I was cleaning out my digital art drawer and came across a linocut that I never finished. It's a print of pirate pistols that I made years ago to gift our friend Lu for his birthday.



He has a pirate themed cellar with a bar, so it would fit perfectly in there. But at the time I couldn't find a good frame that fitted the old pirate look... so he never got it!

flower girl

It's been a while since I posted here!

I had a lovely creative day yesterday that made me realize I haven't made anything in months, and that it's definitely time to pick that up again! So here we are... my latest little stamp, a flower girl.

member of the always tired club

Remember that I hoped and wished to make 2026 a year full of art? So far it's going great!



I added a new stamp to my always tired club. They are mostly self portraits in the form of cats!



And I also made stamps out of the MRMR logo in different sizes. To sign my prints with.

If you are also a member of the always tired club (because you have a chronic decease or are a parent that doesn't sleep that much...) and would like to have a card, write me a message! The only thing I ask in return is paying for the shipping costs.

happy birthday!

The daughter is turning 5 this week. And for this celebration I printed a card!

happy 2 0 2 6!

It hasn't been the best year for my art. I couldn't find headspace or time to make things. It's one of my intentions for 2026: make more art!

To kick of my year full of art, I made this new linocut.

The owl symbolizes deep knowledge, insight and intuition. That's what I hope the new year will bring you.

Owl wishes you a happy 2026!

pok, pok, pok

For February's goodies round, I made chickens! They ended up staying with me a little longer than planned, because I spent most of March battling all kinds of germs. I didn't mind them staying a little longer, because it's nice to have company!

Today they are finally flying off to their new owners.

for a book lover

For book lover Irene I made a custom ex libris stamp. Now she can give her books a personal print!

january's goodies

This month, I packed the goodies for the new round! For this round, I chose an “old favorite”: the henna series.

goodies, goodies, goodies

We're almost there, only two weeks to go, and then a new year will begin: 2025! And for that new year, I've come up with something new...

To keep myself busy making linocuts, stamps, and prints, I want to make it a goal to create something every month. It's a way to keep myself motivated to make it a creative year. And to make it extra fun, I want to make other people happy with it too. At least, that's what I hope ; )

If you sign up for my newsletter, you'll receive a note in your mailbox once a month. In this note, I'll share the goodies I'm making for the next month. These could be cards, stickers, or prints. And the only thing it will cost you to receive them is the shipping. I don't want to make any money from this. That's the idea behind it.



The carrier pigeon is flying around with the first goodies of this project! For the first round, I chose the Dala horse and the Christmas star ornaments.



As a 'pretty paper hoarder', I naturally wrapped it up nicely too!

it's beginning to look a lot like...

Do you remember when I made dalahäst horse ornaments for the Christmas tree two years ago?



This year, I'm going to expand the series. And the first ornament is a Christmas star!

i'm jumping!

My daughter is turning 4 soon. That means she will be off to primary school! And when someone leaves daycare to go to school, they gift their daycare friends a goodbye present. Since that day will come for us soon, I started crafting!



I bought this fun game at Hema. The frogs can jump when you press on their backs. The aim of the game is to get them all into the container.

I made a linocut of a frog and printed it. And then turned the container into a pond. This is what the first prototype looked like.



And here are the finished results! I still have to work on the last small details and pack them in cute gift bags. But I'm very pleased with the results!

kinderboekenweek

It's October again, and that means: Kinderboekenweek in The Netherlands!



My little goose is also participating.

hey seal

In October, we are going on our yearly trip with the friends group. This time we are going on a weekend trip to Friesland.

Last year we've also been there and visited the Pieterburen Seal Center. They take care of sick seals until they are healthy again and can go back to the sea.


Look how cute the are!



I really hope I can see them again this year on our trip! And if not, I made a linocut card to remember them.

i'm a member of...

I'm a member of the always tired club. Al-ways tired.

ex libris

You know what I REALLY love? Making personal ex libris stamps.



For the lovely Eleni and Liesbet I made these personal stamps. Coincidentally, they both have dark wavy hair!

chicks

Lonneke asked me to make her two stamps of chickens. A lovely assignment!



Of course I had to send it to her in a decorated envelope!

summer panda

Do you also see life through rose-colored glasses? This panda certainly does!

moth

I wanted to make a new card to send to my pen pals. I didn't know what to make and just started. It turned into a moth!

summer flowers

This year, I am participating in one of the Trage Post (Slow Mail) theme rounds for the first time. The theme of this round is summer. For eleven weeks, I will send a summery letter to someone from my group every week.

For me, summer means summer flowers! So I made a print that I will add to my letters.

day of the postman

Tomorrow it's the yearly 'day of the postman', where all delivery people are celebrated for their work. In honor of them I made a new stamp.



To all the mail carriers and parcel delivery drivers who deliver our mail and parcels in all kinds of weather. That deserves a mention, doesn't it? Thank you, delivery drivers!

lieveweesjbeesj

As my daughter would call it in kiddy Dutch: lieveweesjbeesjes. Or also: lieveheersbeestjes. A new stamp!



This is the first test print after I cut the lino.



First color test.



I love it when I have ink and paper in the same tones, so I can match everything.

baby bowie

You can't start early enough with stamping your books with an ex libris stamp ; )



For baby Bowie and his dad, I made this personalized ex libris stamp. Love them!

embroidery stork

During winter my hobbies are different from the ones in spring or summer. In winter, I love sitting on the couch with a blanket and do my embroidery crafts.

If you are familiar with embroidery, you will recognize these scissors directly.

kunstroute '23

Every other year, the municipality of Gulpen-Wittem hosts the Kunstroute during Pentecost. This year, I participated for the first time and was assigned to the location Gulper Hoes in Gulpen.

For the event, I made six prints in various sizes: of Gulpen, Wijlre, and Vaals and the iconic buildings that can be found in these villages. The prints are only available during the Kunstroute and can also be ordered througout June (if you were unable to visit the event). After that, I will no longer use the lino blocks to keep the prints exclusive.



Around a thousand people visited the location where I was standing. I had a nice chat with many of the people that visited, about cutting and printing linocuts. It was great to see that there was so a lot of enthusiasm for it and that almost everyone recognized it from “back in the day at school.” For those who dared, there was a lino block available to practice on.



My card rack was filled with new and older prints.



A big thank you to everyone who visited and to everyone who placed an order!

mother's day flowers

Mother's Day is slowly but surely approaching. To get a head start, I made the first cards today. Flowers in a watering can!



And an envelope with flowers.

sorry, busy printing!

Did I mention that I'm participating in the Kunstroute this year? It will take place at the end of May, when a new edition will be held in the Heuvelland region. And I'm really excited to be participating this year!

Over the past few months, I've been working on prints with an architectural theme. For the Kunstroute, you're free to exhibit whatever you want, but I thought it would be fun to stick to a single theme. So I chose buildings and villages from the Heuvelland region.



I made six prints in A4 and A3 format, and I am very happy with the end result!



I also printed cards of two of the bigger works. The first 100 visitors can take a card home with them.

If you happen to come by and have a look during the Pentecost weekend, I'll be at location 1 and you can't miss me! Because I'll be one of the first people you'll see at the location : )

yoga teacher thea

For yoga teacher Thea I made a stamp.

our easter branch

We've never actually made an Easter branch before. But now that we have a daughter, we think it would be nice to pass this tradition on to her. To decorate a branch every year. And to make fun things for it ourselves (any chance to be creative I will take!). So this year, we started this new tradition!



I cut some stamps.



And printed eggs.



There are two variations.



This is what they look like in the tree.



We added some cute chickens that we printed ourselves.



The daughter painted eggs.



How cute!

kiekeboe!

Three more prints in the daughter series are ready! I started sketching them a while ago, but I wasn't completely satisfied with them. In cases like this, it's often good to put them aside for a while and look at them again later. Then suddenly, it all comes together!



The first print is the daughter running after birds. She calls out “oogel” (vogel, bird) or “pietje” (Limburgish dialect for bird).



The second print is the daughter with her favorite plushy, monster. He looks like a bat, but his name is Bear. Bear used to always go to daycare with her, but now he stays at home in bed. Not that she sleeps with him. She prefers to throw Bear out of her bed when she wakes up!



And the latest addition to the daughter book in the making is peekaboo! We play that almost every day, in different variations. Sometimes, when we're sitting at the table for dinner, she suddenly puts her hands over her eyes. And then she stays like that until someone says, “Where's L, huhhh?”

♫ new poster

I recently made a print of a retro piano, which led to a whole new series! The piano inspired me to make more instruments.



This time not a saloon piano, but a concert piano.



Here you see all the stamps I made.



And printed as a poster.

an evening by the piano

A new card! I was inspired by the past. You know, when everything wasn't so sleek, but had a bit more fiddly bits and bobs. Like pianos. The new card features a cozy old-fashioned saloon piano with an Art Nouveau lamp and Begonia Maculata.

self portrait

The book I'm making for my daughter needs more than just the prints. It also needs a book cover, that I still have to start working on.

And besides a cover, it would also be nice to add a portrait of the author. Or in this case, a stamp portrait of myself.

the most complicated print so far

Today I made something that had been on my 'to print' wish list for years: a mandarin duck. It was on my list because of its beautiful colors. Few animals have such beautiful colors, and so many different ones at that!





I knew this was going to be an intense printing process. Not only in terms of time, but also in terms of the number of lino blocks. Because each color is a separate piece of lino. For this print, I used a total of 12 blocks.

In the photo above, you can see the process of test prints. First, on the left, testing the outline. Then starting with color and testing the most difficult block, in this case the thinnest part of the print. A print that causes quite a bit of stress, because you have to keep the paper clean with all those parts ; )

On the right, you can see how I tested the color. And whether all the color fits nicely into the outline.



The end result. Happy with how it turned out!

our little frog

A new print in the daughter series! Today we celebrated Carnaval, a Dutch tradition. At least here in the South. It was the daughters first time celebrating.

Grandma made her a frog costume. And it looked SUPER cute on her. Of course, I had to immortalize it in a stamp and print.

Here you can see the process from sketch to color selection. The sketch was done quickly, only the color selection remained! In the end, I mixed two colors together to get what I had in mind. A fresh green that wasn't too dark.



The end result.

daughter #2

I posted the first four prints from the daughter series here last week. Immediately after I put them online, I received some really nice responses! And then I made three more new prints.



The idea is to turn it into a larger series. Let's see how far I get! And then have a book printed maybe?



Here's the daughter when we go to the library. She's in seventh heaven! She loves taking all the books out of the bookcase and leafing through them. We pick out four books every time to take home with us.

When we selected the books we want to take, we have to check them out at the computer. It's happened more than once that the daughter started crying when I packed the books in our bag to take home. Because she wants to keep looking at them.



One of the things the daughter really enjoys is cycling. She likes riding her tricycle on her own, but she especially enjoys riding with me on the big bike. She sits in her seat at the front and you can see that she really enjoys the ride. We sing songs along the way and laugh loudly when we go over bumps.

tiny tuesday

For #tinytuesday I made some flowery Dr. Martens! Spring is on it's way. So you can get your flowery shoes from the closet!

valentines day!

Two new cards for Valentine's Day next week! ❤️

a new series: my daughter

After a lot of sketching, last week I finally got a series on paper that I'd been thinking about for a while.

Here you can see my new series: my daughter. It's based on my 2-year old. She's a huge inspiration to me! And in this series, I'm going to capture everything she does and likes.

This print is based on a photo from last fall, when we jumped in puddles during a walk. She loves playing with water and seizes every opportunity to do so!



Number 2 in the series. In the summer, she likes to lie down anywhere and everywhere. And then she points next to her and says, “Mami liege” (Limburgish for, “Mommy, you have to lie down here too”). So then we just lie down on the ground somewhere and look at the sky together.



Here you see the lino block.



She's now at an age where she loves to cuddle with her stuffed animals and takes them everywhere she goes. One of her stuffed animals is Fifi the rabbit, and she loves to cuddle with her!



This is what she looks like when we've just painted : D Real artists mess around a bit, don't they... I'm not 100% happy with the print, so I already know I will have to give this one another try.

sun

This stamp series came about because I was singing the lyrics to a song wrongly. You probably know the song 'hand in my pocket' by Alanis Morissette. If not, you can listen to it here.

In the song, she sings, “I've got one hand in my pocket. And the other one is giving a high five.” My brain turned that into “I've got sunshine in my pocket.”

Now I sing it wrong every time... But that's actually kind of funny! Because it gave me the inspiration I needed for new prints.

The prints go into the Pakje Kunst machine. So I gave them a cool box!

henna hand

An idea that had been in my head for a while: a henna hand. A few years ago, I made something similar: hands with earth, wind, fire, and water. I wanted to make another version of that, and this is what I came up with!



I first made a small version in card format. I liked it so much that I also made an A4 poster of it. I immediately framed it and hung it up in the living room!

die maus

What I always enjoy designing for others are personalized mugs! This time, I made one for my daughter, who is crazy about Maus. From the German kids show Sendung mit der Maus.




First sketching and cutting.



First test print. Hello Maus!



Printing it on the right size for a mug.



Happy daughter!

birthday present mash up!

Every year, I try to give my husband the best gift ever for his birthday (no pressure, hehe). And if possible, I also try to make it personal and unique gift. This means I often make it myself or have another artist create something.



This year, I wanted to make something myself. And it all started with this print. My husband trains for marathons and triathlons every year, so I regularly see him wearing his cycling cap. I thought it would be fun to immortalize his triathlon career like this.



Then I came across an advertisement for Lekky Studio on Instagram. He makes laser cuts of all kinds of things! I immediately had the idea of having my print turned into a laser cut. And not just any laser cut, but a lamp!



I actually had to wait until the end of March to give my husband the gift, but I just couldn't wait! I was so excited that I wanted to share it with him right away. So that's what I did! Here's the lamp in action, it's a really cool gift! Thanks, Lekky Studio!

hello moon

When I am walking outside with the daughter, we often say hi to things. We always say 'hi sun' and 'hi moon'.

I had to think about this little ritual we have (and how cute it is) and decided to make a moon print.

henna series

Two weeks ago I made the Henna hand for Irene. I immediately got ideas to make a whole series of it!



I added three more pieces to the series. And test printed them in my sketchbook.

what i'm working on

It started with making pictures of this cute little village, Wijlre in The Netherlands. There's some buildings here that are iconic for the landschape. Like the Brand brewery, the church and Castle Wijlre.



After that I made some sketches. When I'm happy with how the sketches turned out, I draw everything on transparant paper. I cut all the buildings out and make a composition.



The first test print in my sketchbook. Now I'm reading to print!

custom christmas baubles

It's so nice when people come back for a second time to have something made! Milou's birth announcement card is only a few weeks old, and now she's getting a personalized Christmas bauble for her first Christmas (together with her big sister). How lovely : D



I gave them a sort of 3D effect by lifting the bear a little.



And I sent the bears along so they can use them as ex libris stamps.

gingerbread houses

Before I forget to post them, I ‘baked’ gingerbread houses for our Christmas tree!

It was a spontaneous idea that turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself ; ) I still had the red and white string lying around, which I had bought in the bargain bin at Appie's some time ago. It came in handy now, because it fits perfectly!



I made four different sets and wrapped them in folded envelopes made of baking paper. I thought that was a nice touch.

You will soon be able to find them in the Pakje Kunst vending machines in Maastricht and Heerlen! It's a limited edition of 14 sets, so be quick if you want one.

dalahäst

A dalahäst (or: dala horse) is a statue of a Swedish horse. You can find these in various Swedish cities. They are handmade and painted and originate from the province of Dalarna. Originally, the horses were mainly used as children's toys, but now the horse has become a symbol of Sweden.



I've always liked them, the horses. Their distinctive red color and paintings. For my Dala series, I gave them my own twist, with (how could it be otherwise) flowers!



Here the 3 versions I made.

welcome milou

I almost forgot to share the birth announcement card I've been working on over the past few months. Milou was born in early November, so now I can share the card with you now!

I made the other one for big sister Félien, who was born two years ago (and whose card I also forgot to post!). I designed the cards to match. On the first one, I thought it would be nice to show Mama Bear with her first little bear. And on Milou's card, she gets a big hug from her big sister.

brand bier

This year (and last year too), I only made stamps very occasionally. Due to all the changes over the past two years (the daughter arrived and we moved house), there was less time and space. So sometimes I forget to post a stamp, like this one!

We moved to a new village and now have a new local brewery. Of course, I had to make a stamp for that.

bear family

This is one of the prints I made recently, as sketches for a birth announcement card.

When I am asked to make a birth announcement card, I always sketch a number of options first. I print out the ones I like best to see if I am happy with the end result.

In this case, a different print was chosen for the final card, so I can already show you this bear family!

9/11

It's 20 ago since 9/11 happened. Unbelievable, isn't it? I remember it so well! How bizarre and surreal it was. A stamp today in memory of the victims and their families.

iconic buildings of vaals

A second print in the series of iconic buildings is the village of Vaals. In this hilltop village, close to the German border, you will find a mix of old and new buildings.



It includes: the famous observation tower at the drielandenpunt area, the church, the old pharmacy building, Hotel Bloemendaal, and the old police station (called Het Schip).

iconic buildings of gulpen

This week, I started a new series. I sketched a number of iconic buildings in from Gulpen, including the church, Neubourg Castle, Hotel de Kroon, the pyramid, Restaurant Neubourg, and the famous arch by the water and the fishing statue.



If you have ever been to this beautiful village, you will surely recognize a number of things!

hello spring!

Hello spring! Every year it's so nice to see all the spring flowers coming up. Daffodils, crocuses, and snake's head fritillaries.

pebbles

Last year we had a crazy idea: let's take a sabbatical in southern Germany. No sooner said than done. We drove to Bavaria and lived in a beautiful house by the water.

The series of pebbles I made when I got home is based on the balancing stones I always saw lying by the water. One day there was only one pile, the next day there were three or more.

The stones lay there balancing in silence, and it gave me a feeling of peace. Especially early in the morning, when no one else was at the water's edge. I tried to express that feeling in form and color. And every time I look at the prints, I think back to the beautiful Kochel See.


For Pakje Kunst I made mini versions of the prints.

an ode to doc martens

An ode to Dr. Martens! I remember my first pair of Docs very well. I was in elementary school and got a pair of bright orange ones. I liked them so much that I had to take them to bed with me the first night. And then they stood next to my pillow and I could look at them from time to time. The smell was awful, but that didn't matter. They had to be there!

cat calendar

Sometime in 2019, I started sketching ideas for a calendar. The first test prints were made, and then it was put aside for quite some time.





The first 4 months were done. Everything else was still in the incubator ; )



In January I finished the missing months and a cover for the calendar.



I delivered my prints to Dayo. She took care of the text for the calendar before I sent it off to the printer.



After all those months I finally had a calendar in my hands, wow!

wedding gift

Oh, how wonderful it is to be able to make a unique and personal gift for someone! I made this stamp for Lynn, who was going to give it as a gift for Ben & Bo's wedding. It's such a lovely memento of such a beautiful day, isn't it? :)



Congratulations Ben & Bo! I wish you a life full of love together!

stamp portrait

How fantastic is it when someone looks so happy when they receive your stamp portrait? Super cool! And it was also a lot of fun to make these portraits.

♥️ ♠️ ♦️ ♣️

Do you know what I've always wanted to make? A deck of cards. With a beautiful ace, king, queen, and jack.



The sketching took the longest of the entire process. To get them exactly the way I wanted them. They had to radiate stateliness. But sometimes also have a bit of humor in them. Like the diamond king, which I made extra small because it is a small sparrow.