Hiding a Letterbox

Previously, I posted about letterboxing and how to get started. 
This post is about a letterbox that we hid.

Stamps can be expensive, but we found this whole package of stamps at a local craft store and used a 1/2 price coupon to purchase it.  The price came out to be $5.

We made our own booklets using cardboard for the front and back covers and blank paper for the pages.  The kids stamped some designs onto the covers, and chose pictures for collage.

"In wilderness I sense the miracle of life and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia." 

~Charles A. Lindbergh

The tupperware container is the box we use to put everything in, and the felt and stapler are for creating a little pouch to put the box's stamp in.

We secured the cardboard cover and blank pages together with string.  We put the booklet, the stamp (in its pouch), and a printed page about letterboxing into the container.  We also wrote "congratulations, you found a letterbox!" on an index card and secured this to the inside of the lid.  Then we put the letterbox into a large ziploc bag.

We selected a location to hide our letterbox and went for a walk there with friends.  The perfect rock to hide it under was discovered, and the letterbox was placed.

Some large rocks were placed in front of it to camoflauge the box even better.

This is the perfect rock for a letterbox!

The notes I scribbled down while we were walking included clues that my kids pointed out along the way, and guiding points for those who'd seek to find the box we hid.

We've also created a couple "HitchHiker"/"Traveler" stamps.  So far we've hid one in a letterbox we found locally.  Hitchhiker stamps are picked up by whoever finds them next, and travel from box to box by those who discover them.  It is fun to track their travels on the website, which is updated with their new location by those who find and replace them elsewhere.

Another letterbox we created but have not yet placed has this quote on the cover:

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." 

~Rachel Carson

Here is another site that is all about letterboxing, and is set up in a fun, visual way: AtlasQuest.

We hope we've inspired you to enjoy the adventures of letterboxing!

It's True

There was a theme going on our family trip to Philadelphia. 

Louise Nevelson's Bicentennial Dawn carried the message,

as did her Atmosphere & Environment XII.  New ways to see,

different perspectives that caused varied viewing, were literally sculpted into her pieces.  When we visited Sir Isaac's Loft at The Franklin Institute, art & physics collided to speak more of this truth into life.  That's why I had to take a picture of the sign posted above that reads, "Changing the light changes what we see...  and how we see.  It can freeze time, reveal invisible worlds, and make the familiar seem fresh.  New perspectives bring new insights."

The two artists whose work is featured in this exhibit, Hugh Turvey & Artemi Kyrlacou, specialize in X-ray photography, which they describe "is about 'insight' and the 'true nature' of the constructed world around us." 

For new perspectives, for insight:

This is why I'm all about Prism Vision.

And it's why I look forward to the messages I'll receive when my family & I visit science centers, like DaVinci, where these two pictures, the prism above and ice below, were taken.

It's why I'm obsessed with Secret Messages...

And it's why I know that this is true:

contrary to popular belief,

God doesn't always want to put us in a box

and stop us from being the unique individuals

that we were created to be.

I know that once we simply embrace the art of what

the Spirit is doing within us,

our purposes are revealed

and we are happier people -

we don't always have to worry

that God's plan is something we're going to hate,

that we're doomed to live lives that rub

against the very grain of our being...

I've found that once I looked at it differently,

I saw that God wants to set me free,

to live in the truths set out before time,

and be who He has always wanted me to be.

And look!  Even the gunk in my sink

is smiling back at me!

(Which ,of course, was noticed by my son.)

River Road Cleanup

This post is about something special that my family & I did together recently.  We had such a good time and took some nice pictures that will fit well into a blog memorabilia page.

We participated in a cleanup on one of the scenic roads that is part of the beautiful national forest region we live in.

As I post these pictures I smile, remembering what a good time we had together.  Who would have thought that collecting garbage off the sides of a road could be so much fun and carry such meaning?

Leave it to my insightful son to find significance in everything and share comments to express his thoughtful mind.  "Hey Mom," he says, "it's like, all these little things, people think they don't even matter, but they really do," as he picks up some small piece of trash to add to our garbage bag. 

It's the infinitesimal, speaking & calling, the truth that we need to look closely, pick up the tiny pieces that were tossed as if they didn't matter, and realize the impact of each and every stitch.  I know this, but I need to be constantly reminded.  Just last week on Jeopardy, I heard the word.  It was an answer to a $2,000 Double Jeopardy clue in the 13-letter word category.  The first contestant to answer got it wrong for leaving out a syllable.  The infinitesimal matters.

This is what we see when we look closely.  We find beauty in the small things, and we find hearts too.

Global Art Project - Sending & Receiving

We brought our banner to the local post office, where Miss Donna gave us a box to cut down to size.  Our banner was neatly folded to fit in, and we also shipped our photo collage and project description along with it.  Miss Donna is so kind, she even gave us a donation to help with the total cost for shipping this huge box to Australia.  Big props to Miss Donna, thank you!!!

It was sad to see our banner go;  I will miss it.  Part of the trip is passing the peace, the piece, around the world, and in turn, we receive.

In return, we received a banner from the group we were paired with in Australia.  It is amazing.  It is from a girls' school group, and it is seventeen feet long.  The banner is comprised of individual squares, eight inches wide each, that contain images created by each student.  They are all so different and so creative, using different materials to express their ideas. 

I will take more pictures and post again in a couple of weeks with details about the banner we received as well as photos from where we display it.

Global Art Project - Showing Our Piece

We displayed our banner at a local environmental center's Earth Day Festival.  We set up a table with all the necessary items to have visitors make their handprints for the Let's All Join Hands piece of the Global Art Project. Brochures about the Global Art Project were displayed, as well as a photo collage of our group creating the piece and close-up photos of our banner with the project description.  At first we had it hung behind our table, until a wonderful staff member intervened, declaring we needed our banner in a place where it could be better seen.

Four families who participated in the project were able to come and help out at the table, so we all had the opportunity to enjoy the festival as well as interact with visitors at our table.  We had so much fun explaining about our banner, sharing that we were exchanging it for art from a group in Australia, and telling participants that their hands would be going to Arizona to be displayed in an art gallery.

In total, we collected sixty-four hands to mail in for the ongoing Let's All Join Hands portion of the Global Art Project.  Children of all ages, including adults, decorated their handprints with designs and expressions of peace in the world.

We invited everyone to clip their handprints to our banner and to the tablecloth, and it was fun to see how their hands added an additional element to our banner, as it hung from a beam for all to see.

In the next post, we mail our banner to Australia and give a sneak peek of what we received!

Global Art Project - Piecing Peace Together

Global Art Project for Peace –

a banner created by a group

of local home educators

This post includes photos of our final piece,

and words from the project description

typed up to describe its creation.

How do we perceive peace?  This was the question we pondered during a gathering to come up with an idea for our group’s project.  We all agreed that we do not believe in an outer force that will change things in the world.  Rather, we believe that peace is a force that comes from within, a force that we have to desire, pursue, and cultivate for ourselves.  Peace starts with us, as individuals, and peace begins at home.  To be at peace in the outer world, we must be at peace with ourselves and in our homes.  We each have the responsibility to “do our piece,” which is our part in creating, establishing, and making peace a steady part of our lives, cemented into our being. 

We had a general idea of what we would do for our project, but we left a lot of room for creativity.  As participant Kiele Hunter shared, “My experience with the Global Art Project was so much fun! It was just a blast when you really just got to do whatever you like because it was your own art, no one told you how to do it or how they would like you to have it. You could just put your own personality into your art. It was also really fun when we got to finger paint the table cloth. I’m hoping we can do it again real soon, I’m also really excited that the art is going to Australia.”  Making peace through our piece together was a fun experience for everyone.  Everyone’s individual personalities went into its creation, yet it comes together into a pleasing, cohesive whole.  Then, our peace, through our piece, will travel the world.

To create what has become our Banner, we began with a fabric shower curtain.  Everyone pressed their handprints onto it, using poster paint, and some of the teenagers put their footprints on the fabric.  Part of the world was drawn on a piece of fabric and attached to the curtain.  The letters “P-E-A-C-E” were cut from cardboard in uniform size.  The Logans collaged words and images representing their ideas of peace onto the “P”.  Abriel decorated the “E” with fabric and foam paper.  Kiele and Ione decorated the “A” with felt and paint.  The Chamorro family created a mosaic on the letter “C” with foam paper and marker.  The “E” was decorated by four different families, with words and images they felt represented “peace.”  To attach all the pieces together, colorful string was used to hang the letters from the dowel rod.  Thirty-seven beads were attached, represented the thirty-seven participants of this project.  Buttons were attached to represent how peace must be fastened to ourselves before we can experience it in the world.  The words “DO YOUR PIECE” were added by using letter beads, and additional elements of a friendship bracelet, copper wire twisted together, and pipe cleaners were used to attach them.  The final touch of a safety pin holding a heart was fastened below the words.

Our statement of peace here in our project represents our belief that we all belong to the establishment of peace in our land and that it is up to us to realize our individual responsibility to peace, as we create it with our own hands.

The next post will feature the display of our banner at a local Earth day festival.

Global Art Project - Creation

The Global Art Project for Peace is an international endeavor in which participants create works of art expressing a vision of global peace and goodwill to exchange with a another person or group.  I've been receiving brochures from the Global Art Project for about a decade, every two years to help spread the word about this biannual project.  This year, I decided to see if a group of us in my area who home educate our children might want to get together to participate in the Global Art Project.  After posting in an online forum and speaking with friends to gather interest, responses showed that it was worth pursuing a group collaboration.

First, a group of us got together to discuss ideas for the project.  Our greatest emphasis was that we did not believe that peace would ever come to our world through any outer force.  Rather, we all condeded that peace must come from within.  Peace in the world starts only with peace in ourselves individually, and in our homes.

Knowing we would have a large group of participants and youth of all ages, we came up with the idea to create a banner that represented our idea of peace.  On a subsequent gathering, we placed our handprints onto a fabric shower curtain.  This was our background. 

Some of the older youth had fun painting their feet and adding footprints to the curtain after all the handprints were done. 

The letters "P-E-A-C-E" had been cut out of cardboard in a uniform size.  Some families brought images from magazines to glue on to the letters, and others decorated them with materials such as foam paper, fabric, felt, and paint.

The "P" was collaged by one family with all their images.  The "E" was decorated with fabric and foam paper by one of the teens.  The "A" was covered in felt and splashed with paint colors by a few of the girls.  The "C" was decorated as a mosiac with foam paper and marker by one of the families.  The final "E" was collaged by four different families.

In total there were 37 of us from 9 families who came together to create our piece for peace that day.  In the next post, you will see how our pieces came together....
(click on "Newer Post" to continue reading)

Thanks, Kris, from Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for featuring this on Homeschool Showcase #94!  This post shows just how weird & unsocialized WE are, doesn't it!?