Making an LTC

Like lots of folks, I've been making LTCs--or letterboxer (or letterboxing, whatever) trading cards. This is one I made today. You'll have to forgive the askewedness of the image. My scanner is only a feed-through, and usually it won't take things that small. Today it did, but it tilted it a bit. There's an additional embellishment I want to add to this one, but if I did, it'd never get through the scanner.

Don't look if you're in the 4th of July swap and you want to be surprised...


I've got a good creative outlet with this. Somehow, within the parameters of 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, there's room for a lot of creativity. Usually, I kick around ideas in my head--sometimes I have one right away, sometimes it takes trial and error. I often end up carving multiple stamps and find myself rearranging little scraps of paper a gazillon times. But, for this card, I had the idea yesterday and it just came together beautifully.

The steps for this card were:

Use yesterday's coffee and this morning's grounds to coffee-dye some white paper (to make it look aged). Let it dry. Brush on more coffee to splotch it more and then let it dry.

Carve the stamp.

Cut the LTC sized card stock and cut the contrasting stars paper. Adhere.

Stamp the Constitution stamp onto the (now-dry) coffee-stained paper (ah, smellovision). Cut it out irregularly.

Somehow get a candle to stay lit and singe the edges of the "we the people" image.

Adhere. Admire.


Update: I thought I'd add this quote from one of my heroes to the back:

"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total."

Where Am I?

This is the time of year where things always get frenetically busy around here and I don't have much extra time.

Quick updates:
My son's OM team finished 3rd at regionals and went on to state. In the interim, they worked incredibly hard to improve their vehicle and make the tasks more automated. Their state scores were significantly higher and they finished 3rd at state too. They missed going to Worlds by one place, but honestly, we're all more than a bit tired of OM and ready to do other things.

Baseball season is in full swing. That means games and/or practices almost every night. We love baseball season, but it takes its toll!

Spring break was spent in Seattle. We found a number of great letterboxes and got to meet a lot of the PNWers...that was cool. I have great pictures.

We co-hosted a smaller event in beautiful Coldspring. The dogwoods were in bloom and there were dog boxes everywhere. As always, it was a blast! The kids and adults had a lot of fun, even though there were raindrops that needed dodging.

I'll be posting some photos when I get a chance.