Happy New Year!!! I'm back . . . finally!!!

Hi, everyone!  Happy New Year!!  Hope 2011 is off to a great start for you!

Apologies for neglecting the blog for so long!  . . . We had a wonderful visit with my parents over Christmas and then ended up taking a quick trip to Yosemite to see its amazing beauty in the snow (or more importantly according to my little guys-- to play in the snow!)  I'll try to share some of our photos from there soon.  And, well, last week it was all I could do to just get everyone back into our usual routine.  So, now, at last, this week things are settling down enough that I have had a few moments to stamp and now to blog!  Yeah!!

I have also made a rough start on my Valentine's Kusudama Wreath . . . I have some of the biggest flowers for it assembled and hot glued to the wreath form.  I'm afraid this doesn't really look so beautiful yet, and I might need to rearrange the flowers a little (not sure if I like the big clump in the upper right corner), but so you can see how the creative process goes, here's a peek at what I've done so far: 

Just for fun, here's a close up of some of the flowers:



These flowers are made with the Love Patterns paper pack -- available as part of Stampin' Up!'s Filled with Love Promotion (which goes until Jan. 24th).  I'm planning to glue clear rhinestone brads in the flower centers . . . also considered the pink or red circle rhinestone brads from the Fire Circle set.  That would be pretty, too.

I'm actually working on some cards with products from the Occasions Mini right now for a swap, and will show you those after they are safely in the hands of my fellow swapper.  Don't want to spoil any surprises!  :)

And, tomorrow, I'll share with you a page from one of my most recent My Digital Studio creations.  Stay tuned . . .

Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle

P.S.  If you'd like to order your own Love Patterns pack -- or shop for any other projects, please be sure to click here to visit my online store.