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.

Agreed! If someone had been that rude about my first card I wouldn’t have even tried again. I’ve gotten some amazing LTCs and some that were clearly newer carvers and I love all of them because I know I’ll love seeing their progress.

My introduction to LTC’s was getting an email grilling me in my experience like I needed a resume to join. NOT at all welcoming. So I’ll just put this little “bug” here.

You are quite welcome and I'm glad your challenging hike was rewarded! Placing boxes for adventurers like you is very gratifying to me and I appreciate your kind words.

It was not my first LTC tracker - as I was part of the very first one with some extremely gifted artists... many no longer around. But it was an awakening...

Acceptance is a gracious gift.... some just don't know how to give it.

Wow, just wow.


So very true!

I should get there before summer. I usually get to the Flint area to see my mom at least once a month. Also, I visit my dad's grave and my friend's grave a couple of times a year.

I might as well give that a try. I’ve never used the oil. Brother could have changed the formula. You never know what these companies are doing.

Only when transferring to a new brand of carving material. Same printer, same image, will transfer just fine to brand A but will not transfer to brand B. Frustrating because I have a big stack of brand B carving material!

If it's the same printer and the same material I concur with others that it's the toner. Unless they upgraded the printer / copier?

Laser printer or copier deposits dry powder "ink" on the paper, then uses heat to bake it on. That is why older units may offer better transfers. A weak heating element will result in a weaker bond between "ink" and paper, which is obviously easier to transfer.

I just switched from HP (because they are the WORST) to Brother and can confirm that the Brother toner does work, but is not nearly as crisp a transfer as the HP toner.

Ohmygoodness. I didn't know there was such a thing!! Fitz yells at me long and loud or short and non stop which is usually dinner time. Lol. Major just grunts. Is there a tutorial or anything to teach us how to use it? I was told "you don't train the animal, you train the human." I need all the training I can get. 😉

Terras going to get them both their own backpack. Not sure how she's gonna carry Major's 21lb booty. Lol but we can't leave him out. They do not go outside because we live next to the highway and we have LOTS of cougars, coyote and eagles. I know way too many friends that have lost an animal to nature. I really want them to be outside in their own natural habitat, just under our protection. Lol.

I have questions about their ears, collars, food... Ugh! I feel very needy at the moment, but I want to be a good cat mom. I'll start with one topic at a time and let this one close 1st.

I appreciate all the advice. I've done tons of research but it seems like personal advice has been better in a lot of ways.

I can't wait to start!! Now I just need to get a harness on him without hating the process. Same with their ears!! Ugh... That's a whole other long explanation that desperately needs advice on. Lol

I have a Brother printer. I could not get any acetone transfers to work.

Then when the toner ran out I bought a cheap, non-Brother toner cartridge. That worked like a dream!