Glad to see your excitement Matt. I'm in PA but do get to CA on business so I look forward to your boxes. Let me know if you find any of mine out there...

Re the peanut butter jar, you want to be cautious. Regardless of how much you wash it out, animals will be able to smell the previous conten and probably trash your box. You might check the archive on the list (try searching the list w/ the word peanut or jar), we had a farily lengthy thread about this a long while back.

Also, don't forget your inkpad. as to gluing the stamp on wood, I've seen it done both ways. Primarily depends on how thick the stamp is, the size of the container, and how fancy you wanna get. Of the ones I've found, most don't have any wood glued on the back, but the ones with wood are certainly a joy to find, and very nicely done...

So succesful urban boxes have been planted in small parks, under/behind park benches, etc. I do like your idea of just a stamp, but it does change the rules somewhat, and it is fun to see who else has been to the box you've just found.

Good luck. Looking forward to your clues....

John
aka Lone Wolf

>>> "Matthew Sparks" 06/23 11:46 AM >>>
Hi all!
Thanks for the welcome.
I am already working on several other California letter boxes
and I just hooked up with a co-worker in a hiking club and she has agreed to
deposit boxes for me in the places her club hikes (CA)

I don't get a whole lot of time to get to far out in the wilderness, but on
occasion I will and I'll bring my stamp & new journal.

I have been looking for good letterboxing supplies, and I don't know if
anyone else has mentioned it but a skippy peanut butter jar (plastic) looks
to be about the perfect size, (and is priced right)

I've been using speedball speedycut for the stamps and it seems to work
great! would it be unseemly to post the images of my box stamps on a website
or is that frowned upon?

should I glue the carved stamps to a piece of wood?

I have been thinking about urban letterboxes and am very concerned with the
box being found and removed by non-letter boxes. I also thought it would be
fun to put a letter box in places like Disneyland.
That would be tough because They would actively try to remove it or there
would be such high traffic it would be found.

I was thinking in situations like that you could put up a journalless box,
it would just be the stamp. and the stamp could be glued into place. so that
it couldn't be easily noticed. i.e. glued to an out of the way section of
cave roof on Tom-Sawyers island, or under a chair on the Mark Twain. What do
you guys think?

I am now working on a set of boxes along the transcontinental railroad (or
at least my end (CA)) Some would be urban boxes and others would be hiking
but would be at notable places along the old railroad route.

I wish there were more local boxes, but I'm trying to fix that now.
Later
Matt Sparks
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Matthew Sparks wrote:
>

> I've been using speedball speedycut for the stamps and it seems to work
> great! would it be unseemly to post the images of my box stamps on a website
> or is that frowned upon?

Your call... some do, some don't! In regards to stamp carving
medium... I like Pink Pearl erasers!!

>
> should I glue the carved stamps to a piece of wood?

sure... I have also glued them to scraps of matte board.

> I also thought it would be
> fun to put a letter box in places like Disneyland.
> That would be tough because They would actively try to remove it or there
> would be such high traffic it would be found.

That would be AWESOME!!!! I keep my conscience clear by placing my
boxes where they don't cause damage to their surroundings. A Disney box
would be AWESOME!!!! I was there in March for a conference & didn't
have time to visit the park except to grab a souvenir to bring home for
my son. They let me purchase a ticket, go to the souvenir stand I
wanted & return in 1/2 hour to refund my ticket price. Think you could
hide your box so I could get my souvenir & find the box all in 1/2
hour??? We may be there in a few months... keep us informed!
>

--
Thom Cheney
tcgrafx... among other things

Matt, one thought about using a Skippy (or other brand) peanut butter jar:

Some letterboxers have found that animals are likely to destroy boxes that once
contained food. You might want to consider using a brand-new container that has
never been in contact with food.

Bonnie

> Hi all!
> Thanks for the welcome.
> I am already working on several other California letter boxes
> and I just hooked up with a co-worker in a hiking club and she has agreed to
> deposit boxes for me in the places her club hikes (CA)
>
> I don't get a whole lot of time to get to far out in the wilderness, but on
> occasion I will and I'll bring my stamp & new journal.
>
> I have been looking for good letterboxing supplies, and I don't know if
> anyone else has mentioned it but a skippy peanut butter jar (plastic) looks
> to be about the perfect size, (and is priced right)
>
> I've been using speedball speedycut for the stamps and it seems to work
> great! would it be unseemly to post the images of my box stamps on a website
> or is that frowned upon?
>
> should I glue the carved stamps to a piece of wood?
>
> I have been thinking about urban letterboxes and am very concerned with the
> box being found and removed by non-letter boxes. I also thought it would be
> fun to put a letter box in places like Disneyland.
> That would be tough because They would actively try to remove it or there
> would be such high traffic it would be found.
>
> I was thinking in situations like that you could put up a journalless box,
> it would just be the stamp. and the stamp could be glued into place. so that
> it couldn't be easily noticed. i.e. glued to an out of the way section of
> cave roof on Tom-Sawyers island, or under a chair on the Mark Twain. What do
> you guys think?
>
> I am now working on a set of boxes along the transcontinental railroad (or
> at least my end (CA)) Some would be urban boxes and others would be hiking
> but would be at notable places along the old railroad route.
>
> I wish there were more local boxes, but I'm trying to fix that now.
> Later
> Matt Sparks
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Find long lost high school friends:
> http://click.egroups.com/1/5544/4/_/12562/_/961775169/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>


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>I have been thinking about urban letterboxes and am very concerned with the
>box being found and removed by non-letter boxes. I also thought it would be
>fun to put a letter box in places like Disneyland.
>That would be tough because They would actively try to remove it or there
>would be such high traffic it would be found.

I also proposed doing this at the theme parks down in Orlando where I
live. I don't think they would last long though. I decided that if I do
it, I may just place pads of papers with stamped images on them already
(as opposed to a box containing the stamp). Not a letterbox strictly
speaking, but easily replaced and relocated soon after the "Disney
Police" discover a hiding place. I would be interested in others thoughts
on this issue.

--
Regards,
Eric Mings Ph.D.