GeoSwag

I haven't talked much about geocaching in a year, so I thought I'd give it a shout-out today. Geocaching is one of my very favorite activities to do with daughters Jeanne and Jodie.

"What is geocaching?" you ask. It's a worldwide treasure hunt that uses maps and GPS to find various shapes of containers holding a log and, sometimes, treasures. The game is played by using clues to find the containers, sign the physical log, write a virtual log of your find online, and exchange the treasure you bring with the treasure you find.

When my family caches together, we tend to each take on our favored job. One signs the physical log, another logs the visit online, and one exchanges the treasure. In geocache language, the treasure is called "swag."

Cleaning out junk swag and replacing it with more desirable swag is my favorite part of caching. This is a great activity to do with kids. And kids love treasure. So I carry a variety of swag with me to leave for the kids -- and kids at heart like me.

The last time Jeanne and I were out, we found this fun idea for swag, left by the previous geocacher. These feel, in Dale's words, like "treasures trapped in amber." In truth, they are the flat-bottomed glass rocks used in floral arrangements that have scrapbook paper adhered and sealed to the back. Then each little gem is slipped into its own tiny plastic bag. That way it can stay dry, even if the cache container gets damp.

So Jeanne and I stopped by Dollar Tree and picked up the larger size of these glass pebbles. These are about the size of a quarter. I already had a bunch of the smaller size pebbles, about the size of a dime. Then we headed to my Studio and pulled out all my scrap pieces of scrapbook paper.

It was fun to "audition" the various papers for the different size stones. The small stones needed very small designs to make them look good. My favorites that we used are the sculls and the baby animals. Some of the dots and plaids worked well, too.

My favorite larger stones have the bees and butterflies. But many of the geometric shapes also worked well. The least successful papers were metallic or textured.

This is only one type of treasure I leave behind. A drawback from this swag is that the glass is pretty heavy. That's not a big deal unless you're carrying a bunch of it on your hikes to Ground Zero - the cache container. Another drawback is that this swag may not hold up well in a cache container if it's not in a plastic bag. Even though the paper is sealed to the glass, it has a chance of deteriorating.

This is such a fun, cooperative sport. Get started for free by visiting the Geocaching website.