Harry Potter Style Letterboxing

Well, it's done! All of the stamps that I carved for the marathon have now been planted as letterboxes for the letterboxing community to enjoy! In order to do this, I had to create a logbook for each stamp and a pouch for the stamp to go in. It took almost a month to make these! I used Wizarding books and items from the movies and books, tied them into each stamp, and then put a little explanation in each logbook so anyone who isn't some crazy Harry Potter freak (like me :p ) would understand how the logbook related to the stamp. By the way, if you would like to learn about letterboxing, click here.

 I had a fun time learning how to make codex books. Sewing the packs of folded paper together, creating the cover and binding, and gluing it all together was a larger task than I thought it would be, but relatively simple once you know what you're doing.

Ron's logbook / Dementor logbook

Sorting Hat logbook / Deathly Hallows logbook

Ron's Emotional Range bonus box / Weasley is our King logbook

Slytherin logbook / Grindylow logbook

Ravenclaw logbook / Gryffindor logbook

Hogwarts Crest logbook / Hedwig's logbook

The front of the Hogwarts Crest logbook

Hufflepuff logbook / The Fallen Heroes logbook (Sirius & Dumbledore)

The Cauldron logbook / Harry's logbook

logbook for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

the Quidditch equipment logbook

logbook for the Dark Mark / Hogwarts School logbook

Hermione's logbook

Snape's logbook

 This is my favorite logbook that I made. It also took longer than any of the others. You can see why.

Hagrid's logbook

 The pouches that were made for each stamp. A big thanks to Carma who helped with this. She sewed them all (I don't touch sewing machines. They tend to break when I touch them.).

With a lot of help from Joyce, all 23 letterboxes got planted in just 6 hours. I would have had to do it in a couple of days if I had gone by myself.

I hope to have the instructions on how to make the Monster Book of Monsters up sometime next week.

October Road Trip

I'm a little behind on the blog, so I'm going to do a few posts real quick to get up to speed.               

I was over in Eastern Idaho a couple of weeks ago. Joyce and I went through Yellowstone and on into Jackson Hole before going back to her house. While in Wyoming, we stopped at the most photographed barn to do a little letterboxing. Unfortunately, the box was missing.

On our way back to the Boise/Idaho City area, we stopped at Craters of the Moon to do, what else, some letterboxing. I took some pictures outside the cave we went in to get one of the boxes. The caution sign just outside of the cave made me wonder. Does Santa have a hobby of spelunking during his holidays? And if so, does he tend to hit his head a lot?

This is the entrance to the cave we went into. The cave is 300 feet long, and pitch black. Joyce and I both had headlamps on and Joyce had a small flashlight. Even with our lights, we could barely see more than a couple feet in front of us. I have to say that I'm glad there weren't any bats, not because they scare me, but because I was already out of my comfort zone just by going in the cave and I didn't need furry winged things flying around.

 Below is the view of the trail we walked to get to Beauty Cave. The wind was so strong, and kept catching on my pack, that I almost fell over a couple of times.

 I hid my spelunking letterbox behind these rocks! This is halfway down to the entrance of Boy Scout Cave. We didn't go in this one, it's covered in ice all year round and you have to crawl in most places.

Well, those were the highlights of my short road trip this month!