When I am designing, I can create objects, but as soon as I click off them they seem to disappear. What is happening?

This usually means your shape tool or pen tool has no color. To change this in Inkscape, go to Object > Fill & Stroke and make sure you have a color selected for either Fill or Stroke. Also make sure your opacity is not set to 0 or 0% (there are two places this appears — one is line A and the other is the Opacity line). 

To change this in Illustrator, go to the drop-down Fill and Stroke menus in the bar above your canvas and make sure a color is selected.