Good afternoon Tara

Welcome to letterboxing may it prove to be a grand form of enjoyment
and recreation as it has for many of us. In my opinion you're
absolutely correct, your mark and they way you leave your mark are
very important. You seem to desire to have your stamp mean something
to you, a symbol of who you are as well as the type of person that
you are. Therefore this is what I would suggest. Is there anything
that you really love, such as an animal of a particular type, a
sport, a flower, a bird, something of that nature? If you do decide
and what you want to incorporate into your stamp then what I would
do is go to www.google.com and type in what you are looking for.
Example: Bear. Once it has completed your search if you look at the
top of the page it will have a hyperlink that says "Images" select
that and the page that will follow will be nothing but pictures of
what you are searching for and might prove to be very helpful in
assisting you to make a final decision on what else you want your
stamp-mark to represent.

Once again welcome to letterboxing, and may your journey bring you
many adventures.

Iron`Bear

Hi Tara,

From one newbie to another, a few suggestions:

The whole idea of carving my own stamp sounded so intimidating to me.
I'm not a "crafty" kind of person at all. But then I tried it, and it
was fun! I used an exacto knife on an eraser, and it turned out to be
much easier than I thought (yes, it really is!). I was surprised to be
able to carve some pretty fine details, including lines just a bit
thicker than an pencil line. Try a simple one to practice on first. And
remember, if you mess up, it's just an eraser!

I've carved a signature stamp for myself and one for my son (he drew
the design, but he's not old enough to be using the exacto knife yet).
I've also carved another that I plan to place in a letterbox soon, and
I have a "waiting list" of designs I want to carve now--it's addicting!

If you want to browse possible designs that are easy to copy, check out
the clip art books at your local bookstore or art store. There are
collections of clip art based on just about any theme you can think of.

I (like others on this list) prefer the hot iron transfer method. I
tried the nail-remover method, and it worked, but the details were a
little fuzzy. The iron method yields a sharp, exact replica.

Have fun!

Kristin



On Apr 28, 2004, at 4:36 PM, Tara wrote:

> I just discovered letterboxing through bookcrossing. I've decided it
> sounds like just the hobby for me, but I'm having problems with the
> whole stamp thing. You see, I'm one of those type-A not a creative
> bone in my body types. And I realize that the stamp is important,
> since I will leaving it as my mark wherever I go going forward...I
> don't want to hate my stamp and then want to create a new one! I
> want one beautiful mark that says "Tara was here" to use forever.
> I'm an optimist. I've looked around online and found a beautifully
> artistic "T" to use as a base, but want something else to add either
> around it or next to it...I just need IDEAS. Anyone know of a good
> source for ideas? I've found the "creating a stamp" instructions,
> and supposedly they are rated as "EASY"...but realistically, as type-
> a speaking, how super detailed can I get with this?
> Thanks everyone...I can't wait to get this stamp matter worked out so
> I can start already!!
> Tara in the Bay Area, CA
>
>
>
>
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