AliCrafter

My name is Alissyn. I live in Northern California. I have three grown daughters and two yummy cats, Teddy and Picalilly. We live quietly in a single room that I rent in a house. I spend a lot of time during the day chastising myself for not going to the gym and convincing myself that I love salad.

I used to overwhelm myself with swaps but I'm being more select now. I especially like the journal swaps and flipbooks, penpals and an ATC now and again. I also enjoy the You Tube challenges. I LOVE to scour magazines for images to snip and use in projects. Truth be told, I LOVE fussy cutting anything. I must be buried with at least six different sizes of scissors!

I have been making cards as long as I can remember and still love paper crafts with a passion. I like"fancy folds" and pop ups. My girls are constantly after me to open an Etsy shop. We'll see how that goes! "Get an Instagram Mom!" "You need a website!" They holler at me. Me????

But I also love the literary world, reading, writing, journaling... My favorite magazine is The New Yorker for reading, and Harper's Bazaar for excising! Reading the New York Review Of Books makes me feel savvy and The Smithsonian smart. I like thinking I'm smart when I can complete a crossword puzzle (never mind it's an easy level). I like word searches, cryptograms, and other word puzzles. My favorite on line game is Sudoku.

HUGE supporter of the written word and snail mail. What would I do without USPS - and, while I am an ardent participator in the digital world, I so much prefer the printed matter contained in crisp envelopes with entrancing stamps (argh on postmarks without stamps, and the ubiquitous flag stamp - not to imply I'm unpatriotic, but given the choice, I have to go with something colorful and fun.)

I'm a Pisces, bask in teal and purple, love my fountain pens, roaming endlessly on Pinterest, and organizing all my fun "shtuff." Always looking to learn new art skills. LOVE that I don't have to cook for a family anymore. It takes too much time, and food is so annoying!

Favorite books include To Kill a Mockingbird; The Secret Life of Bees, A Man Named Ove, Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English; Ethan Fromm, loads of Nonfiction - World War I and World War II era, historical fiction. Hard to really pinpoint favorites 'cause I'm all over the place! No mysteries or romances.

Big Fish is my favorite, Steel Magnolias, Friendship's Field, Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mama Mia, Wallace and Grommit, Agnes Brown, Hector and the Pursuit of Happiness, and many more.

TV -I watch very little prime time stuff. I watch on my tablet while I'm putzing around so I watch a lot of "noise" like true crime stuff (Homicide Hunter cracks me up) and reruns of Law & Order SVU and Law & Order. I do enjoy Call the Midwife, Foyle's War. Like TED talks, and my guilty pleasure - America's Got Talent.

YAYS: the ocean, rain, anything art, waltz, children's picture books (good literature -my favorite author/illustrator is Arnold Lobel), tulips, daffodils, apple blossoms, mexican cuisine, hershey kisses, white cake with ridiculously sweet buttercream frosting, baking bread, all kinda cats big and small, mousies, tigers, camels, squirrels, peacocks, Dutch windmills and all things Holland, history, reading, beautiful ranges of colors in my inks, paints, chalks, glitters, etc., thrift stores and flea markets, used bookstores, psychological thrillers, metal embellishments like charms, cleverness....

BOOS: California summer weather, chocolate cake, rock 'n roll, rap, harsh music, cooking, disaster or shoot'em up movies; I detest grocery shopping , board games, snakes, girly motifs and overboard pinkie, anime, unreliable people, injustice, cartoonish, crude things, dogs, kawaii, hello kitty,"modern art," coffee... But really anything is fine, just in moderation.

I've pretty well covered likes and dislikes, but I see other profiles have a bit on what they prefer to receive in swaps. To be quite honest, I would love anything that I have the privilege of receiving. I respect that everyone has their own style and their own ideas of what is "good" or "bad." Surprises make it fun. However, as I am told I need this, here goes:

Love word puzzles, puns, and single frame comics (like New Yorker)

Unusual Playing card jokers and foreign cards, vintage cards

Matryoshka dolls (illustrations, stickers, etc.)

I love getting magazine clippings - an unusual article, strange or interesting pictures...

Product Labels and any sort of logo art (this can be clothing, food, non-food items....)

World War II anything (World War I would be even better)

embossing powder

Anything pertaining to Holland motif, Venice, or England

Washi Tape (who doesn't love washi?)

Ephemera and embellishments

Peacocks; big Game animals like Tigers, Lions,; raccoons, Elephants, Giraffes; Squirrels, Camels and kitties.

Color choice doesn't matter, though I am partial to teal and purple

Charms

Tea bags (the packaging not for the tea itself)

Mules, but not donkeys

Parodies of American Gothic

Renditions of See no Evil, Speak no Evil, Hear no Evil in illustrative or photo format

Seahorses

Love unusual papers

Patterns or instructions for an usual envelope or craft or card idea. Or a link to a YouTube video of something paper crafty

No Hello Kitty stuff or Sponge Bob, Kawaii, please

Cute Mice

Die Cuts - esp seahorse and frame types

No allergies / bad flavors black licorice and watermelon - yuck!

Novelty brads

Surprises / cleverness/ creativity

Amaze me

The icing on the cake: a letter (long or short) included with swap. Now THAT really makes my day!

Thanks for reading a little about me and for being my partner on SwapBot! Let's have fun! 😊

I absolutely ADORE art by young children. If you have a little one who would like to draw a picture to send, it would bring great joy to me!

If you don't receive my swap for whatever reason, PLEASE let me know, and like others, I will resend or otherwise fix the problem.