My scrappin' life

Craftorij Event/ArtFusion - Workshops with Nat Kalbach And Me - June 13-14

Wouldn't you LOVE to get away from everyday normal for a day or two? A day or a weekend all for yourself, being amongst people that have the same passion for their hobby as you have? Just let go of everything and only focus on getting paint on your paper, create something beautiful and getting your hands dirty? Does that sound like a dream?? …. it doesn't have to be just a dream because Nathalie Kalbach, de Craftorij in Ede (The Netherlands) and I teamed up for a dream weekend!

You can book the whole package, which means you will have both days of workshops, stay in the hotel, food included, no dishes, no house keeping, no worries, just dig in the creating process deep!

Or you can choose to come only on the saturday or the sunday, or even come both days but sleep in your own bed. 

 

On Saturday Nat and I will be teaching the whole day a mono printing workshop together, each with our own personal and specific style and techniques. See more details on the poster below:

On Sunday we will both teach our own art journal class, so you will have two different classes, one with me and one with Nat. 

 

It starts the moment you sit down, an experience that is distinctly Art Journaling. A quick exhilaration, a sense of control, the art media’s surprising responsiveness as if they were simply an extension of you.
There is a word for this creative experience: Artvergnugen! Artvergnugen is what makes your journal a piece of art.
Join Nathalie for a half-day workshop and play with different art media and supplies. Learn techniques, tips and tricks to take your art journaling further and turn it into Artvergnugen.

Does that sound like heaven to you? For all the info and to sign up you can go to the Craftorij website HERE. In Dutch and English.

The Craftorij crew, Nathalie and I would definitely love to see you there!

Love,

Artfusion In Finland And The Netherlands - June 2015

Two years ago in 2013 Nathalie and I organized our Artfusion event in Utrecht, the Netherlands and it was a big success. We had an amazing group of people who joined us for 1 or 2 days of inspiration, techniques, fun, laughter, dirty hands and more. People from all over Europe, it was quite a mixed company which made it even more fun.

Last year people asked us if we would organize it again but since Nathalie had just moved to the States that was sadly enough not an option. In the Netherlands that is, because I went to visit Nat in September and the 2 of us got to teach a mini Artfusion of one day at the Inkpad in New York City, which was awesome!

We decided that we definitely should do Artfusion in Europe again if we got the chance and here we are! With not 1 but 2 Artfusion Events in June. One in Finland called Matka Luovuuteen and one in The Netherlands called De Craftorij Retreat/Artfusion. For both events you should be prepared for messy happiness… or happy messiness :D

FINLAND

JUNE 6-7

The first one is in Turku, Finland, where Minna and Elina will be our lovely hosts. The event is on a boat where people can spent the night. The boat is lying in the harbor of beautiful Turku.

You can find all the info about time, place, registration a.s.o. HERE. I Finnish and English.

And these are the classes we have planned for you:

On day one Nat and I will be teaching the whole day of mono printing together, each with our own personal and specific style and techniques. 

The second day we will both teach our own art journal class. 

 

It starts the moment you sit down, an experience that is distinctly Art Journaling. A quick exhilaration, a sense of control, the art media’s surprising responsiveness as if they were simply an extension of you.

There is a word for this creative experience: Artvergnugen! Artvergnugen is what makes your journal a piece of art.

Join Nathalie for a half-day workshop and play with different art media and supplies. Learn techniques, tips and tricks to take your art journaling further and turn it into Artvergnugen.

THE NETHERLANDS

JUNE 13-14

For the second one we teamed up with De Craftorij, a mixed-media craft store in Ede, The Netherlands. We will have a joined event called De Craftorij Retreat/Artfusion. 

The workshops will be the same as in Finland. Day one Nat and I teach a mono printing class together and on day 2 you will get 2 separate workshops from each of us (see above).

For all the info on the Dutch event and to sign up you can go to the Craftorij website HERE. In Dutch and English.

We would be thrilled to see you there!

Love,

Toronto And New York Workshops In September - Bizzy B's And The Ink Pad

I am thrilled and very excited that I will be teaching in Toronto and New York in September!!

First I will come to Bizzy B's in Toronto where I will teach the weekend of September 19-21.

You can join me for my Technique Tags class on Friday evening (9/21) from 6.30-10.00.

During this workshop you will create a couple of beautiful large tags but more important you will learn a variety of mixed media techniques using IZinks, gesso, modeling paste, embossing powders, stamps and stencils. Besides that you will learn how to heat emboss on adhesive foam sheets and add stunning texture to them plus the amazing things you can do with Shimmer Sheetz. The learned techniques can be used in all kinds of projects, whether it are scrapbook pages, cards, art journal pages, canvasses or mini albums. You will use IZinks for coloring, they are very versatile, are highly pigmented and have beautiful colors. Find out about the many ways that you can use IZinks to create colorful, textured and artsy projects.

 

 

On Saturday (9/20) I will be teaching my "For the Love of Layers" workshop. This is a whole day workshop which runs from 10.30 am until 4.30 pm.

In this class you will work with acrylic paint, stamps and stencils. You will learn how to build up a number of layers to create an interesting, playful and artsy look. You can choose your own favorite colors and create a painting in your own unique style.

When the rough work is done you will use Posca pens to add details and interest. Important part of this workshop is that you let go of control and go with the flow. You will start this project without thinking and just see where the colors and shapes take you. It might sound scary but you will experience how relaxed this way of working is!

 

Here are some examples of paintings made with the techniques used in this class.

 

 

 

 

The third workshop, "Embossing and Beyond" will be on Sunday (9/21) from 12.30-5.30 pm.

In this class you will create a little mini book filled with a variety of embossing techniques and more.

We will do layered embossing, multicolor embossing, embossing with stencils, a combination of dry and hot embossing and resist embossing. Besides that you will learn how to use transfer foil to add beautiful shine and color to your projects. With a different technique on every page you will learn to bring embossing to a higher level!

 

 

 

Please visit Bizzy B's website for more details and to sign up! I would love to see you there!!

 

 

After this weekend I will fly to New York to spent a week with my sweet friend Nathalie Kalbach and I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm looking forward to that!! I know for sure that we will have an awesome week filled with laughter, chatting, walking, sightseeing.... 

 

At the end of the week Nathalie and I will teach our mini Art Fusion Event at The Ink Pad in NYC.

On Sunday September 28 we will both be teaching one class. You can join me in the morning for my "For the Love of Layers" class and then join Nathalie in the afternoon for her "Walk with Me; Altered Book" class.

 

(See above (Toronto classes) for more details)

 

 

I hope you will join us for a fun and artistic day! Just be prepared to get your hands dirty :)

For more info and to sign up please visit The Ink Pad's website!

 

I would love to welcome you in one of my classes :)

Happy crafting!

 

 

WOW! Embossing And Beyond Mini Album - A Peek Inside And Some Great Links!

Hello and welcome to my blog! I hope you are all enjoying a fabulous weekend!

Today I want to share with you some peeks inside my Embossing And Beyond Mini Album. I taught this workshop at the Artfusion Event that Nathalie Kalbach and I organized last June. It was also an inspiration piece for the Take It, Make It Challenge on the Craft Stamper Blog based on an colorful layered embossing article I did for the June issue of Craft Stamper Magazine. Check it out, there is a challenge on the CS blog every month with great prizes to be won!

The mini is filled with a variety of embossing techniques and will take you a step further then "just" embossing a stamped image using WOW! Embossing Powder and WOW! FabFoil. You should definitely check out the WOW! blog for great inspration. You will find many techniques, fun ideas and great projects created by the amazing WOW! DT!

You can follow WOW! on a.o. FB, twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. You can find all these links and more here!

It was a fun workshop to teach although we probably could have used a little more time. I'm considering teaching this in my own studio in the near future too but might turn it into a day workshop.

More details on the date a.s.o. will follow later :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

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Fabulous Techniques with Fab Foil - My Creative Jumpstart 2013 Video

Thank you card for WOW! Embossing Powder

Artfusion 2013, an amazing and inspirational experience!

Last Friday my sweet friend Nat Kalbach and I finally met in Utrecht for our Artfusion 2013 Mixed Media Event. We had been planning, organizing and looking forward too it for months and now we were there!

After I picked up Nat from the railway station we went to the location to unpack my car that was loaded as if I was going on a 3 weeks vacation with my whole family :)

The location was artsy and fitted the artfusion feel we had in mind for the event but I have to say it was quite a challenge to create a seat and a place to work on for everyone but we managed, LOL!

After a very short night and totally excited we returned there Saturday morning to do the last preparation and get ready for the guest to arrive. What a fun, mixed group of people came in around 9 am! We had girls from all parts of the Netherlands, Finland, the UK, Sweden and some girls living in the Netherlands but originally coming from Israël and Spain. 33 ladies in total! They all blended together, shared their passion for mixed media art and inspired each other and us! It was so much fun to see all the different approaches to the projects Nat and I taught. There was so much humor and laughing and dirty hands. It was lovely meeting up again with people I met on previous events and workshop and also get to know new people that I only met online before!

Minna, I hope it is ok I took some pictures from your blog :)

Thanks to all our great sponsors we had a small goodie bag for everyone at entrance and also a give away for each and every attendee during lunch, which made the event even more fun!

Besides that we had a lovely kit to give to the winner of the name badge contest on both days and a great price to give away during the crop evening.

After the workshops were finished we went to dinner with some of the girls that stayed the whole weekend and then went back to the location to crop. Around 10 pm everybody was so tired that we decided to go back to our hotels and get some sleep. I went to bed with the happy feeling of having another great day ahead!

On Sunday we had a bit smaller but just as fun group with some new people. Again it all blended together and everybody was having a good time! There were more give aways for everyone and there was a really relaxed atmosphere. 

Around 5 pm we closed the door, hugged and kissed and said goodbye and we all went home. I felt tired but satisfied and happy. I had an amazing weekend!

I want to thank Nat for doing this with me. You are a wonderful friend, teacher and artist, Nat and it was lovely doing this together and spending the weekend with you! Hopefully we will see each other again soon! I also want to thank all the lovely ladies who attended our weekend and thereby made it possible! Thank you for your enthousiasme, the laughs, the help with making coffee, lunch and cleaning up and all the sweet messages we received afterwards!! It was great to meet you all and I hope we all will see each other again one day!

And finally a huge thank you to all our lovely sponsors who helped making this weekend a succes! WOW! Embossing Powders, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM, Craft Stamper Magazine, Scrap 365, Histoires de Pages, Cocoa Daisy, SODAlicious, Sizzix, Stencil Girl Products, Prima, Revlie Schuit and PanPastel!!

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Artfusion 2013 Recap or...Going Dutch is fun!

Artfusion 2013, We Heard You!!

Yes, we did! On our announcement of the Artfusion Event we planned we got a lot of comments about the location. Many of you asked us why we didn’t plan it somewhere in the middle of the Netherlands. It would be easier for you to get there and it would also increase the travel distance/time for a lot of you. Also we heard that April was already so full of events and stuff.

And we agree! So we decided to postpone the event and find a better location. We think we found the perfect place!

Artfusion will now take place June 15-16 in the middle of the lovely city of Utrecht. Being a big railways junction in the Netherlands and only 45 minutes by train from Schiphol airport we think Utrecht is one of the best places we could have chosen.

The facility (Kade Ateliers) is a canal house at the Leidsekade 17, near the center of Utrecht where we have the availability of 2 lovely, light rooms. As we see it, we have all the ingredients for an amazing creative weekend on hand here.

 

Check out the Artfusion blog for al the information about the workshop, schedule and prices!

We would love to meet you there for some Artfusion!

Birgit and Nathalie

Art Fusion - Mixed Media Event in the Netherlands with Nat Kalbach and Birgit Koopsen (that's me :))

Yes, finally we get to announce our little secret :)

The date was set for ages, the plans were there even longer, we just had to make it concrete and now we did!

The weekend of April 13-14 my sweet friend Nat Kalbach is coming to my home village Winsum in the Netherlands where she and I will be teaching together on our Mixed Media Event called Art Fusion! You can find all about Nat, her awesome colorful mixed media art and all her amazing initiatives (like Creative Jump Start) right here: Nathalie's Studio!

 

A fusion of nationalities, styles and art media brought to you in 4 workshops. There will be 2 workshops on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. 

The exact location will depend on the number of attendees but it will be in Winsum which is easy accessible by car, train and bus.

We started a blog where you soon can find all the information regarding workshops, time tables, prices etc. and you can find it here!

We would love to welcome and inspire you!