TREASURE HUNTING CRAFTS:
I have wanted to make a page in honor or my
husband's hobby, GEOCACHING, for awhile. I will start with listing a few links
and webrings.
Soon, I will add some of my own crafts to this page. (Probably
after Passover!)WHAT ARE TREASURE HUNTING CRAFTS?Crafts used in activities
for the incredible world wide hobby of treasure hunting clubs/groups/individuals called
geocaching, letterboxing
etc. WHO WILL LIKE GEOCACHING OR LETTERBOXING?
Families, scouts, teachers especially computer science, math, science and gym teachers possibly
English teachers if people make and keep real journals, crafters, rubber
stampers and more!
I will not try and explain the purpose of these groups, their webpages
explain them better than I can. But as a crafter, wife of a geek and mother of
two boys (both crafters but potential geeks) I had to get involved in their fun.
The boys and my husband often take my husband's GPS (Global Positioning
System) hand held electronic "Big Man's TOY" and go out in nature and hunt for
caches. What is in the cache is really not important. Often no real "treasure"
but a great way to mix nature, exercise and family bonding. OK... I admit it .. I don't
often go with them. I won't make excuses but I can't always keep up with
them... But they have gone on many hunts. They have done this in many different
cities and states we have
visited. We will soon be making our own cache, so I thought would start this
page and share our projects. While looking online for ways to make a cache, I
came across another site and treasure hunting group,
LETTERBOXING. Here I
found my chance to really get involved with the family fun. Letterboxers may or
may not use GPS's but they use clues and make treasure boxes that include the
use of RUBBERSTAMPING! Many even make their own rubber stamps. So of course
this got my interest. To get started in letterboxes see letterboxing.org's getting
started. While visiting my in-laws in Cleveland, they also came
across a new aspect of geocaching for us ...
TRAVEL BUGS. We all got real excited about
partipating in this added geocaching project. What is a travel bug? It is
a toy car that has been labeled with a name and code. If you take it from the
geocache you are responsible for moving it to another cache and reporting on
the web where you moved it. Many families get involved in a competition where
they "race" the multiple tavel bugs across the country. To make it more
challenging they give points for miles it moves or
other things the owner wants to track. The bug we found's owners were in a
family competition. Points were given for finding streets with their family
names, extra points for pictures of the street signs, your picture and more! We
took the bug from Cleveland Ohio and brought it to Newport News, VA. As we
post our finds on the web, we were able to
follow this bug around even after we left
it. It traveled around Virginia and North Carolina to Hawaii. They sell kits for a
very reasonable price to get you started with travel bugs and making all of the
instructions and labels water proof.
Places to buy GPS's
Consumer
Electronics Superstore Special Offers at RitzCamera.com
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SUPPLIES AND TOOLSTools you will need will vary.
GPSGeocaching usually means you need a GPS. For suggestions see:
geocaching.com's
guide to buying a gps.
There many companies and models. Prices range from aobut $90 to hundreds of
dollars. Many people of course buy GPS to find their way around the world.
Finding directions to local places or to map their trips. The military use this
as a real tool. But we also can have fun with it. The fun for the family of
course can justify for the buyer why the family REALLY needs this
tool/electronic gagdet. We really did find it useful many times on our
driving trips. It was great when we were stuck in traffic in a city/state were
were not familiar with. Instead of frustration and road rage, we got off the
highway and used the GPS to find a parallel road! No GPS or Scout needing
to earn a badge for using a compass? Use Map Quest or the Geocache sites to get
the coordinates and use a compass when you get there.
Rubber Stamps(For Letterboxing.)The letterboxing sites even tell you how to make your
one distint rubber stamps. But of course you can also go to my Supply pages and my Jewish
Resources pages to find sources to buy rubber stamps and even Jewish rubber
stamps.A Small Notebook.For letterboxing and sometimes for
geocaching.Plastic water proof box.If you want to make your own catche.
See geocatching.com's:
suggestions on making your own cache and
how and where to hide a
cache.
The instuctions include information sheets to include inside your
cache to explain to people what they have found, possibly by accident. These
instructions are available in about 20 languages. Helpful but not necessary,
a digital camera, scanner or pictures on CD.Only needed if you want to upload
pictures of your finds, self etc for travel bugs or to give picture clues of
where to find your cache. Treasure:Suggestions are limited to the
size of your container. When starting your own I really suggest you place
something of interest for adults and children. They can be small toys (happy meal toys are always good)
, CD about the cache or your area, something about your interests or area, etc.
The value is not important. (Often they are "worthless" to the accidental finder
but a real value to the caching hunter.) It is just something fun for the finder.
People take one or more things and usually replace them with an equal number
of objects.
FUTURE CRAFTS:As I hope to make a cache that
includes both geocaching and letterboxing I will hopefully add pictures and
directions to this web page. Including:
How I make our geocache
box.Making my own stamp and box for letter
boxing.MORE?If the crafters reading this have some
geocaching/letterboxing crafts of
their own they want to share or a web page they want me to link to then email
me. ecw@chadiscrafts.com
MAIN LINKS:
Geocaching.comGeocaches are also
encouraged to clean up nature while hunting. The site will even post pictures of
your efforts.
(Another great project for a
family or scouts.) There are geocaches in 165 countries.
geocatching.com's TRAVEL BUGS.Letterboxing.orgHass 4648 Clues
onlin in 50 States and 8 Countries.
Letterboxing
North America Webring. 95 sites and growing!  Geocoins
Coins you can
track like the travel bugs
Places to buy GPS's
Techinical
tips and help even for all of us non geeks!
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