You have echoed my sentiments exactly. I have been boxing a little
over a year and happily used my store bought stamp and admired the
hand made ones in the boxes that I found but never thought about
carving my own. I had no clue that hand carved stamps were more
desirable until I found this message board three months ago and
learned that I was committing a faux pas. I quickly devoured any and
all articles I could find on hand carving and did indeed begin carving
my own and found that I enjoyed it and am slowly improving. However,
as Carole stated, not every letterboxer reads these message boards so
they may not know how important it is to more avid letterboxers that
the stamp be hand carved. I think most of us might agree that the
search is the goal and the stamp is just the icing on the cake and for
me it doesn't make any difference if the icing came out of a can or
from our own recipe.

Jan of Team Little Dog

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Carole Burke wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I usually lurk on this site, but I have met some of you at recent
events. I have been letterboxing for 1 1/2 years (P7, F167, X181, V23
) and I have a few thoughts regarding various recent threads on this
group. Before the events, I did not even know about this yahoo group
(ok so I live in a cave); and before this site, I did not know there
was a problem with store bought stamps. I personally am in it for the
hunt, and don't worry about what the stamp looks like as long as it
follows the theme of the box. I do believe that the theme should be
followed. After reading everything here, I may begin carving, but I
still love my store bought personal stamp (which is a witch... and is
appropriate at times.... :) ). I have alot of respect for those who
do carve, but my mother is the artist, not me!! As someone discussed,
I thought that the only rules were that there are no rules. I believe
it is just great to get out and see places that I would not have, and
find a box to boot!
> Okay, back to lurking, and I hope I have not offended anyone!!
> Have great letterboxing day....
> NJCarole
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I couldn't have said that better myself! (LOVE that metaphor) MayEve

Jan wrote:
the search is the goal and the stamp is just the icing on the cake and for me it doesn't make any difference if the icing came out of a can or from our own recipe.







MayEve

z




---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Well, my two cents,
I must confess I don't like icing from a can. I like it homemade. I
don't buy or eat cakes from Costco.
Long ago I sparked discussion that led to the question of whether
letterboxing was a hobby or a sport and I think that it is different
things to different people. I for one, love the merging of treasure
hunting and art. I also love connecting with people who have been
there before me and if I see a hand carved stamp it enhances two out
of the three top reasons that I letterbox. While I am somewhat of a
stamp snob, I think it only extends to whether you carved the stamp
yourself or not. I don't care if you are good at it, though I can
appreciate a great carver it is not the most important thing for me. I
far prefer a beginner carving job over a commercial stamp anytime! It
feels like you left a little piece of yourself in the letterbox.

But since some people don't care, I wish that people would list on
their clue sheet whether the stamp is hand-carved or not. Then those
that care could choose to go or not and would not feel that slight
disappointment of a storebought stamp that can happen to us poor stamp
snobs.

Nisha


On another note I wish that someone would put together a beginning
carving kit that people could buy through the list, since I think many
people want to start carving but don't have the tools handy. I have
thought about it many times but somehow just don't have the energy to
pull it together.

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Jan" wrote:
>
> You have echoed my sentiments exactly. I have been boxing a little
> over a year and happily used my store bought stamp and admired the
> hand made ones in the boxes that I found but never thought about
> carving my own. I had no clue that hand carved stamps were more
> desirable until I found this message board three months ago and
> learned that I was committing a faux pas. I quickly devoured any and
> all articles I could find on hand carving and did indeed begin carving
> my own and found that I enjoyed it and am slowly improving. However,
> as Carole stated, not every letterboxer reads these message boards so
> they may not know how important it is to more avid letterboxers that
> the stamp be hand carved. I think most of us might agree that the
> search is the goal and the stamp is just the icing on the cake and for
> me it doesn't make any difference if the icing came out of a can or
> from our own recipe.
>
> Jan of Team Little Dog
>
> --- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Carole Burke
wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> > I usually lurk on this site, but I have met some of you at recent
> events. I have been letterboxing for 1 1/2 years (P7, F167, X181, V23
> ) and I have a few thoughts regarding various recent threads on this
> group. Before the events, I did not even know about this yahoo group
> (ok so I live in a cave); and before this site, I did not know there
> was a problem with store bought stamps. I personally am in it for the
> hunt, and don't worry about what the stamp looks like as long as it
> follows the theme of the box. I do believe that the theme should be
> followed. After reading everything here, I may begin carving, but I
> still love my store bought personal stamp (which is a witch... and is
> appropriate at times.... :) ). I have alot of respect for those who
> do carve, but my mother is the artist, not me!! As someone discussed,
> I thought that the only rules were that there are no rules. I believe
> it is just great to get out and see places that I would not have, and
> find a box to boot!
> > Okay, back to lurking, and I hope I have not offended anyone!!
> > Have great letterboxing day....
> > NJCarole
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more.
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- "marthastewartletterboxer" wrote:
> But since some people don't care, I wish that people would list on
> their clue sheet whether the stamp is hand-carved or not. Then those
> that care could choose to go or not and would not feel that slight
> disappointment of a storebought stamp that can happen to us poor
> stamp snobs.
> Nisha

If you use AtlasQuest (http://www.atlasquest.com) you can make
'hand-carved' one of the criteria of your search, so you never have to
see another commercial stamp again!
-- Dagonell the Pirate P-) (<

Nicely put, Carole. My sentiments exactly. I used a store bought stamp of a Kokopelli when I first started letterboxing a year ago, then I saw that someone else was using the same one, so I bought another. The same thing happened again. After letterboxing for 1 year, I decided to print an image of him off the internet and carve my own so that I would have one that no one else had. Anyone seeing the stamp would probably think it was store bought. My apologys to those people, but I love my stamp. I also respect anyone who takes the time to plant a letterbox whether the stamp is hand carved or not. My feeling is that "It's the thought that counts".

Donutz716


Carole Burke wrote:

Hi,
I usually lurk on this site, but I have met some of you at recent events. I have been letterboxing for 1 1/2 years (P7, F167, X181, V23 ) and I have a few thoughts regarding various recent threads on this group. Before the events, I did not even know about this yahoo group (ok so I live in a cave); and before this site, I did not know there was a problem with store bought stamps. I personally am in it for the hunt, and don't worry about what the stamp looks like as long as it follows the theme of the box. I do believe that the theme should be followed. After reading everything here, I may begin carving, but I still love my store bought personal stamp (which is a witch... and is appropriate at times.... :) ). I have alot of respect for those who do carve, but my mother is the artist, not me!! As someone discussed, I thought that the only rules were that there are no rules. I believe it is just great to get out and see places that I would not have, and find a box to boot!
Okay, back to lurking, and I hope I have not offended anyone!!
Have great letterboxing day....
NJCarole



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> But since some people don't care, I wish that people would list on
> their clue sheet whether the stamp is hand-carved or not. Then those
> that care could choose to go or not and would not feel that slight
> disappointment of a storebought stamp that can happen to us poor
stamp
> snobs.
>
> Nisha
>

At Atlas Quest

http://www.atlasquest.com

You can tell at a glance if the stamp is handcarved. There is an icon
that the planter can include --You can also specify Kid-Friendly,
Drive-By, Pet-Friendly and more!



>
> On another note I wish that someone would put together a beginning
> carving kit that people could buy through the list, since I think
many
> people want to start carving but don't have the tools handy. I have
> thought about it many times but somehow just don't have the energy
to
> pull it together.
Silent Doug has a link on his website (http://www.letterboxing.info)
where you can go to buy the Speedball carving kits:

http://www.letterboxing.info/store/speedball_kits.php

-Amanda from Seattle

> > On another note I wish that someone would put together a beginning
> > carving kit that people could buy through the list, since I think
> many
> > people want to start carving but don't have the tools handy. I have
> > thought about it many times but somehow just don't have the energy
> to
> > pull it together.
> Silent Doug has a link on his website (http://www.letterboxing.info)
> where you can go to buy the Speedball carving kits:
>
> http://www.letterboxing.info/store/speedball_kits.php
>
> -Amanda from Seattle

Here's another place to buy a kit with different carving medium:
http://www.stampeaz.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=12
It doesn't have an inkpad, but that can be picked up at any crafts
store or Walmart.

catbead