Great question - it took my sister and I about 3 weeks to get started
letterboxing after we learned about it because we agonized over
everything! Whether or not to hand carve a stamp (and what would we
carve) or use a store bought one, and then what to use for a personal
journal. We already own lots of rubber stamps and each had more than one
we thought would be great personal stamps, but in the end decided to hand
carve. So then there were trips to the art supply store to look at carving
mediums, followed by many drafts of what to carve. The easiest thing for
us was probably the journal, which we wanted to be really special, but
sturdy, compact and have lots of pages. We already knew about a place that
offered just we wanted - Acorn Design's (a local business) pocket journal,
which features beautiful original nature themed art - check them out at
www.acorndesigns.org

Anyway, imagine our disappointment when we FINALLY began letterboxing and
discovered that LOTS of people use store bought stamps - we weren't
disappointed with them, only that we'd waited so long to start letterboxing
when we probably would have been very happy with the store bought stamps we
originally had in mind! Of course, our hand carved stamps are unique,
especially mine - I put my initials on it and forgot to carve them
backwards, so the first time I used it in a log book we all had a good
laugh. I was going to just cut them off, but have since been convinced to
leave them so we can have a chuckle with each stamping.

I guess my point is you won't be alone if you use a store bought stamp as a
personal stamp, and you can still have lots of fun hand carving stamps if
you plant boxes!

Debbie T. (one of at least 2 bees)