LB How 2s: LTCs

Ok, hold on tight! This is going to be a long one with TONS of pictures to help!

In this How 2s I am going to explain how to join an LTC tracker and begin your journey on making some LTCs. For now this is going to be the basics. There are many advanced things that I have yet to do when it comes to creating these cards.

To start off, what is an LTC?
"Short for Letterboxer Trading Cards, an offshoot of Artist Trading Cards (ATC), which itself is an offshoot of traditional trading cards such as baseball cards. Letterboxer Trading Cards must be 2.5"x3.5", or 64x89mm, with a base that has the thickness and consistency of card stock, and typically incorporate your signature stamp in some way" (AtlasQuest Letterboxing Glossary).

Signing Up

Before you start making any cards we first need to join a swap you would like to do.

Go to "My Page" and click on "Trackers."

 

 Next, look at the "Available" row and choose LTCs.

A huge list should then appear of what LTC swaps are available.

Click on a listed tracker that you may be interested in.

 



We are going to "join" this tracker for this tutorial. This is how the tracker will look before you join.
 

This tracker is currently open so you can join. You will also see that it has a max sign up of 15 people. Before you join you need to consider if you will make the deadline. In this case, the red arrow pointing to September 22, 2012 means that the host needs to have your cards by that date.

If it has a green arrow after the start date, that means you HAVE to send your cards on that date at the latest.

Now, join the tracker!!

 

 Now that you have joined, the screen should look like this. The host usually puts their address in the "Post" section that appears after you join. The host will have all the info you need for the swap listed in the description.

For this tracker, the deck of cards indicates that it is an LTC swap. The pyramids, indicate that it is a themed swap. For this tracker, the theme is "States."

 

 

Making LTCs

Now that you have signed up for this LTCs swap, it is time to make the cards themselves.

An LTC must be 2.5"x3.5", or 64x89mm. It also needs to be made of card stock or something with the consistency of card stock. I use not only regular card stock, but also card stock-like scrapbooking paper.

I recommend, if you have one, using a paper cutter and not just scissors to cut out your cards. It gives them a nice straight, smooth look to them.

This link shows the best way to get the most cards out of one sheet of different sized paper:

Cutting Templates 

 Next, you need to Hand Carve (Coming Soon) a stamp. For an LTC it is required that the stamp is hand carved. Once the stamp is carved, stamp it onto the cards that you cut out earlier.

Now that all your cards are stamped, you need to label the back of the cards.





 

The top of the card needs to have the name of the LTC you have made. At the bottom right corner you will put the number out of ___   i.e. 1/15, 2/15, 3/15, 4/15, ect.
You have a choise of making the card single, limited, unlimited, or not specified. Most cards are limited and will have the 1/# on the bottom right corner. If you are making an unlimited card you will just place one number in the corner like in the picture above.

 

After all the cards are done the proper thing to do is put them in trading card sleeves.

Not everyone who is hosting an LTC swap will require that you have sleeves. Most people put the LTCs in trading card Binder Sheets so the cards don't end up staying in the sleeves. Having the cards in sleeves are useful when doing single trades or trading at letterboxing events. Yes, you can trade your cards outside the swap you joined. If you join a swap that has a max of 15 people you can make more than that to trade with people outside the swap. Keep in mind, these are trading cards.

 

 

When all is done and you are ready to send your LTCs out to the swap host, you need to make a Self-Addressed Envelope. Now after you have created your self-addressed envelope don't just dump all your cards into the envelope. To minimise cost of sending your LTCs here is how you should put them Inside the Envelope.

When you send the cards for the swap send all that are needed. If 15 people are in the swap, send 15 cards. Yes, you will be getting back of your own cards because it is part of the set in the swap you joined. It also makes it much easier on the host to sort out cards.



After you send the cards to the host it may be awhile before you get your new cards. The host needs to receive all the cards and then make sure everyone gets one of each card.

And don't forget to include enough stamps for the host to send the LTCs back to you!

 

Hope this helped any one new to LTCs!

 

Check out some LTCs here:

Geometry Junkie's Blog

Dixie's "Art In Hand" Blog

CCL's Blog

 

Also, you can check out more on LTCs on atlasquest regarding some more advanced thing you can do with LTCs and other things. You can also join the LTC board on atlasquest to ask questions and see what's new in the LTC world.

 

If you have any questions feel free to ask me and I'll try my best to answer them!

 

 

~Catchow

 

LB How 2s: Micro Boxes

What is a micro box?

"Micro boxes, as the name implies, are very small letterboxes. These boxes open up the possibility of more clever and devious hiding places, and make it easier to prevent accidental discovery. They can be almost impossible to find without precise solving of the clues, and, despite their size, can be constructed to offer a surprisingly large stamp and logbook" (The Letterboxer's Companion by Randy Hall [1st edition] 71).

Micro boxes are neat boxes to find. When they are posted online they are listed as traditional letterboxes. When you go out searching for a box you don't know the size and some times they are micro boxes. You'll find them in small holes in trees, hidden in stone walls, and any where else you can fit a small box into.
A lot of times these boxes are are made from 35mm film canisters or small medicine bottles. Some may or may not have a log book depending on the size and the planter. Most times the log book will be rolled up into the canister. The stamps you might find in theses boxes are usually quiet small but you can find some pretty large stamps in them too.
Not all micro boxes are some sort of canister. One of my micro boxes is a Small glass bottle. The logbook is very small and rolled up into the bottle. You have to stick one finger in the bottle to pull the log book out. Now the stamp. It's smaller than a dime and is on the bottom of the cork that closes the bottle. Now since it's a glass bottle, I didn't want to send it out into the wilderness risking it breaking or getting very wet. Even though the glass was quiet thick I places it indoors.

You never know when you'll find a micro box. They often show how talented the carver might based on how well the stamp is carved. They are fun the find and often amazes you where these little things are hidden!

~Catchow

Wish the Rain Would Hold Perhaps?

Today was all based on the weather. Been raining a bit off and on the past couple of days and today was supposed to rain. We got going at 9am and it was gray out and cloudy. Surely it was going to rain. During the entire trip today it only sprinkled for a short amount of time.

Today our goal was to letterbox in Grove City. Left at 9am and got home at 2:30pm. My friend spirit Horse joined us for this adventure. Our first stop was at Concord Cemetery. Was a nice cemetery. Found 6 boxes there in total, one of which was a Hitchhiker Hostel. I had never found one of those before and it was pretty neat. Within the box was a stamp that stayed there and 3 HHs. If you take a HH you must leave a HH. Out of the 4 stamps in the box, all but one was a flower! That was interesting. How often would you come across that? I took the nonflower HH and left a nonflower HH. While we were stamping all the HH and such I felt like something small was biting my leg. I thought I just had something stuck to the end of my capris and it was poking me. Found out, we were being bitten by fire ants!! Fire ants in Ohio!!!! Got back in the car and rubbed my leg down with hand sanitiser. It helped a bit but not for long. We found 2 boxes that Pioneer Spirit planted. I really like his boxes. They seem to last a very long time. The 2 we found were both hidden in 2007. That's a good amount of time for a box!

Our next stop was Fryer Park. That was a neat park. We were looking for some stamps in a series of The Twelve Days of Christmas. These boxes were all over Grove City and we didn't find many of them. I really liked "Chariots of Fire" that was dedicated to those you died during NASA space missions. There was a rusty man hole that Tyrus sat on and he said "Now I'm going to have a rusty butt!" That was funny.... we searched the pine trees for the box and they were all prickly so no one really wanted to put their hand in the tree. We found the box and found a HH in it! it was so tiny and in this cute little tiny container. For a hand carved HH that was about the size of a dime, it was very well done. We took the HH and left the HH we took earlier.
After that we were headed into the woods in the park but we didn't know where the entrance to the path was. "We don't have to find these boxes if you all don't want to." I said. "What!? Morgan opting to skip a letterbox? Are you okay? You feeling well?" Mother Hen said. I covered half of my face up with the clues as every one was giggling, asking if they had the right person and that I wasn't traded with another. We found the entrance. Haven't boxed in the woods for a while so it was fun, wet but fun. We found the first box in the series and we all had to stand up and balance logbooks, stamps, and stamp pads since it was too wet to sit down. We progressed onward in search for the next box. We kept searching and searching and rereading the clues and we couldn't find the landmark we were looking for that led up to the box. As the rest of my group ventured forward along the trail in search for this land mark, I said, "Adventure Time!" and made my way into the woods. Through the brush and many cobwebs in my face, I found the huge fallen tree. I had to climb up on this wet log, move away branches to move forward, jump off the log,walk a little bit, jump back on the log, jump off it again at the end, and dig through some bark and wood to find the box. I stood up on the log, held the box in the air and yelled "I found it!" only to find out that none of them could find me in the woods. I made my way back covered in dirt and everyone gathered around to stamp the stamp. We almost gave up on the box. after we were done I ventured in the woods once again with Tyrus following at my heels to put the box back. There were many times that we almost walked through a big spider web with a fat spider on it, face first.

Next stop was City Hall. There were more of the "Twelve days of Christmas" boxes hidden there. of the three in that area we could could only find one. The other spots were weird and people working in the building could easily see through the window and watch you dig through bushes to find the boxes.

After that our last stop was at Windsor Park. There was a 3 stamp series there ans I was sad to find out that they had to retire the first stamp in the series. I guess I would too if I had to recarve it 3 times. the two that were active were an easy find and we stood there in the parking lot stamping away on the trunk of the car. Many people walked by and checkout what we were doing but non of them asked or stayed long enough to ask.

We left from there and dropped off Spirit Horse and was home in a couple of minuets. We ate lunch and headed over to my house. I jumped on the computer and logged all my finds and such and began writing this blog. I check AQ and saw there was a new plant just minuets from my house! I asked my mom to take us and a couple hours later we were off to find the box!
Got to the cemetery and found the box. We were first finders!! Tyrus and I have been first finders only once before but the rest of my family hasn't. We took the "First Finders" card in the box and stuck it in my family logbook. After that my mom and little brother were off to find the boxes Tyrus and I planted. I had to help Gavin with all the clues and ended up stamping everything for him. He is well capable to do it on is own but he wont focus long enough to do anything. As we were stamping in my last box, I found that once again I was near some fire ants... this time they didn't bite me.

After all of the adventure today I'm ready to sleep for all of winter! The rain held off and we were eaten my fire ants but it's all for the love of letterboxing!

Oh! And I can't forget! Today's Llama Awards!

Dancing Skeleton by Transient Toadstool
Happy Howloween by Transient Toadstool
Wish you had on the trail perhaps? by Pioneer Spirit 
Wish you had before going on the trail perhaps? by Pioneer Spirit 
Chariots of Fire by Halloweeners

~Catchow