My scrappin' life

I still do! a layout using WOW! embossing powders

 

Ahhhh, finally summer arrived in our part of the world! And isn't it lovely!?

I so much enjoy the sunshine and the warmth! Anne is studying for her exams in the garden, getting a nice tan. Doors and windows open all day, laundry hanging in the back yard, walking barefooted all day, Marlijn going to the swimming pool...

Anne and I just said to each other this morning, we wish it would go on like this until about october :)

The layout I'm sharing today was made for WOW! Embossing Powder. My husband and I are together for 26 years and in march we celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. 

Let me show you how I created this page. First I sprayed glimmer mist at the top of the paper and dragged the paint down the page using a bank card. I stamped the heart with Versamark and embossed it with WOW! Primary Ebony. 

After that I stamped the heart a second time on scrap paper and cut out the inner part with a craft knife. Now I could use it as a mask laying it on top of the embossed heart.

   

I put a piece of Punchanella on top of the mask and filled the dots with Versamark using a piece of blending foam. 

Then I took away the punchanella and the mask and embossed the dots with Suzy West Honey.

   

After that I put the mask back on top and sprayed the heart with glimmer mist. The embossed parts work as a resist. If I would have put a piece of kitchen paper on top after spraying the dots would have been totally clean. But I like how some of the glimmer mist pools in the lower parts of the embossed texture and wanted to keep it that way so I let it dry by air to get this specific look. 

   

To create the black letters on the tag I traced them with an embossing pen and then embossed them with WOW! Primary Ebony. 

   

To add the blue color on the edges of the heart I used a brush and glimmer mist.

Finally I placed a piece of torn scrap paper just below the top of the page and stamped along the top using the Vintage Wallpaper stamp set with Versamark and then embossed with WOW! Primary Ebony again.

The little stars were made using Punchanella and Stazon ink.

 

   

I hope you liked my little tutorial and found some inspiration to use WOW! on your own layouts!

 

Slush Puppy Fun

Hi everyone!

I hope your all enjoying a nice 4-day weekend! I am! Especially the lovely weather which is much better than expected.

Today i want to share with you a layout I created for the Scrapbook Adhesives^TM by 3L blog.

I used my E-Z Runner Permanent to adhere pieces of book paper on the cardstock, Then I put stripes of Washi tape around the book paper and let some Wild Plum glimmer mist run down the page. Then I used the E-Z Runner to put the the paper circles and the picture on top. It is so easy applying the adhesive around the round edges! I also used this for the paper embellishments.

For the heavier embelishments I used Crafty Power Tape, one of my all time favorites. This adhesive is so strong and so easy to use. I even used it to adhere the heart jewel.

For the flowers and the word awesome I used 3D Foam Squares – White, Regular Size. They are great to add some depth to your page. I also used them for the buttons and the metal number that has a gap on the backside that needed to be filled in order to be able to apply it to the page. The foam squares filled the gap and stuck the number to the page at the same time.

Finally I used DODZ™ for the the flies in the middle of the page. I made these by hand with wire and beads a long time ago and just found them again while I was looking for something else. Happy findings! :)

Products used in this layout:

 

And here is a little something I created yesterday. Check back later to see what I used them for :)

Wishing you all a lovely, sunny and creative weekend!

Art journal pages with WOW! embossing powder

Today Powder Puff Girls team blog post is up on the WOW! embossing powders blog and here is my project:

The background was a result of Nat and Julie's "Second Floor-challenge". The challenge was to use something from your stash that you had never used before. I had 2 boxes with effect salt lying around for about 2 years and never even opened them. I just splashed some Ecoline in my art journal and sprinkled salt in the wet ink to see what would happen. I wasn't to impressed with the effect at first and put the pages aside, moving on to something new.

But they were still somewhere in the back of my mind and then i found the MM masking tape on the bottom of one of my drawers and I thought that might look good on those un-used salted pages.... and that's how these pages were born.

I used a dress doll shape from Basically Bare and covered the top part and the bottom part with Versamark (I did not color the cardboard shape) and embossed it with WOW! Clear gloss ultra high. I sprinkled tiny little glass beads in the heated embossing powder while it was still hot and fluid. Then I painted the skirt with acrylic paint and stamped on it with Versamark using the WOW! Vintage wallpaper stamp. I embossed it with WOW! Earthtone Honey regular. The stars behind the dress form where made using Punchanella and Versamark and then also embossed with WOW! Earthtone Honey regular.

Thank you for stopping by today! Hope you have a wonderful and creative weekend!

A hate and love affair...

Deadlines... hate them!

They make me nervous and the closer the date gets the more it freaks me out. Because I always start last minute working on the projects.

Well, why don't you start early, I hear you say! Don't you know long enough in advance that the deadline is coming? 

Yes, most of the times I do know long enough in advance that a deadline is coming. For my DT's I have set dates to blog or I get a calender at least a month before. For assignments I usually know at least 2 weeks up front. 

I tell myself over and over again to start early, to get it done so I don't have to worry about it anymore! So I can sleep at night, in stead of worrying about them! What if I get sick, what if something get's in the way?

I sometimes see other people having scheduled their blog posts weeks before they're due, while I'm typing it the day that it has to go up. Makes me feel bad...

April 15th I have a deadline for a major project. I talked about it in my "Challenging myself..." blog post a couple of days ago.

I spoke about how I had all these awesome goodies to work with and still I didn't get anything done... Well, I still did not get ANYTHING done and April 15th is in less than 2 weeks.... Yikkes!

But the point is - and that is what I realize now - I NEED those deadlines! When I reach the point that I can't postpone it any longer, when I totally freak out because I'm sure I won't get it done in time, exactly at that moment when I sit down - desperate - because I HAVE to do it now, that's when the ideas come! And usually then I get it done in no time. And when I'm done I realize that I would never ever have made the project the way I did now if I had started earlier because at that point I didn't have these ideas yet. Funny huh?

Now, knowing that, deadlines will no longer have to bother me, I now know that it will all turn out fine in the end! Right? So relax! I just hope my nervous mind will believe me when I tell myself it's ok to relax, that it's ok to sleep :)

So if you ever want me to do anything for you, don't leave it up to me when to do it. Because then you will never get your project. Give me a deadline!

Because deadlines... love them!! LOL!

Now, because I don't like blog posts without pictures I will leave you with a tag I made for the Powder Puff Girls team post on the WOW! Embossing Powders blog last Saturday: 

I used a printed label (7Gypsies) that I wanted to add color too but I didn't want the color of the words "Life is good" to change. So I covered the letters with embossing ink using an embossing pen. Then I used WOW! Clear Gloss Super Fine to emboss the letters. I did the same with the clock face.

After tha,t I stamped on the upper half of the label with the WOW! Vintage Wallpaper stamp using black embossing ink (Exquisite from Ecogreen Crafts) and embossed this too with the Clear Gloss Super Fine. I also did that with the little metal wheel I added to the clock face.

After all parts were embossed I used distress inks (Ranger) and a piece of blending foam to color in the rest of the label. The embossed parts act as a resist and the distress inks will not stick to that. After adding the color just gently whip the surface with a piece of kitchen paper.

The label was finished with some rub-ons, cute paper birds and a piece of ribbon.

Make sure to visit the WOW! blog for tons and tons of inspiration!

A layout and a 30 minute mini book out of one sheet of paper

This month we had a fun blog hop at the Crafty Power blog together with Fancy Pants. 

My first project is a layout for which I used Fancy Pants beautiful “It’s the little things“-line. And ain’t that true!! Most times it’s the little things in life that bring us the most joy and happiness!

Like our little parakeet that became so tame that it would sit on my daughters shoulder. It made her very happy and gave her much joy!

Something else that might seem as just a little detail but that can make a big difference is your adhesive.

You might think that all adhesives are the same, as long as they stick it’s ok, right? …NO WAY!

Once you’ve used SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES by 3L™ products you will know the difference and you will realize that having really good adhesives while crafting can make you extremely happy! 

SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES by 3L™ products are easy to work with, they have wonderful stickiness (even after a long time your projects will not fall apart!), tape runners will not break… I can go on and on telling you about how much I love these products but you should try them yourself and you’ll be convinced!

So, now on to the layout I created 

To apply the paper to the background, for the picture and the doily I used MyStik™ Permanent Strips Dispenser.

I used 3D foam squares for all the die cut pieces to add some depth to the layout.

For the small parts, like the letters of the word “Happy” that were even to small for the little 3D Foam Squares I used Crafty Foam Tape that I cut in the right size.

At the bottom I created a textured border using Photo Corners, classic white. In previous projects I have sprayed photo corners with glimmer mist to make them fit my project but in this case I liked them just the way they are!

Adhesives used in this layout:

And still being in the Fancy Pants mood I decided to use their fun materials for my second post this month too!

So, how to create a mini-album out of one 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper?

OK, plus some journal and design embellishments and a 1/2 transparent sheet… But hey, the base of this little book is really just one sheet of paper.

I took the “card” sheet of the “it’s the little things“-line and covered the back with an Adhesive Sheet 12×12. Then I cut all the cards loose and backed them together 2 by 2, creating 6 double sided pages. Quick and easy!

Then I cut a half flocked transparency in 4 pieces the same size as the little cards and tucked them in between. I folded and glued together some journal embellishments and tucked them in between too. Some of the folded journal embellishments I slided over the edge of the transparencies, then glued them down using a MyStik™ Permanent Strips Dispenser .

Finally I embellished the pages with little design embellishments and rubons.

The die cut on the front cover was applied using 3D foam squares – white, regular size.

I used 2 little black tie-ribs to bind the book.

Adhesives used in this project:

  

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

Love canvas with WOW! embossing powder

Hi there!

Today I want to share with you a little love canvas I created for the WOW! embossing powder CHA booth.

I first covered the canvas with tags, a doily and pieces of book paper. On top I put a thin layer of Gesso leaving some parts of book print uncovered. On those parts I stamped with bubble wrap and Versamark and embossed it with WOW! clear gloss regular. This keeps the book print visible and creates a resist for the Tattered Angels glimmer mist that I sprayed on top.

I layered a piece of Punchenella (Sequin waste) as a mask in the left upper corner and filled a couple of spots with Versamark and then embossed it with WOW! Metallic Silver regular.

After spraying the whole canvas with glimmer mist I took a little piece of cardstock, used my crop-a-dile to punch out a couple of little holes and layered it on the canvas. I filled in the holes with Versamark, removed the cardstock mask and embossed the little circles with Suzy West Whirly Pop regular.

A heart cut from book paper was sprayed with glimmer mist. I put a piece of Punchenella on top and filled it with Versamark and embossed it with Suzy West Presidio Purple regular.

I stamped some swirls (from the WOW! Build a Butterfly stamp set) in the right lower corner and embossed them with Suzy West Bay Area Blue regular.

All 4 sides of the canvas where covered with Versamark going to the front of the canvas in some places and then embossed with WOW! Metallic Silver Regular.

The canvas was completed with rub-ons and crystal angel wings.

I hope this inspires you to use embossing powders in you mixed-media projects and art-journals!

Enjoy!

Ready for ScrapMe Vienna!

Yes, I'm ready! Suitcases packed, boarding pass printed, everything ready,,,

Tomorrow morning Erik and Marlijn will bring me to Amsterdam airport (it's spring vacation), my plane will leave at 11.45h :)

Looking forward to a fun weekend teaching with my sweet friend Nat!

But before I leave I HAVE to do a post. Two days ago my hubby tells me it's about time I blog, the last post is from february 13. Are you kidding? LOL!

But he is right, so let me share some Tattered Angels projects today that I created for the TA booth at CHA.

The first one is a layout created with Canvas Corp products.

The clock face was first stamped with a screen and Island Spring glaze and then sprayed with Sprout Chalkboard.

The flower was sprayed with Pop Rocks and Cupid glimmer mist and then covered with a layer of Pixie Dust glam. For the paper and tag I used Pop Rocks, Cupid and Turqoise. The doilies behind the clock face were first lightly covered with Pixie Dust glam and then sprayed with Pop Rocks.

The canvas (12×12) was made with Plain Jane products. In case you don’t know, Plain Jane is a range of 3 new paint products that have been revealed at CHA, These are plain products which means as much as similar to the already existing products only without the glimmer. Tattered Angels has now Simply Sheer which can be compared with Glimmer Mist, Stained Glass which can be compared with Glam and Baseboard which can becompared with Chalkboard.

Used on this project are Stained Glass Yellow and Red, Baseboard Red Rocks and Simply Sheer Pink, Light Blue, Teal and Shade. For the stems and the leaves i used Sprout Chalkboard.

I first applied tags to the canvas and covered everything with Gesso, then I used a screen and the Yellow Stained Glass to stamp on the tags. After the stained glass had dried I sprayed the canvas with the Simply Sheer and the Baseboard.

I sprayed Canvas Corp Tissue paper with Simply Sheer, stamped on it and then cut out circles in different sizes to create the flowers. The metal buttons in the center of the flowers are colored with Stained Glass.

I used book paper sprayed with Sprout Chalkboard for the stems and the leaves. I added some extra color to them by rubbing them with a Olive green distress ink pad.

Finally I added rubons and cut out stamped letters to finish the canvas.

That's it for now! Wishing you all a wonderful and creative weekend ahead!

The whole shebang at Creabest, a Finnish advertisement and a blog hop on the WOW!-blog

Good news for those of you who wanted to come to "The whole shebang"-workshop at Scrap-4-fun or in my studio but were either to late to sign up or couldn't make it.

I will be teaching this workshop at Creabest in Ommen on May 19.

We will be working with the new WOW! embossing powders and a variety of Tattered Angels products.

There are only 15 places available this day so if you're interested don't wait to long! :)

 

As you might know my amazing friend Revlie and I will be teaching at the Intohimona Skräppäys event in Finland, april 21-22.

A Finnish magazine called Ihana decided to make some advertisement for this event :) 

The title is freely translated "Come to learn from the internatiomal scrapbooking stars!"

The area in the middle contains the time table of the courses and some general info about the IS event. Around it is the courses with their little images and the texts translated into Finnish. 

At the top of the page is a short bio of both of us.

"Revlie Schuit is an artist and scrapbooker form the Netherlands. Revlie loves to create colourful minialbums. In her works she uses fabric, felt and embroidery together with the tradiotionel scrapbooking supplies. Revlie's blog is: http://..."

And the text next to my photo is: "Birgit Koopsen is an experienced educator and scrapbooking teatcher. She has held courses for seven years both in her home studio and in fairs around the world. Birgit is also a Prima educator and part of TA and 3L design teams. Birgit is interested in the multitude of techniques in scrapbooking as well as of preserving the every day life for generations to come. Birgit's blog: http://..."

Now how fun is that?? Thank you Riikka for sending me this!

Last but not least I want to share with you today is that we are having a blog hop over at the WOW! embossing powder blog! 

•  It started with Anne yesterday. Leave comments on hers and then do the same with Irit Shalom. http://www.wowembossingpowders.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-heart-takes-wing.html

  

  WOW Embossing Powder: My heart takes wing...

  wowembossingpowders.blogspot.com

 

 

Just a quick post...

to say I'm still alive! :)

CHA was amazing! I had a wonderful time! I arrived on friday afternoon at LAX where Christine from Treasured Memories picked me up. 

The workshops in her store the next day went great. Maybe a little to much presure to get it all done but everybody seemed excited and happy about what they had learned and created!

Thank you Christine, for all the good care and the fun and the stories about your Dutch roots. I had a great time, hope to come back one day!

On saturday evening Christine and her girls gave me a ride to my hotel in Anaheim and dropped me of with my bestie Nat Kalbach who was my room mate for the rest of the week. Loved spending the week with you girlie!!

I don't know about other people but for me the show was great!!

I attended some very interesting and inspiring workshops, found some great new products to play and work with, made some good new contacts, taught make-and-takes at the Prima booth and at Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L had dinnesr and drinks with a bunch of fun friends, did not make enough pictures and met a lot of people I only new from the message boards and FB. So nice to finally get to know them in real. Had breakfast at Starbucks every morning and way to little sleep, but i made up for that when I got home.

So, to make a long story short... it was awesome and I really, really hope I can go again next year!

Now, I can't show any of the projects I created for CHA since they first have to be up on the manufacturers blogs, but I have a layout that was posted on the Crafty Power blog (Scrapbook Adhesives) just before I left.

Imaginisces Hippity Hop paper line is fun, colorfull, fresh and happy! And they are teaming up with Scrapbook Adhesives this month!

It was a joy creating a layout with this spring themed paper and all the lovely extras! The doilies where sprayed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist Key Lime Pie and Trunk Bay/Dragonfly.

I used MyStik repositionable dots dispenser to apply the white cardstock to the background paper. It’s always a little tricky to get such a big sheet in the middle of another sheet and using the repositionable MyStik allowes me to take it of and try again if I mess up

Since I was going to sew around the edges I didn’t need to use permanent adhesive too. I you don’t want to use you simply lift up the edges if the paper is in the right place and add adhesive using the MyStik permanent strips dispenser.

This last one I used for everything else, except for the birdcage, the little bunny, the nest and the title. For those I used Crafty Foam Tape.

The colored text strips are made in Word. Open a text box on your page, choose a background color. Set your font color to white and type your text. Print it on photo paper (that will give you the brightest colors and a nice shine) and cut in strips.

If you don’t have the skills or the tools to print a picture in black and white with just one part in color (just like me ) don’t worry. I colored the eggs with Letraset Aquamarkers. 

That's it for today! Hope to be back soon!

For now I wish you all a lovely weekend, hope you create something nice while I'm preparing kits for Pour l'Amour du Scrap next week in Lille, France! Maybe I'll see you there! :)

WOW embossing powder DT-call!!

Tonight I'm leaving for CHA! Very exciting! I will spent de night at Schiphol Airport and fly tomorrow morning.

I kind of freaked out this morning... when checking in online I got a message that the bank had not confirmed my payment and I could not continue check-in. Whaaattt??? I booked this flight in september, I have a confirmation, what the...???

It appeared to be a failure on the KLM website and all was fine, pfffff!

Anyway... Im very happy and excited to announce that I'm now an endorsed educator for WOW embossing powder! How cool is that??! The WOW and Suzy West collection is truly amazing. A huge variety of colors in gloss and puff, fine and regular and Ultra High. There is always a powder that fits your project! 

Now, if you're reading this and think I want to be a WOW educator and/or DT member too, here's some great news!

WOW is looking to add 2-4 new members to the team! Go to the blog for all the details. Good luck!