Tessssssa

Hi everyone,

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. She is all white, with black ears and a black tail. She is 7 years old and a bit crazy. 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.

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. If you ever plan to come to The Netherlands, you really should go there a day or two.
Now I work at a store that sells electronics. From household items like washingmachines, refrigerators and hairdryers to media products like phones, game consoles and televisions.

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 or alcohol markers, making cards, journal pages and mail art with them.

I like to watch movies/netflix, going to the zoo or the Efteling, and reading (audiobooks most of the time).
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:
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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 (2019) the theme is '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. Now we are waiting for the judges comments (always takes a few weeks) to see why.

The theme last year (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 crochet stuffed animals, make envelopes, boxes and gift pouches, mixed media, mini albums, knitting, stamping, drawing, sewing my own clothes, flipbooks, facepainting, coloring, pocket letters, working on my art/junk journal, helping out with the flower parade and much more.

I love the look of watercoloring, and that is one thing that I just can`t make happen.
I'm looking for the perfect paper that works well and is affordable. I would really appreciate it if you could send me a piece (even just a scrap) of your favourite paper with a note of the brand and weight etc. 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!

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, go to themeparks
* pastel colours, old vintage colours
* hearts, chevron, polkadots, stripes
* woodland animals, peacocks, flamingos
* cacti and succulents
* flipbooks, mail art
* (board)games
* the smell of rain
* my family and friends
* mermaids, fairies, old school fairytales (not a big disneyfan).
* 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)
* watercolour anything, I love the look of it, and wish I could do it better
* Lawn Fawn! I love their stampsets! And I don't mind if they are used, as long as they stil work wel.
* stampers anonymous, hello bluebird, mama elephant stamps
* metal cutting dies, just anything, I dont have a lot of them yet, just bought a die cut machine
* embossing ink and powder (maybe some you don't use anymore, it's ok if you put it in a ziplock bag, so it's more flat to send)
* 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
* Distress oxide ink. Or a list (swatches) of your favourite colours, I like the ink pads but I don't know which colours I should go for.
* white pens
* bookpages and sheetmusic (I like the old yellow look)
* lace, cheesecloth etc, even tiny pieces are welcome * things for my junk journal, I prefer the following styles / themes: botanical, steampunk, 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. I prefer the 'old' looking things over bold 'new' colours.
* mail art, I love decorated envelopes!
* Wide washi tape, washi stickers
* fun shaped paperclips
* burt's bees with pomegranate lipbalm
* your favorite craft tool/item

Favorite colour combo's
* mint green
* teal
* purple
* peacock colours
* coral pink
* rose gold
* vintage colours

Food
* anything Haribo or Maoam
* chocolate
* licorice
* all kinds of candy and cookies

• Religious stuff
• tiny punched out shapes, I have no use for them
• little pieces of patterned paper
• Unwritten postcards of places where I`ve never been
• colour you're own anything
• 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 or kiddie stickers, stickers in the themes in the like section above are ok.
• the smell of nicotine, it makes me sick
• 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. Most of the time I wear sneaker socks. (Ankle lenght)
I like them black, colourful, striped and with polkadots (no neon or pastel colours).

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. Or send in a clear envelope. I like how the postcards look when they went through a sorting machine, (bended, ripped etc) I think it adds to it.

@BabyBee78 flaked om me in WIYM: Mini Flipbook - Christmas (fully suspended with 299!!! ones)
@elluzki flaked on me in HD/HP Pass and Paste #57
@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