In 1997 the CPNB devised a special prize for Fiep, who had never won a ‘Gouden Penseel’ or 
‘Zilveren Penseel’ (Dutch awards for illustrators of children’s books). This was a prize which was only to be awarded once: the ‘Oeuvre Penseel’. The jury’s report for this prize remarked that it was very curious that whereas Annie had always been showered with prizes, Fiep had never won a prize before. This did not bother Fiep herself at all: ‘Prizes just cause trouble and 
prize-giving ceremonies make me very nervous’. Nevertheless, she did accept the Oeuvre Penseel. In the Volkskrant she said: ‘In principle I don’t want prizes. I don’t like competition – Pete doesn’t get a prize, Jack does […] . This Oeuvre Penseel is different. It was not the result of a competition, there was no rivalry’. To mark the presentation of Oeuvre Penseel to 
Fiep, the CPNB commissioned nineteen winners of the Gouden Penseel during the past years to make their own illustration for Fiep of Pluk van de Petteflet. According to the jury report, this was a way of honouring someone with ‘a unique talent for drawing, who has left her lively and original mark on Dutch children’s books for decades’.

Fiep made illustrations for the cover of the collection of fairy tales by Annie M.G. Schmidt which appeared after Annie’s death in 1995. For the front she drew a witch flying over the roofs of houses on her broomstick. For the back she drew a big giant. This was to be her very last illustration.