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

I've regressed :(

I've created a public photo album where people can upload their first carves at https://www.atlasquest.com/gallery/view-album.php?albumId=246. Definitely add yours if it isn't there already, and share it with people who need the inspiration. =)

It also includes my own first stamp which was my signature stamp for my first 10 finds or so, if I remember correctly. (Then I got better and carved another stamp for the first 100 finds before settling on a turtle which has gone through several iterations over the years.)

-- Ryan

Perhaps not today.

Is it just not a good time of year to plant new letterboxes; especially in a small town?
Come find our newest box PLeeeaase Michigan hunters. Actually anyone. :)
It’s been over a month and not one find. :(. - Holding my breath, Team Mac

https://www.atlasquest.com/boxes/clue/?boxId=388600

I guess I'm one of the "old geezers" that found some boxes with your spider sig stamp image way before I ever met you. I think it was in the Columbia River Gorge in 2003.

I was pretty new to carving but joined a tracker... I needed to carve my sig stamp as a suspect. Stamped it up made the required cards and sent them off. They were returned to me, and I was told they were not good enough. So, I carved the one in my profile. Those were deemed worthy...

Everyone starts in a different place - and improve over time and practice. I love every stamp I've found and appreciate them all... the firsts and the 100th carves alike. Even now - I carve some stamps and look at them and think they are total crap... and then a couple I think are really decent. I no longer look for praise from others... it is so often not given.

What a wonderful idea! I haven't done any serious letterboxing in a couple of years but I miss it so much. It has been even longer since I've boxed in Hamilton. So many boxes are hopefully waiting for me there.

I will help any way I can. I do have a pile of stamps looking for homes.

Pam
Big Blue Team

Wow. Returning your cards was not a cool thing to do. My first LTC was primitive, but the recipients, many of whom are incredible carvers, were very kind to me, which encouraged me to keep participating in LTC swaps. I probably wouldn't have continued if that had been my introduction to LTCs.

I love looking at this album! It's fun to see how people's skills have progressed over the years.

As a person with no artistic talent I have made that statement many times. Just carving anything was a huge leap for me and even with years of practice I still can't carve as well as many others. At first it bothered me, but I finally realized that I still enjoyed carving even if I would never be great at it. I guess you could say I carve well enough to enjoy myself, and for some beginners this might be your first goal.

Even though I don't have artistic talent, I do have creative abilities, so that is what I concentrate on. Thinking of funny or interesting things to carve for a place I want someone to visit still gives me great enjoyment and even if nobody would find one of my boxes for its stamp, they will come to experience a new place with a creative stamp that might not win any awards.

I guess what I am trying to say is that because there are so many aspects of letterboxing to enjoy, find your niche and don't lament the parts you don't excel at.

I'm an hour and a half away. I don't know how much I can do but I'd try to help out any way that I can.

I actually do have that one saved on a list on ClueTracker (looove that app) and when I pull it up, I see I am 3 hours away so that’s not possible today, but next time I’m out visiting my family in Oakland county, I just might have to take a trip up to grab it.

I love cucumbers and would love to try cucumber ice cream.

I saw this video recently:
https://youtube.com/shorts/qOSxBgx7SHI?si=iwH-Y0LIFbfbQAjC

And it piqued my interest in wanting to try some

Oh I’m sorry ToriKisu, they dont have Cucumber Ice Cream. It’s a code word to give you the box.
Though I did see that same video a few weeks ago and it piqued my interest as well. So did the Parmesan ice cream video by him.

Thanks for thinking of us.

Before I started carving, I had exactly zero experience with art or crafting. My first carves were made with stencils.

Then I joined numerous trackers for micro postals, and I’ve upped my game considerably from the consistent activity (as well as a lighted magnifying glass and custom narrow gouges).

Compared to LTCs, the postals mean recipients get my actual stamp. That puts the pressure on me to make precise carves.

I posted my first and current giraffe sigs—what a difference!

Thank you, TRC. I did connect her with an old school letterboxer (in between you and me for time boxing) who is also considering hosting again. That could be fun!

Like ToriKisu, maybe when visiting Flint, I will have time after to travel that way. My home is roughly two hours away from Yale now instead of the hour from Flint.

Since moving an hour west, I rarely get to find shooz box of the month plants, too. :(

Interesting that a particular toner will not transfer. I get the feeling that the UPS/copy place that I have been using has switched toner.

I'll try back at the library. They have a machine people can use, maybe try some of the other UPS places in the area also. They seem to be individually owned or managed so may be using different toners.

I'll do some googling and look into that. I love my acetone though so I'm not giving up yet.

No worries. You’ll get here in the summer. :)

"They were returned to me, and I was told they were not good enough"

WOW - how incredibly rude and insensitive!!

Thank you, Silver Eagle, for planting all over.

Before hubby and I go on vacation, I always look to see if you've planted where we are headed. This time, Kauai.

Your Grand Canyon of the Pacific looked like a nice hike, so we geared up.

It was challenging because of all the recent rain, but the ending was SO worth it. And, we were first finders.

Mahalo
DD

I have never had a problem with Brother toner cartridges I have bought for my Brother laser printer. I use wintergreen oil (real or synthetic) instead of acetone as that stuff was softening the surface of my carving material.