Happy birthday Andrea!!!!

Just a short hello from my vacation adress to say Happy Birthday Andrea! Hope you have a wonderful day and may a lot of your wishes come true! (Andrea is one of the owners/founders of Scrap Art Zine).

Nat asked us to make Andrea an ATC (since Andrea loves them) and then Nat would make a cover/holder for all the ATC's and send them to her.


Here's mine:








All the others and the cover you can see on Nat's blog.

Have a nice day!
Birgit

The winner of the may sketch challenge is..

Joke Bach Kolling!



Congratulations Joke! I think this LO pops out with the fresh colors and the clear and crisp photographs, also love the depth you created in the title and the big flowers. You used the sketch but really made it your own. Great job!!

The rest of all the beautiful LO's you can see here in the slide show:

Thanks everybody for participating, I really enjoyed seeing all your great LO's. Seems to me that a sketch challenge is one of the favourite kinds of challenges and therefore I will try to do a sketch challenge every month. So if you like that make sure to check in every now and then to see what the new challenge is!

And now about yesterday... what a wonderful day we had and what a beautiful country we live in!
The day started with coffee and Frysian "Oranjekoek" (traditional cake) in the restaurant at Galamadammen in Koudum. Then we got on board of one of the 4 ships and even before we left we got a "berenburg" (a traditional alcoholic drink with herbs, very strong!) (Gosh, before it was 11.00 a.m. we had had our first 2 drinks...) and after a special ritual to drink it we left to sail over the Ijsselmeer to Workum, which took us about 4 hours. We had a terrific lunch on board. The weather was not sunny unfortunatly, a little grey and cold, but it didn't rain, so we don't complain. The water was a little rough sometimes which made the waves go over the ship a few times and that made it really fun. On board was one real skipper, who kept an eye on everyting going right, but all the work had to be done by the guests. Erik had the pleasure of being the first mate (stuurman) for a big part of the trip and het really enjoyed it, even though he got really cold hands and he said navigating such a big ship is really difficult, he did a great job!

When we arrived in Workum they too us to the cafe and we where treated on drinks and "bitterballen" (a dutch warm snack with meat inside) and then we got tickets to visit the Jopie Huisman museum (a famous dutch painter).

The way back went over a few smaller lakes and when we arrived we were awaited with as much hering as we could eat and more :) hmmmm, I know that not dutch people think it's gros because it is raw fish but I realy like it. After that we had a delicious BBQ and buffet, the sun came out a little so we had dinner outside. The day ended at about 8.00 p.m. when everybody went home. We had a great time and looking forward to the next!!
Here some shots, I took loads :) To see some more you can visit my photoblog!





Today Marlijn's teachers were celebrating their birthdays and Marlijn went to school all dressed up! She wnated to be a little elf and this is the result! Isn't she adorable?!





TFL!
Birgit

It seems like my e-mail problems have been solved, luckely! I got some wonderful LO's for the challenge but people can still enter until midnight today....

Tomorrow I won't be home therefore I will announce the winner on wednesday, so make sure to stop by then and see all the beautiful work!

Marlijn's teachers are celebrating their birthdays on wednesday so Marlijn made them both a little gift insipred by the happy flowers of Anita.

Aren't they just adorable? Have to ask her to make me some too :)

About tomorrow... We (Erik and I) are invited by a company Erik works with to go sailing on the Frysian lakes tomorrow. How cool is that!? and not just sailing... lunch, dinner... everything is included. So we lay back, enjoy the sun and being on the water and get served. Hmmmm, very much looking forward to that :)

Last weekend we stayed at the camping place and had a great time. The weather was nice so we could be outside all day and that's what camping is about, isn't it?

Here just a few shots of the weekend:

Our place.

The view from our place, so much space and a little playground in the middle.

Marlijn is totaly happy with her new baby born buggy!

Jump!

hmmmm, kitkat ice cream!

Biking fun.

Horse back riding is really cool!

That's it for today, hope to make some nice shot's tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by!

Birgit

Please leave a link to your LO here!!!

OK, it seems like it could take a while before my e-mail problem will be solved so it might be a good idea like Pookiepie76 said in her comment on my last post to link all your LO's for the sletch challenge here. Leave a comment on this message and put a link in there to your LO posted in any gallery or on your own blog. If you're not able to do that then please send me a message at birgit.koopsen@tiscali.nl. Thanks!
Birgit

e-mail problems!

I'm having big problems with my server and therefore I don't receive and am not able to send any e-mails. If you e-mailed me and I didn't answer then it probably didn't arrive (yet). If there's anything important you want to let me know or ask, please contact me at birgit.koopsen@tiscali.nl But please don't use this adress for big files like LO's for the challenge since I don't have that much space in my inbox! I might postpone the date for the challenge if I don't get it fixed in time. If you have send me a LO but no reaction yet from me please leave a message here so I know of who I will receive something when my e-mail is back again and I can contact you if your message got lost!
Thanks! I'm sorry for the inconvenience!!
Birgit

Announcement

I’m happy to announce that I agreed to become a MLS teacher which means I will be able to teach more workshops in the future and I just love that.
Check out the Memory Lane Scrapbooking website and their talented DesignTeam or visit Danielle’s personal blog.
MLS is also responsible for the inspiring and challenging Dutch Dares. Every 2 weeks you’re challenged to make a LO with a specific theme or products and have the possibility to win a nice RAK!
So check it out and have fun!

Birgit

A wonderful weekend...

I had such a nice and fun weekend!!! I left friday morning and drove to Roelofarendsveen to meet up with Revlie and admire her beautiful new born son Ruben. He's a real cutie and very sweet. I also met Revlie's little girl Sanne who is a lively, funny, sweet little girl. We became friends instantly. You could tell she's trained by her mommy for taking pictures because every time I turned my camera her way she stopped doing what she was doing and sat or stood still to have her picture taken, lol. She also says the funniest things... She was watching revlie changing Rubens diaper and she said "look, he´s got an udder (uier)!" So try to keep your face straitgh then :). Before I knew it it was 2.30p.m. and I really had to go.

The expected time of arrival in Kortrijk was 5.00p.m. but the traffic was sooo busy and the weather sooo bad that it took me an hour more. Antwerpen was horrible, there was a traffic jam all through the city. But finally I arrived at Tiny's Hobby. I had a sandwich and then I installed myself in my room in the youth hostel nextdoor. The workshop started at 7.30p.m. and was a lot of fun. The sewing on the cover of the minibook took a little more time then I expected so that might not be the best option for another workshop but in the end everybody got her little book finished and it seemed to me that it was a succes!

I finally got to meet Kelly (right), Isolde (left) and Vanessa who i knew from the virtual world but not IRL and it was fun! They're all such nice, enthousiastic, friendly women and passionate scrappers too! So nice to meet them!
On saturday there where 8 demonstrations and some workshops in the store. Like other times there was taken really good care of us again. We had a terrific lunch and more snacks and drinks then is good for us :)
Saturday Kelly was also doing a demonstration, love her work and style wich is very personal with a lot of handwriting and bold colors! I also met Christie who was doing a demonstration. We knew each others names and work through our blogs but since she doesn't speak english and my french is good enough to do my grocceries in France but certainly not good enough to write messages on a blog we hadn't really had contact. Now, with some translaters help, we learned a little bit more about each other and I had the change to see her lovely work in real.
Saturday evening I met up with Tanya for dinner. Normally I see Tanya only 2 times a year at Kars events but she lives near by Kortrijk so it was a great oppertunity to meet up and have a nice evening. She picked me up at the youth hostel and we went to a great italian restaurant at the Grote Markt in Kortrijk for dinner, wine and a nice conversation. I had a lovely evening!
Sunday was mothersday and I was not home. And I wasn't the only mom demonstrating that could not be with her kids that day. They were so sweet at Tiny's to think about that and when we came in in the morning we got a little box with chocolate for mothersday and after lunch there was even a special mothersday cake. How thoughtful is that!?

Made these LO's and little book during the demo for the shop to keep.

Pictures on the first one are from Vicky, the shopowners daugther. Kind of scraplifted my own watersnake LO here, can you tell? :)

I left at 5.30p.m. to drive the long way home but this time the weather was great and it was so quiet on the road that even though I stopped at the border to get a big mac menu and a chocolate flavoured milkshake at MacDonalds I was home before 10.00p.m.
Can you imagine I was tired??
So I had a wonderful weekend and I was happy to hear that my family had a nice time too... NO idea how they managed without me, heehee. Feels good to be back home!

There will probably be more photo's later this week,since I'm expecting some by e-mail.

Ohh, and I got some very nice LO's for the challenge in my mailbox over the weekend. You can still join until next monday. Click here to find out more!

Have a great week, all of you!
Birgit

The struggle with a watersnake...

Today I've got a LO to share. These pictures drove me mad!!! Although I love bold and bright colors I'm not really a primary color fan. But what else would go with these colorful photo's? I seriously thought about changing the pictures to black and white but was afraid that they would lose the fun and summery feel. So it took me ages to find the right paper and then I struggled with the design. To make a long story short... it took me almost 1,5 day to finish this, but hey... am I happy with it :) The easiest way would have been to put the pictures aside and just start something else... I'm glad I didn't!!




Thanks for looking! I'm leaving tomorrow morning and will be back sunday evening late. Hope to tell all about my weekend in Belgium on monday!

Didn't you notice the new challenge yet??? Check out my post of may 8th and join in, maybe this time you will be the winner of a nice RAK and if not you still will end up with a meaningful LO, so you can't loose really! :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Birgit

There's a new workshop coming up!
Dates are june 12th and 20th.
Check it out here!

A new challenge!

Today I've been preparing kits for the workshop coming weekend in Belgium. I'm looking forward to that because I know I will meet some people I "know" from the virtual world but never met in real. That should be fun!
Besides that I always enjoy working at Tiny's Hobby so I expect to have a nice weekend ahead.
On the way over there I will stop by in Roelofarendsveen to visit Revlie and her new born baby boy Ruben. That's halfway my 5 hour trip so a nice break on the long drive.

I want to share a few photo's of Marlijn and the baby goat that my sister took this weekend. 2 of the baby goats unfortunatly didn't make it, they were just to weak and small. 3 babies is a little much for a goat and this was her first pregnancy.
But Marlijn didn't even miss the other 2. The weather was nice enough for the goats to be outside and Marlijn and her nephew Tim just couldn't get enough of playing with the little one :)
And, to be honest, I think she's adorable too!

I thought it was about time to do a new challenge so I made a sketch based on my LO "Zusjes/Sister" wich was in the User Highligths Gallery at 2Peas on NSD.
You have until monday may 21th, midnight (dutch time) - which is almost 2 weeks -to send in your LO made using the sketch.

The theme must be 2 people who are special to each other. That can be you and your partner,

your daugther with her best friend, your son with his grandpa, whatever.. as long as they have a special bond for some reason.
You can send your LO to scrappen@birgitkoopsen.nl and of course there will be a RAK again for the most creative and original approche.
Hope to receive LOTS of LO's!

OK, that's it for now. I have a lot of catching up to do on all your blogs so I'm off to check them out now :)

Have a nice evening,
Birgit

It's National Scrapbooking Day!

I’m back! I had a wonderful vacation, we went with my whole family in law which means 20 people. The youngest is 1,5 month and the oldest 68. We do this every year in may vacation and it is always fun!
The weather was just gorgeous, almost summer. We lived outside the whole week, we only went inside in the evening after dinner when it started to get cold because it still is just spring.
At the end of the week we all looked like we went to Gran Canaria in stead of Assen, lol!



The house was nice and had enough room but the garden was even better, it was huge with a lot of grass. Space enough for the kids to play soccer, ride their bike (the little kids) and to play in the pool we bought.





We went shopping in Assen, made boat rides on the Zuidlaardermeer (a lake near by) with my BIL’s boat and a little extra boat we rented, the kids played in the wonderful playgrounds in the park, the boys rented a tennis court one time and the kids rented “bike-cars” (have no idea how to call it in English, sorry :)), they went swimming in the nice swimming pool and in the little lake at the camping place, they played ping-pong and much, much more… so you will understand that we had a great time.

We were all sorry that it was over but all good things come to an end they say…. Makes us looking forward to next year already!

Now we’re back home and I have piles and piles of laundry waiting to be done, a workshop to be prepared, loads of e-mails to be answered a.s.o. Vacation is over but the good mood it gave will stay for a while and the next vacation is coming soon already.

We loved the park and camping place so much that we decided to go camping there over Hemelvaart and Pinksteren (Ascension Day and Whitsun) which means that we will have four days at Ascension day (a long weekend) then we go home for 1 week and leave the caravan there. We will go back the Friday before Whitsun and the following week we have vacation. That is, Lennart, Marlijn and I have a vacation. Anne has to go to school from Tuesday to Friday but since the camping place is not that far from Groningen (where she goes to school) Erik will bring her in the morning, drive home to work and pick her up in the afternoon when school’s out and they come back to the camping place. Very much looking forward to it!

At 2Peas they’re celebrating National Scrapbooking Day (NSD) today and therefore opened a special section on the message board for all kinds of special things like contests, sales and more.
One of the specials is a User Highlights Gallery in which you can see LO’s of 2Peas users picked by the GardenGirls. And guess what…. One of them is mine! My LO, called *Zusjes* (*Sisters* ) was picked by Kim Heffington and she wrote a sweet note to go along with it. Check it out here! How cool is that?!

OK, I’m off to do my laundry, sigh… Hope you all have a wonderful, sunny weekend!

Birgit