Hi everyone,

I am on the look out for long term creative penpals, if this is something that would interest you please send me a message! :)
I like to send happy mail like, pocket letters, flip books, flip files and other creative mail to my pen pals.

My name is Tessa and I live in a small town in the south of the Netherlands, just below Eindhoven.
I live there with my cat and 2 zebra finches.
My cat is all white, with black ears and a black tail. She is 6 years old and a bit crazy. Sometimes she just runs around the house like her tail is on fire. Her name is Poes, wich is the dutch word for cat. Her favorite toys are the simple little grey mice, she turns her back on all the fancy stuff I've got her. My birds are names after my grandparents.

I used to work at a theme park called De Efteling. The park is all about fairytales, everything has something to do with it.
It was really fun working there. Especially because I operated rides in the rollercoaster section of the park.
Now I work at a store that sells clothes, kitchen stuff, toys, craft supplies and more.

In my free time I like to be creative in many ways. I enjoy many crafts.
I'm crocheting a lot of stuffed animals. it's so fun to see them come to live, adding arms and legs.
Most of the time I crochet animals from designers like: Stip en haak and My Krissie Dolls. I like my animals stripey and with bold colors.
I also enjoy stamping, coloring the images with my polychromos pencils, making cards, journal pages and mail art with them.

I also like to watch movies/netflix, going to the zoo or the Efteling, and reading.
I like to be with my family.

Please leave a comment when raiting.

I promise that I won't flake! Please contact me before rating me a 1 or 3!

In the summer months (june - september) I'm active in a group for the local flower parade.
14 groups build a big float and on the second sunday in september we have a parade.
The building proces takes 3 months (bending iron, welding it together, stick cardboard on it, glue paper on it, and painting) after that we only have 2 days to put al the flowers on it (200.000 in total per float).
We use dahlia's they are so pretty and have many colors and forms.

Documentary about the flowerparade in Zundert by Gil Bruvel
The flower parade in Zundert is always on the first sunday in september, 1 week before ours.

The theme this year is all about making an old float-design new again. We all had to choose a winner from years ago (1953-1991), and make it 'new'. Our design is about a world famous circus.
Link to drawing of our design

The parade was yesterday.
WE WON 4TH PLACE AGAIN. It's the 3rd time in 4 years we got 4th. It's really good because most years we end up in the middle, somewhere around 8 or 9.
Our elephant was so cool! She even moved her head, ears and trunk like a real one. Youtube video of our float Watch this!

Our design last years was called: Polle's Keuken. (this translates to Polle's kitchen, Polle is a boys name), so we made a float about the pancake restaurant in theme park De Efteling that has that name. We won 4th place with Polle!!!! so happy! Also we won a prize for being innovative for adding the smell of pancakes to our float!

For Pictures of the floats our group made you have to look by Wilhelmina (at the bottom, under 'wagenoverzicht'). You can look by year (jaargangen) or by group (buurtschappen).
Our group is named after Queen Wilhelmina, she was the Queen when The Netherlands was liberated after the 2nd world war. The flower parade started out as a little celebration of freedom with decorated bicycles and carts, it has become much bigger than that.

I do a lot of things, and will try almost everything.

I like to crochet stuffed animals, upcycle things, make envelopes, boxes and gift pouches, mixed media, make mini albums from paper bags, knitting, stamping, drawing, sewing, flipbooks, facepainting, coloring, making halloween costumes, pocket letters, working on my art journal, helping out with the flower parade and much more.

I just re-opened my etsy store to sell the items I make. I would really apreciate it if you find the time to take a look.
More items are comming soon!

I love the look of watercoloring, and that is one thing that I just can`t make happen.
I love to learn how to make beautiful watercolor art. So, if you have any tips and tricks, tutorials and how to's, please let me know!

Random things
* yellow cars (as I just bought one, but no taxi or school bus)
* flowers, roses, dahlias
* springtime, feeling the sun on my face, summertime, go to theme parks
* pastel colors, bold colors
* hearts, chevron, polkadots, stripes
* woodland animals, peacocks, flamingos
* holidays
* pocket letters, flipbooks, mail art
* (board)games
* my family and friends
* mermaids, fairies, old school fairytales (not a big disneyfan).
* Gorjuss!
* Tim Burton style
* I enjoy Harry Potter and Lord of the rings but I'm not a fan girl (I don't need everything but the kitchen sink of these themes)

Crafting/Wishlist (in random order)
* sewing patterns of Cashmerette, (I already have the appleton dress and turner dress).
* watercolor anything, I love the look of it, and wish I could do it better
* mixed media anything, like paste, stencils, paint, shimmers etc
* Beautiful paper napkins to use in my art, tissue paper
* embossing ink and powder
* distress inkpads or oxide, any color as I don't have a lot of them yet (your favorite color)
* interesting (clear) stamps
* white pens (love!)
* (big) punches
* Safety eyes for my crochet animals, any color or size (obviously in multiples of 2)
* mail art
* fun shaped paperclips
* I prefer silver toned jewelry/accessoires over gold (sterling silver is best)
* burt's bees with pomegranate lipbalm

Favorite color combo's
* mint green and gold
* teal
* purple
* peacock colors
* coral pink and gold
* black and silver

Food
* chocolate
* nuts
* licorice
* strawberries, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, just any berries!
* icecream
* all kinds of candy and cookies

• Religious stuff
• tiny punched out shapes, I have no use for them
• Unwritten postcards of places where I`ve never been
• coloring pages
• rain, to much snow, to much heat
• gold toned jewelry/accessoires
• diddl, hello kitty, other kids characters
• plain blue or black writing pens, gell pens
• (reward) stickers
• the smell of nicotine
• chai tea, spicy tea
• marzipain
• sand between my toes
• papercuts in my finger
• sticker slapping
• and flakers.

About socks.....
I wear size EU 39 / UK 6 / US 7,5.
I prefer them made of cotton (more than 70%) or an other natural fiber. Normal lenght or sneaker socks.
I like them colorful, striped and with polkadots (no neon colors).

For swaps that requires more than one gift to be send.
I'm very pleased to get 1 gift worth the total amount you have to spend instead of several small gifts.
It's your choice what to do.

As for my etsy and amazon wishlist.
This is a list of things I would like to recieve (obviously) but I don't mind if you order it from another shop or website, as long as it is the same item. Maybe you find it cheaper else were or with less shippingcosts.

Please don't cover your mail art with clear packaging tape.

Flakers
@LadySunshine flaked on me in: ISS: Wishlist - November
@cfroggie flaked on me in: Just to Say Hello
@miyuiki00 flaked on me in: BIG FAT DESTASH swap #1 a 4 bubble envelope, (fully suspended with 74 1's) angeled by @arhel

Non-raters (I will remove you from this list once you have rated me.
Last update: may 21, 2018
@donnasaurus1 didn't rate Christmas gift
@donnasaurus1 didn't rate 6 gifts 1 theme - #189 - Random package
@bklynfinest77 didn't rate Adventures of the Traveling Postcard # 59
@marissakaya didn't rate ISS: Handmade Postcard #2 - Fairytales
@BluGinhm didn't rate Adventures of the Traveling Postcard #54
@cynlen didn't rate SWL ~ Art Journal Page #8 ~ December
@MeSo didn't rate WIYM: Secret Santa
@Pixelschubserin didn't rate Rainbow Mail Art #2
@monique204 didn't rate TIAZ: Smash Stash in a Baggie
@mformui didn't rate HS: I Love Washi
@momtoanimals didn't rate HS: Either OR Swap
@Poser1111 didn't rate Fruity ATC #1 Strawberry