Tessssssa

Hi everyone,

My name is Tessa, a Ravenclaw, and I live in a small town in the south of the Netherlands, just below Eindhoven.
I live there with my cat. She is all white, with black ears and a black tail. She is 10 years old and very sweet. Her name is Poes, wich is the dutch word for cat. She is very lazy, sleeps all day.

In my free time I like to be creative in many ways. I enjoy many crafts.
I sew a lot of stuffed animals. it's so fun to see them come to live, adding arms and legs.
At the moment I'm in love with the patterns of Studio Seren. They are su much fun!
I used to crochet animals from designers like: Stip en haak and My Krissie Dolls. But my fingers hurt after a few stitches now, so I switched to sewing.

I also like to watch movies/netflix, going to the zoo or the Efteling, and listening to audiobooks while I'm crafting .
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!

For all Dutch swappers:
Ben je op zoek naar een actieve nederlandse groep op swapbot?
Een waar verschillende soorten swaps georganiseerd worden?

Kom dan naar de groep: Nederlandse swappers!
Want, hoe meer zielen hoe meer vreugd!

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 newspapers 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.

This year (2022) the theme of the parade was festivals around the world. We made a float about the Japanese cherry blossom festival. We made 3 arches with blossom and lanterns. Actors were picknicking. And 4 girls danced with paper parasols. It was so much fun. We won 6th place, we were very surprised by that, and also we won the prize from the kids jury.

In 2019 the theme was 'Proud of Brabant'.
Brabant is the province I live in.
We chose the fair in Tilburg. This is kind of a famous one, really big with lots of rides and other attractions. It lasts more than a week.
What also is special about this fair is the Monday.
It's called, Pink Monday, to celebrate the LGBTQ community. There is a pride walk and everything turns pink.
In our design we make carousel horses that are normal colors on one side, and pink on the other side. I'm really looking forward to the building process!
We got 10th place. A little dissapointing... We thought we would get 5th or 6th.

The theme in 2018 was 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 the world famous circus from the Ringling Brothers.
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!
And remember it's al iron, cardboard and flowers.

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 sew stuffed animals, make and decorate envelopes, mixed media, mini albums, stamping, drawing, sewing my own clothes, sewing ragdolls and animals, flipbooks, facepainting, coloring, pocket letters, working on my artjournal and helping out with the flower parade.

I'm looking to buy some nice printable files on etsy. But there is so much to choose from! So I would really appreciate if you could send me a link of your favourite ephemera printables (or shops) on etsy!

I started collecting enamel pins.
And I would love to swap some. So if you want to trade some pins with me, please message me and we can set up a private swap!

Random things
* botanical illustrations
* lace fabric, lace trimmings, and lace flowers etc
* springtime, feeling the sun on my face, summertime
* pastel colours, old vintage colours
* hearts, chevron, polkadots, stripes
* woodland animals, peacocks, foxes
* (samples of) soap and shampoo bars, conditioner etc. Handmade is great! Or maybe a recipe (my hair looks so much healthier now I use an all natural shampoo bar)
* flipbooks, mail art
* (board)games
* vintage typewriters
* my family and friends
* mermaids, fairies, old school fairytales (not a big disneyfan).
* Alice in wonderland, Little Red Ridinghood
* Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, nifflers and bowtruckels

Crafting/Wishlist (in random order)
* watercolour images
* eyelets
* any Tim Holtz product
* 'girl stickers' those that are in trend now
* labels, I love labels, the plain ones with a red/green/other colour border, vintage labels with scribbles, labels with daintly borders, etc.
* foam squares/circles any size
* vellum, with or without an image
* interesting (clear) stamps, background stamps
* I collect enamel pin badges!, animals, flowers, world famous things, fun food (please no pins of things I never heard of, like a local business or advertising pins)
* project life cards
* maggie holmes, tim holtz, heidi swapp, page evans
* black permanent fineliners like mircron
* white pens or (paint)markers
* sealing wax, and stamps
* bookpages and sheetmusic, other interesting fonts
* lace, cheesecloth, trims etc, even tiny pieces are welcome
* fabric to use to make clothes for my handmade softies (I prefer natural fiber over polyester)
* things for my junk journal, I prefer the following styles / themes: botanical, vintage, tickets and tags, flowers, feathers, postal theme, old sewing pattersn, birds, vintage office papers, library cards, washi tape and washi stickers in these themes.
* mail art, I love decorated envelopes!
* Wide washi tape, washi stickers
* washi tapes in plain colours or with patterns like, grid, polkadots, chevron, stripes, and other plainish patterns
* fun shaped paperclips
* burt's bees with pomegranate lipbalm
* your favorite craft tool/item/template/tips

• I collect used postage stamps for an elderly (recently) disabled man.

Favorite colour (combo's)
* mint green
* teal
* purple
* peacock colours
* coral pink
* rose gold
* vintage colours
* pastel colours
* rich jewel tones

Food
* any low-carb snacks or easy recipes (not to many ingredients)
* any nuts
* anything Haribo or Maoam
* chocolate
* licorice
* something typical from you country

Tea
I just started drinking tea again and love some new flavours to try!
* fruits (but no citrus fruits)
* tea wit mint
* tea with cinnamon

I also enjoy loose tea (to be put in a tea egg) or tea flowers. Please put a ingredient list on the packaging, I like to know what I'm drinking :p

• Religious stuff
• zentangle as the main focal point
• please don't send me sticky notes.
• the colours brown and beige (kraft is fine)
• little pieces of patterned paper
• Unwritten postcards of places where I`ve never been
• rain, to much snow, to much heat
• jewelry, I do wear some, but I don't need more
• diddl, hello kitty, kawaì, other kids characters
• rude people
• reward or kiddie stickers, stickers in the themes in the like section above are ok.
• the smell of nicotine, it makes me sick
• marzipain
• sand between my toes
• papercuts in my finger
• sticker slapping
• and flakers.

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 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. And don't send in a clear envelope. I like how postcards look when they went through a sorting machine, (bended, ripped etc) I think it adds to it.