesome. In my mind, Perry would be an adventure cat like that, but he gets so overstimulated so quickly that walking more than a half block from home is his upper limit.

Also called Typhon, this Card symbolizes materialism, addiction, and temptation.

Will you seek?

Also called Typhon, this Card symbolizes materialism, addiction, and temptation.

Will you seek?

When carving real lino, you need to make sure your gouges are VERY sharp. Battleship grey lino is a harder material than any of the materials we use for stamps.

Also, lino should not be used as stamps as there is linseed oil in the linoleum and over time it has a tendency to dry out and crack.

Lynn

The madness of King ConOLD.

Somebody just posted on the FB AQ page asking for experienced carvers to show their earliest carves. I thought that was a great request! My earliest absolutely don't reflect what my carving skill would ever produce. I never expected to be a carver that boxers would ever ask if I could carve something for them. Almost 20 years later...

You had the Power Plant Challenge, I loved carving for the trading aspect of LTCs. So I carved and I carved and I carved some more and would do LTC after LTC after LTC! I have a binder full of baseball card pages of LTC trades that I have done.

I look at some of my carvings and shake my head still and go "I can't believe I carved THAT!!"

To those who are just starting to carve, if you find that you like to carve, just keep carving! If you have ANY questions, ask away! I'm happy to help.

Lynn

You might want to invest in a knife honing arkasas whet stone and honing oil.

Here is a video for you to watch:

https://youtu.be/t10n_TzlMUE?si=7umW-3xeoK_9LOLq

Lynn

My experimenting with various printers and toner has yielded some information that I am happy to share.

I used to have a large color HP laserjet. The toner cartriges for that printer were very expensive and tried various knockoff toner cartriges that I found could be hit or miss with acetone transfer. So I purchased the smallest HP B&W printer and replacement cartridges are about $60, the toner lasts a very long time as most of my printing is just for image transfers. I only buy HP toner, it ALWAYS transfers.

At work we have a Brother Color laserjet. Initially, I discovered that Brother toner absolutely would not transfer with acetone. My agency started ordering knockoff toner and I found that it would transfer, not as great as HP transfers, but usable enough to carve.

Also, I noticed that HP toner and acetone leave the image a little tacky on the rubber, whereas the Brother knockoff toner and acetone are not tacky on the rubber.

My experimenting with inkjets is an ongoing experiment and so far not successful on either Epson or HP.

Lynn