After far far too long, I've finally had the time and health to crack out the mini zine I started working on last summer and wanted to share! I am still looking for feedback since I'm much more of a hobby artist than I am a graphic designer and trying to nail down the bare essentials has given me more grief than it probably needed to. Perfectionism is the enemy of actually getting things done sometimes haha.

I've uploaded each spread of pages on Imgur and will be sharing the final version as a printable PDF and PNG (and in other formats as requested).

Please let me know what you think! My goal was to design something that can be handed out as a quickstart to noxers, and I tried to add a lot of visuals both for added interest and so any kids who may end up with a copy can still follow along even if they can't read every word yet. I need to survive the remainder of my final semester of university but I'd love to do more of these for other topics as well!

PAL DAY (2026) Our Annual International Plant A Letterbox Day event has not been listed yet?!?! Wronghat where are you?!?!

I like it! Full disclosure, I'm at work so didn't examine all of the type, but graphically, I think it's great!

At an event, we bought a handful of 'first finder' patches. They were pretty well done. I sprinkled them in boxes we put out. But I don't remember who I bought them from.

Whoops! There we go.
https://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.php?eventId=5326

Woot woot! Thank you!

I used to put stickers in mine but realized that most of them weren't taken by the first finder so I stopped doing it. I feel like it was a waste of my time and resources. It's nice to find someone who enjoys the little trinkets you'd get.

I cut out a bunch of butterflies with my cricut and then wrote on it "First Finder!" with the box name and number. I assumed the person would take it and put it in their book next to the stamp, as a little reminder that they were the first finder of that stamp. But it kind of disappointed me when I'd go back to check on a local box and see it still there with a bunch of people who had logged into the log book. Oh well.

Really? That surprises me!
I love a sticker or die-cut that I can add to my logbook.

I'd wonder if it was regional, but we both in the Midwest

I'll take a minute to plug this Redbubble Sticker!

That's a good point. I've only ever hidden mine in Michigan with most of them being on the west side of the state. I visit the Detroit area often and I'm not sure if the stickers would do well down there.

I do like the idea of removing the "first" part that way someone else down the line could take it.

That sticker is adorable!!!

We don’t do a lot of FF prizes around here (or maybe people do, and they’re gone by the time I find the box!). I certainly appreciate FF prizes such as stickers, so I’m surprised nobody takes yours.

I’ve left Pathtags as first finder prizes. I like the idea of sprinkling them in a few boxes at an event.

I took them when I was first finder!

I understand that feeling, but don't usually add first finder prizes.

The first time I found your letterboxes, I found five or so on the same day. Maybe I was the first finder on one. If you had a sticker, I probably took one unless it wasn't noticed.

However, if I was the first finder on all five in the same day, the sticker would've stayed in a few of them. Others may feel the same way. They may want others to share in first finder stickers.

I've only been ff on one of your boxes (Green Oaks Academy - MDOC), but I happily took the butterfly. Thank you! It's stuck right there in my logbook.

Like koalacat said, if I were first-finder on several of your boxes in one day, I would probably leave most of the stickers because I wouldn't want to hog them.

And when I've found patches in boxes, I'll usually take them, but not if I already have one like it.

I definitely don't expect first-finder prizes, but it's always a happy surprise to come across one. I also love hitchhikers, bonus boxes, and quisps.

Ditto! But it's usually the same people who are FFs around here, so I stopped doing it.

Hi ToriKisu,

I have taken one of your butterflies, but I usually leave the first finder prizes for others. I want others to have the fun surprise also. Depending on what the FF prize is, I will often leave it, thinking someone else may get more pleasure out of it since I have years and years of first finder prizes. I hope that makes sense.

I used to do first finder prizes, but I've let that slip by the wayside. Maybe again someday.

First finder prizes I still enjoy (just my opinion): LTCs, pathtags, letterboxing patches, letterboxing related stickers (paper trail has created a really awesome one), or something unique or unexpected (once I got a North Country Trail hat!!).

So don't take offense. Add FF prizes if you want. They will get taken, but maybe not by the first finder :). The hobby is different for everyone.

In the meantime, enjoy planting and finding!

If I could tag you all who responded, I would. I was a bit overwhelmed with the response yay lol. I appreciate all this feedback!! 😊

I think I will just remove the “first” that way when someone doesn’t want it, someone else can grab it. *Maybe* they weren’t taken by the second or third finder because it said “first.”

I just know I got keychain once and i treasured that thing haha

Thank you everyone.

We have a few FF prizes we found over the years. Pins, patches, coupons, dollar bills. We've pretty much kept all of them.

We usually put a scratch off lottery ticket as a FF prize in our plants. We do have to be careful that the ticket is from the right state, lol!

Redefining Normal
One FF at a time

I know I'm the last one to know these things...

But every time I change pages the theme changes. Whazzup?

And just so this thread isn't a total waste of pixels, (question 2) what is the Gargoyle Preserve planning group about?

I am guessing it's part of the "rest of Marjorie's shenanigans to roll out over the next little while" to semi-quote what was said ...

I was posting boxes for an event today, and the ever changing themes was so very distacting!!! LOL What a hoot!

Shelly

We stayed at the Plume of Feathers in Princetown, which is smack dab in the middle of Dartmoor! I loved the hike to Nuns Cross Farm, Childe's Tomb, (of course) Cranmere Pool, Haytor, Bennett's Cross.

Some places I wish I had time to see were St. Michael's Church on Brentor, Buckfast Abbey, Compton Castle, and much more. If Google maps had only existed back in 2004 when I visited.....

I could stay for a year and not see everything there is to see on the moor!

BB

I like first finder prizes! I still have the ones I have found over the years. Periodically, I will include one of my LTC's that I have created as a first finder prize.

Lynn

Fellow pathtag aficionado here!

Other than just creating a single listing with 1 AQ# vs multiple listings each with their own AQ#, what other benefits do you think a series has over single boxes? Besides the obvious Find number that is attractive to many boxers in a series? My personal experience with planting series has been they are great until 1 or more go missing, then the finds go down, way down if not stop completely....I feel like it may be a little bit more work but going forward I'm tempted to stop with the series and make them all singular boxes. What do you think the pros and cons are of planting and listing a series of boxes vs planting and listing several single boxes?

Having the hike/connection from one box location to the next is helpful and time saving. Otherwise I need to sit down with a map and read each clue and plot them to come up with my attack plan. If I am trying to tackle 3 series at one preserve, it's easier to plot each of the 3 individually then see how they overlap, etc versus - say - reading and plotting 30 individual boxes. If the boxes are related (theme, subject, pieces of a bigger picture), it's nice to know that.

The only time I would prefer seperate listings is if they can be found in any order and can easily be plotted on a map.
Let's say each box said what trail intersection marker it was at/near. Otherwise I prefer a series with clues directing me one to the next.

There is some connection to finds reducing once boxes go missing, but finds also reduce over time anyway once all the locals have found it.

On one of my series years ago, I rearranged the listing so all retired boxes were at the end of the page, then rewrote the clues to skip the missing locations, and also physically moved boxes around to fill in some of the open spots. This allowed me to shorten the loop and use the other side of the park for another series.

If you were planting a few single boxes in a hiking area at the same time, I think it would be fun to find them as long as they were on different trails.

For instance, if you look at this trail map, one box could be at the Apple Valley Overlook, another could be at Orchard View, and another could be somewhere on the Fern Glade Trail. If someone only has time to get one box, they wouldn't get that itchy feeling most of us get when we don't complete a series.