sick and tired

Literally! I've had a cold for the past few days and I'm pretty tired.
I haven't scrapped much but my husband asked me to scrap him something for his office.
The requirements were that it was a picture of myself and our son together, on which my son had to be smiling. The scrap had to fit in a frame, the picture of us had to be big (so we could see our faces) and he didn't want it to be too "girlie".
Finding a picture of me and Cédric where he smiles and I look okay was challenging, so I had to merge two pictures (his face in the picture is actually from another pic.). And to keep our faces big enough I had to scrap in 72ppi.
I used the beautiful collab Down by the Lily Pond, by Vicki and Mel H. And here's the result!

Dave: I hope you like it...love you!

still more nature...

I really had quite a few landscape pictures!
So here's one more. It's a rainbow that we saw right from our house in Ottawa. If you look closely on the right, you can see the secondary rainbow and the darker ski in between. One of the best rainbows I've ever seen.
I had a really hard time with this one. I kept the same kits as for the previous stormy landscape (it's actually really hard to find colours that complement those pictures...). So I used Linda's Chance of Rain and Shel Belle's Celebrate Love alpha:


PS: don't forget to go get the elements for Mon Amie on Stacey's and Vicki's blogs.

Guest CT for a beautiful new freebie

I've been really excited for a while but couldn't say anything: Stacey and Vicki have decided to collaborate to create a beautiful kit called Mon Amie.
But that's not all! Stacey asked me to be a guest CT member for this one.
Not only are my two favourite designers collaborating, but the title is French and I get to play with it first!!!!

So without further ado, here's the beautiful preview for Stacey's new kit Mon Amie:


Gorgeous, isn't it?

Here are the layouts I created with it (I couldn't just do one, I did a double page layout...).


I used pictures of my husband's first visit to Paris (in 2001, back when we were young and only dating).

Hurry to Stacey's blog to get the first part of Mon Amie.
Then make your way to Vicki's for the other part of the collab, I know I did...

Thank you, Stacey for including me in this one, I love the kit, the French title and Eiffel Tower felt very appropriate for me (even if it was a fluke) and I feel very honoured you trusted me with it!

I won so I made a freebie wordart

I'm really excited because I won the Scrap N'Art Jan/Feb monthly cause challenge! The layouts were the Proud of You layout (about blood donation) and the Heroes layout (about random acts of kindness) which can be seen in my gallery. I'm not sure which of the two won (or if it was for both).

As a thank you to everyone else, I made a wordart with my Heart of Stone alphas, and you can have it as a freebie! I made an English and a French version, both are personal use only. Here are the previews:

I used the font Pea Stacy's Doodle Script from Fonts for Peas and my alphas.
And here's the link to 4shared to download them (both are in the same file):
http://www.4shared.com/file/88511805/1a98adf6/poppylium_heartofstone_wordart.html?dirPwdVerified=1808526a
If you download, please leave me a comment (here or on 4 shared).

Great Family Day

Yesterday was Family day here, so we got to keep Hubby/Daddy home an extra day. We had a really good, quiet day at home.
And of course, I scrapped!
I made one more layout for that nature series I started.
It's a picture I took in the Massif Central (volcanoes in the middle of France), from a moving car! When there's going to be a storm, the dark clouds make the greens of trees brighter and I just love it.
I used Linda's Chance of Rain kit and Shel Belle's Celebrate Love alpha.
The text is a French expression that literally means "there's a storm in the air" (and also figuratively means there's tension, anger between people or a fight about to happen).



PS: My designing experiment is more of a turtle than a hare as I have to date 12 downloads on 4shared. Compared to other designers, it's not much, but to me it's amazing!

Another challenge

Today, I did a last minute layout for another challenge from the Scrap Pad. The rules were to scrap about a Random Act of Kindness:


I used Vicki's Blue Earth kit and the Hoefler text Ultra light-italic font.
I did it once first and it was the ugliest thing ever, so I started over...what do you think?

Happy Valentine's Day...

I know it's a little late in the day, but I made it just in time to wish everybody a happy Valentine's Day.
And for the occasion, I decided to share the love and offer you my first ever creation as a freebie.
The last few days, I made a couple of coordinated alphas! I also made a paper and an element to go with them. I can't really call it a kit, but it's two alphas and a couple of extras.
Here's the preview (click it to go to 4shared and download):

http://www.4shared.com/get/87694030/38bee2b6/poppylium_heart_of_stone.html
I hope you can find a use for it!
I would also love any constructive criticism or advise and, if you use it, I would love to see your pages (leave me a link to your creations or send me an e-mail).

Marif XO

PS: I included all sorts of things that may seem strange to English speakers, but the French among us should appreciate...