Her name is Milly...

Her name is Milly...

Last week I ordered a bag from Anita. Maybe you've heard about it already, if not you NEED to check out her blog! Anita makes the most gorgeous bags. She designs and handmakes them and not one of them is the same. Every single bag has a name and a personality. Today she showed me a little sneak peek of the one she's making for me. Her name is Milly. Her pesonality, says Anita, is easily excitable and a little daring. She is popular and fun to be around. *LOL* sounds great huh?.... but looks even better, watch this:

On Anita's blog you can find pictures of "Phoebe" and "Margo", two other bags she's made.
Now... if you feel like you just can't live without such an awesome bag anymore (and I can understand) you can contact Anita for more information.

My scraproom is a mess! To people who come to visit me it might look pretty organised but DON'T YOU OPEN my drawers!!! You'll be shocked! Someone once told me that creative people are always chaotic, so I'll just blame it on that...But something needs to be done now because I've come to a point that I sometimes can't find what I'm looking for even though I'm sure it's there.
Very frustrating and taking an alternative is not always a good option...
So... to start I decided to treat myself and bought this Clip It Up at de Creatie.

This afternoon I spend about 2 hours sorting out my (letter) stickers and rub-ons... boy, do I have a lot. Came across some very nice ones that I had forgotten about :) and I'm sooo happy with this organising tool!
Now I've started cleaning out I'll just have to keep up the good work and my scraproom will look totally organised in no time.... wish me luck!!

Today prompt on her space:my space is "colourful"

Have a nice sunday!
Birgit

teenage girls and sneak peeks...

aaarrrgg.... teenage girls! Anne lost her bankcard ages ago. For weeks we keep telling her that she has to search for it and try to find it, since it's NOT gonna be knocking on her door all by itself saying "Hi, I'm back!". She assured us that she had looked EVERYWHERE!! several times!! It has gone...

Today her dad told her that she was not allowed to put on her computer before her card was back and she responded that her computer would probably stay off for the next year then.

But the thought of no computer made her go upstairs and look for it straight after school and guess what... within 15 minutes it was found!!!



Lessons learned: teenagers are lazy, computers are extremely important (but we knew that already, lol).

OK, I promissed you some sneak peeks, so sneak peeks you get:








If you wanna know what they're for check back next week!

Finally my her space:my space picture of the day: chair.



TFL!
Have a nice weekend, and please fill my mailbox with LO's and banners tomorrow!! :)
Birgit

Grumpy...

Grumpy....
that's the right word for Marlijn at the moment I took this picture!

She was very much annoyed by the fact that she couldn't have 2 pieces of cake when we had tea this afternoon only a little more then 1,5 hour before dinner. She was so upset about it that she decided that she didn't want to sit with us at the table anymore, so she took her chair to the window and sat down with her back towards us... grumpy... Fortunatly my stubborn little girl is never grumpy to long. Therefore pictures like these are rare. I'll cherish it :)

Made 2 pictures for her space:my space prompt "button" today:

It's been a while since I've shared some work. Nothing I can show right now... Maybe a few sneak peeks tomorrow.

Just a little reminder: 2 more days until the challenges close. March 31, at midnight! Hope to get much more LO's and banners from you!!!

TFL!

Have a nice evening!

Birgit

a perfect gift...

a perfect gift...

What more can a mom of a 4 year old daugther wish for than a handpicked bunch of flowers from her little girl. Even if it's just a tiny little bunch.

Marlijn was so adorable when she gave me these saying: "I picked these myself mom, specially for you, because you like flowers so much!'

I think that makes up for at least 15 times of coming out of her bed when she's suposed to sleep, 10 times of not listening to what I'm saying and 3 times of not eating whatever we have for dinner *LOL*

Todays prompt for her space: my space is light...

Love how the sunlight goes through my luxaflex and leaves stripes on my fourniture!

TFL!

Birgit

heart...

Heart...

Her space:my space question for today: Heart, a symbol of love, is there a heart in your space?

Well there are a lot of hearts and a lot of love in my space but I decided to make only one picture:






I've got a question: does any of you know where I can find realy cool free brushes to use on the edges of my photographs?
I've been browsing the interent but there's so many I don't know where to start. I'm not that handy with my computer so they must be easy to download and even easier to work with :) any good tip is very welcome!!!

Have another wonderful spring day!
Birgit

today is our 14th

anniversary! 14 years we're married today! But together we're almost 21 years! We started dating when we were 18/19 and lived together for 5 years before we got married.

This is how I see us:

Two completely different flowers making a perfect bouquet together!

Made this picture for yesterday word on her space:my space... bottle.

So glad we had this bottle in the house this week. Marlijn had a terrible ear infection and this medicine made her feel so much better!

TFL!

Have a wonderful evening!

Birgit

Spring is in the air!

Just updated my photoblog a little. Made tons of spring pictures today. Spring was yesterdays word on her space:my space.
Such a beautiful, sunny day today! We went out for a walk and I took pictures of everything just blooming a little along the way :) and some of my kids enjoying spring.

Here just 3 of them:








If you like to see my flower pictures go visit my photoblog!
TFL!
Birgit

2 new projects to share

Made these also for the Scrap-club DT using the april kit.

On the LO my DD Marlijn with the 5 year old son of our friends. The picture was taken during the weekend we went away together and these two had so much fun together!



The little tag book is filled with saying I wrote down in the time Lennart was about 4-5 years old. The funniest once are in this little book. I have to ad a few but can't find the book I wrote them in :(




I'll try to transalate as good as I can:



Summer vacation 2001
We just spend a week on a camping in Cognac (France). When we’re on our way to another place Lennart wants to ask something about the camping we were before. He remembers that the name of the place had something to do with something daddy likes to drink…
He says: “Mommy, when we still were in beer…”



The next one was in the same vacation. While putting up the tent Lennart asks if he can have the hammer. When Erik asks him what he needs it for he says: “to hammer the shrimps into the ground.
Ok, I’ll have to explain that one: In dutch a peg is called a “haring” wich is also the name for a fish (herring)…:)

The third one says: “Mommy, I’m not going to drink my yoghurt! It’s sooo cold, my teeth get all dizzy”



The last one is about Lennart who is terrified of dogs. One day he comes home really excited saying “mommy, mommy, I’m no longer afraid of Nicole’s dog” I tell him I think that’s just wonderful and he answers: “Yes, because you know… Nicoles dog is dead!”

*LOL* Can you imagine that although I was sorry for the dog I just had to laugh out loud?!

If you want to read the text in dutch just click on the image for a closer look!

I think things like this are worth remembering, I’m sure my kids will love these little things they said as a child when they are older. I have many more (somewhere) so I think this little book will get thicker in time (when I find them)!

BTW: some people have been asking who makes the rubons I used around the edges *LOL* but they are not rubons, just my own little doodles, using a black and a white pen!


You all have another week to send in you LO's and/or banners for the challenges. And if you like to do more then one, feel free to submit as many LO's/banners as you like!!!
And for those of you who are thinking about coming to the "colourful world-workshop"... the saturday is fully booked but I have a few places left on the sunday!

Have a wonderful Sunday, enjoy the lovely weather! I’m sure we will!
Birgit

Announcement...

I feel proud and happy to announce that I was asked to join the Scrap Art Zine DT! Of course I said YES! SAZ is a new (and the first) german scrapbook magazine. The first issue came out in december and was a digital one. It's was such a big succes that the founders Andrea and Jana decided to bring out a paper magazine. The first issue came out two weeks ago and was sold out before the mag even found it's way to the stores. How awesome is that?! The SAZ DT is a bunch of talented girls (check them out here!) and I'm looking forward to work with them! The next issue will come out in june. Make sure you don't miss it! :)

Something else you might be interested in is the new scrapbook message board called Uncensored Scrap Forum. It is a message board with no attachment to an online store or business, so total freedom to talk about anything we like. It is a place to create, share and inspire without restriction. Like my friend and founder of this board Anita said: "Totally for us and by us!" So check it out! Many people did already and it seems to me this is to become a great place to hang out!

Something else I've been doing in the last few days is creating a blog for my favourite photographs and to use for the pictures I want to make for the challenges on the Her space-my space blog! I only did 2 so far but there's a list on my desk with all the words that Anita and Kirsty did so far and I hope to catch up on them some time :)
Here's the link to the blog if you like to check it out: it's a colourful world.

Today the scrap-club april kit LO's went up so here are the first 2 LO's I did with the kit:





Finally I want to remind you that you can still join the last 2 challenges untill march 31. Missed them, click here and join the fun!

That's it for today!
TFL!
Birgit

a new family member

Last night at 10.30 p.m. our new nephew and cousin was born. His parents gave him the name Tijn. Mother, child and father are doing well. Of course we went over to see him and he was worth the 2 hour drive! Such a cute, perfect little boy!

For the non-dutch readers, the first picture shows a “beschuit met muisjes” . It’s a typical dutch tradtion to serve beschuit met muisjes to the visitors after a baby is born. It’s a kind of toast and the muisjes are some kind of tiny sugar balls filled with aniseed. When the baby is a girl the muisjes are white and pink. They are delicious!
I knew that it would be a boy so I made a little photo flip album for the first pictures using the colors of his room:

TFL!
Have a great week! Hope you all find some time to join yesterdays challenges! Especially the digi one, I really need a new banner :)
Birgit

2 new challenges!!!

Yes, that's right... TWO! Why?? Because the first one is certainly not to join for everyone, it's a digital one.

As you might have noticed my banner is gone. No idea where it went or why, but instead of my handmade Urban Lily banner this ugly yellow frog is staring at me for days now.
Soooo... I need a new one. And I want a digital one. But I'm hopeless with that so I thought it might be a nice challenge for some of you photoshop experts. I know you're out there somewhere :) As it's such an important one for me the RAK wil be really worth it!
If you are interested you can e-mail me at scrappen@birgitkoopsen.nl and I wil send you a picture of me that I want included in the banner. The rest is up to you! Surprise me, knock me of my feet. The winning banner will of course shine at the top of my blog for the coming time!!!
This challenge closes on march 31, at 12.oo midnight dutch time!

And because I know that far from every scrapper is that good in photoshop (I'm not :)) but great artists on paper I decided to do another LO challenge as well!

The theme of the LO will be "Spring is in the air"!
I want you to use at least 3 flowers, paint and handwritten journaling. Of course there will be a RAK for the most creative and surprising LO!
You can send your LO's again to scrappen@birgitkoopsen.nl. Have fun! This challenge also closes at march 31, 12.00 midnight, dutch time!

Well... a whole week has gone by again already. Pfff...where did it go, what did I do??
I've been preparing my upcoming workshop (see button on the right) wich is almost fully booked already. I went over to Anita to have a nice evening crop, I've been working on some projects (that I will be showing soon) and I've been working with the awesome new scrap-club kit of wich a few sneak peeks here:




Monday there's a training/workshop for all DT-member of Kars at Bruynzeel/Sakura and of course I'll be going there, even though it's all the way down to Bergen op Zoom wich is a 3 hour drive for me and the workshop is only 2,5 hours. I just love pens, pencils and markers so it should be fun! I hope it's worth the ride. More about it next week!

For now I'll just sit by the phone anxiously waiting for my BIL to call. My Sil is due to deliver her baby any time now... well... within the next 2 weeks that is, but you never know :)

Wish you all a wonderful weekend and keep the creative juices flowing!
Birgit

a lot to share...

I didn't have much time last week to update so now I've got a lot to share!
First of all the LO's made with the wonderful scrap-club kit. I had so much fun with this kit!
At least I made a few LO's about Lennart again. He's not so keen on having his picture taken so I don't have that much nice ones of him but I really like these. The first LO is about his favourite way to dress, wich is as comfortable as possible! As soon as he comes home from school he changes into track-suit and he loves to wear a cap so he doesn't have to "do' his hair :)



The next LO is about Lennart using a cigar to light the fireworks the day before new year. He thought it was kind of tough to act like he was smoking, lol.



The little felt book was a gift of Bonnette who brought one for all of us Alliance girls when se came back from her trip to the US and we met at Anita's surprise.
I was lucky to get an orange one! I love orange and it went so well with the scrap-club kit that I just had to pimp it up a little...

The last LO I made using this kit is one about Marlijn with her dearest little friend knuffel.

The next two projects where made using the lovely GetInspired! kit from De Creatie.
For the little book I asked my family members what their favourite vacation destination is and why. We, parents, like to go to France but all three kids seem to agree on... Centerparcs! *LOL*

The LO speaks for itself. To bad Kirsty has to miss these kind of meetings 'cause she's living in England...

And then there was the Wacky Workshop Weekend. I already told you how much fun it was and now I want to show you what I did. I attended 3 workshops of Celine Navarro wich all where awesome.
The first one was about using paint, aquarel pastels and pens ON your PHOTO. It's not really hard but it's more about daring, yikkes... But Celine made it look soooo easy, "and btw", she said, "what terrible things can happen, the worst thing is that you ruin your picture... well, you just get a new one". And she is right of course. It was fun going out of my comfort zone wich it surely was! Also thought it was fun using the chipboard swirl like this, only problem now is that it doesn't fit in any album :)

The second one was about transfers using gel medium and aceton. No good examples of that yet. It needs practicing and besides that I didn't have the right transparencies. Something to practice at home but very fun!

The third workshops was about making your own background paper using gesso and paint. Don't think I'm really gonna use this in my own LO's but it was fun learning a new technique!

At the evening crop I had a hard time to get started, it was fun just to sit and listen and see what everybody was doing. But finally I made this LO using Corinne´s awesome paperline Cosmic Energy!

Today the april kit of scrap-club arrived and it's just as great as the last one, can't wait to start using it! Right now I'm working on something else that's exciting, can't tell anything yet but will be soon!

Finally I want to show you a sneak peek of the workshop I'm teaching on april 14-15.

It's a colorful world! For more info click on the button at the right side or here!

...and a color quote: " I found I could say things with colors that I couldn’t say in any other way —things that I had no words for". --Georgia O’Keefe

Wishing you all a wonderful sunday!
Birgit

And we have a winner...

pffff, you girls gave me a difficult time. Loved your LO's and the non-scrapbooking suplies you used, so very creative, different and "out of the box".
But I had to choose a winner....

After long, long thinking I decided "My home is my castle" by Lilian to be the winning LO. I love her the overall design, the theme, the soft colors, the whole look. She used bamboo sticks to "sew" a little house on her LO and I think that's just a wonderful and creative idea! So Lilian, congratulations, you're the winner!



and.... I decided to also give a honorable mention to Yvonne Sonneveld. She used the inside tire of a bike to make her own embellishments. I thought this was sooo creative, never would have thought of that myself. She says it's very strong and you can emboss, paint or stamp on it and a lot more. So Yvonne, I'm gonna send you a little rak too!



If the 2 of you e-mail me your adresses I'll make sure you get your prizes!
The rest of the beautiful LO's you all made you can see in the slideshow below. To get a better look and see the designers names and the non-scrapbooking products they used you can click on the images.



One thing I would like to know from you...the last challenge was joined by way more people the this one.... I was wondering why?

Was this one to difficult, do you like sketches more, was it because it was a vacation week last week or didn't you like the rak? Please let me know so next time I can come up with a challenge a lot of people like! I'm very curious for your comments!

In case you missed it, there's a new workshop coming up! It's going to be a colorful and fun day!!Curious? lick on the link at the right side to read more about it!

Take care :)

Birgit

For information about the upcoming workshop click on the link at the right side!

It was a wonderful week!!

The first weekend of our vacation our friends joined us. They have two boys. The oldest gets along with Lennart very well and the yougest is about 8 month older then Marlijn and they get along very well too! So we had fun, swimming, bowling, playing tennis, go out for dinner and do some shopping. The kids had a great time.




The only sad thing was that Lennart got sick saturday afternoon and was not able to go to the soccer match PSV-Groningen for wich Erik arranged cards on VIP-location. Now our friends oldest son went with Erik and they had a terrific evening but for Lennart it was a bummer. He was much better the next morning. We had a very relaxing week, went to Eindhoven to shop (yes I did some scrap shopping too :)) and Erik and Lennart went to the PSV training on thursday.


Friday morning we had to leave our little house. We drove to Wijchen where my PIL´s live (stopped by in Heesch to do some more scrap shopping) where we were gonna stay two more nights because I was attending the wacky workshop ad de Creatie in Veghel on saturday. I signed up for 3 workshops by Céline who is a real artist and freestyler. I met there with Bonnette, Florence, Danielle and of course Corinne who was teaching workshops too. I also met some other people who's names I knew from message boards and blogs but now saw in real for the first time. So fun to meet you all ladies :)
We all had a wondeful day, learned a lot and had tons of fun and very, very good food!


So... I feel inspired, relaxed and full of energy, ready to face the next couple of weeks before it's vacation again *LOL*

Just want to remind you that you have 3 more days to join the challenge (see last post) Please e-mail your LO to scrappen@birgitkoopsen.nl. You have untill wednesday 12.00p.m. The kit you can win is really fun!!! So come on ladies, make me happy, fill my mailbox!



Have a great week!


Birgit