Good grief!

Really!? Has it been THAT long since I have posted? Wow. Well, I am back again. We have had a busy couple of weeks. Lots of prayers and lots of busy-ness. Also, we celebrated DD's NINTH birthday. I just can't believe she is that old!!

Like everyone else, we are busy tightening our belts. That, and praying a LOT! DH is now graduated and looking for an accounting job. Hummm....and as everyone knows....no one is hiring. So we keep praying and looking. Looking and praying. God is working because we see it daily at the Gem House. We just praise Him for that!

Onward. Now I have some new photos to post. These two photos are of an album we gave as a gift. It was a 12x12 album filled with pages and places left for plenty of photos.

This photo is of the first layouts in the book. The whole book used green and brown cardstock. It also used patterned papers for My Mind's Eye Laundry Line line. In the photo, on the top left of the left page, I used slide mounts in a coordinating color. I hooked bias ribbon around them to make them an embellishment. (I stamped on the bias tape using a flourish stamp from Prickley Pear RS. It worked great AND I made my own coordinating ribbon!) Also, instead of putting photos in those little spaces inside the slide mounts, I stamped on cardstock using a tree background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. (I LOVE that stamp!! It can make inchies as well as backgrounds!)In this photo, I used the MME coordinating paper cut into squares. I also stamped some of the squares. This broke up the green and brown look of all those squares and added some variety. I again used the tree background stamp from CHF, but also used the lino background stamp from Prickley Pear!! I am terrible about journaling. I am an artist, not a writer. However, I understand the importance of journaling in scrapbooks. I just don't want much of my journaling seen on my page. I tend to make tags to slide behind photos. That way all my handwriting can't be seen. On the left page you can see the end of a tag sticking out behind the photo mat. I used the tree background stamp to stamp the front of the tag, helping it to fit the theme of the page.

Okay, Peeps, hope you are off to the start of an enjoyable weekend! I have to work the rest of the weekend...but many of you out there will be enjoying yourself and getting some rest to gear up for the next week. Check back next week as I have some exciting news and some new pictures to post!

At last...the last.

For those of you who are tired (or just plain bored) of seeing this album...great news. This is the last post about it. These are photos of the inside middle part of the book. They are 6x6 inch layouts. Because they are all using the same color theme, you can turn the top or bottom pages in any order and they will always match the page above.

I the top photo are a couple of things that I love most about this album. One is the blue flower. I painted it with Making Memories paint and let it dry. Then stamped it using a flourish stamp and black ink. After drying, I used Gelly Roll Stardust markers to color in some of the areas. I love that look of making my own matching embellishments, and I am SURE you will see it here again! I also stamped the flourish on the photo mat, knowing that the edge would show even when you put a photo on top of the mat.

I will tell you that I do have some ideas for some new albums that were inspired by this one. However, it will be a while before I get to them. I am currently working on some Guest Designer things for Creative Cuts and More. Its a die cut store where you can choose the designs you want and order them from her wide variety of different papers and mediums. It is such a fabulous place! The service is grand and the prices are terrific. I have been working on some top secret "missions" for Terry, so you will have to frequently check out her blog to find out what those "missions" might be!! http://www.diecutdiva.creativecutsandmore.com/

Also, things are progressing along here at the Gem household. Good grief. We haven't seen the sunny sunshine in over a week here. It might as well be a year. I always forget how burned out I feel at this time of year. I don't want to get up in the morning, I am tired and unmotivated. (this is probably commonly known as hibernation.) It makes getting school done with the kiddos (and my projects done) quite a task of discipline. Yuck. However, today I saw progress. Praise God for that!

Hope you all have a great week, Peeps! Hang on out there if you are battling cold weather. (Here's a thought for ya'....in another few months, we will be thinking about how hot it is. Perhaps it is just a matter of perspective.)

PS....

Be sure to check out new bling bling at the Shimmerz blog:


http://shimmerzpaints.blogspot.com/

They have four fabulous new colors for your consideration!

And more....

Well, Peeps...here is another layout. This is still another layout from that album that I have been sharing with you. I keep thinking that each time I post a layout from this album it will be the last. And I thought that again today...but then I remember there are a few more pages that I want to share. So stay tuned for a couple more posts about this album.

If you want to know what paper I used, it is from DCWV's Nonsense line. It is too adorable. Even after working with it for this gift album, I asked for (and got!!) a pad of it for Christmas. It will be great to do an album for my DD. I am thinking maybe her birthday mini-album, or perhaps a soccer mini-album...hummmm.....so many choices.

We are back to school today. Yesterday, the school "powers-that-be" gave us online schoolers a day off. Don't quite know why, because in the other three years we have been doing this, we didn't get any extra days off. I know kids in traditional school get some days for the upcoming MLKJ Day and President's day, as well as tacher work days. However, we don't normally get any "in-service" days off. I am GLAD that we do this year. I am tired, tired, tired this week. Maybe it is the drippy, dreary weather. Regardless, it is affecting not only my schooling and energy level...but I have felt about as creative as a brick. Before Christmas I was truckin' on through projects like you wouldn't believe. Now....well, I am not. That creativity will return...but until then, thank goodness I have more photos to post from last year's end-of-the-year project spree!

Have a good week, Peeps!

Thrifty, Gifty!

Here is another picture of a layout from that album I gave as a gift this Christmas. It is one of the first layouts in the album. The bird stamp is from Prickley Pear, the background stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms (they have FABULOUS background stamps!!!) and the flourish is a Stampendous stamp from 2007. The pink rectangles are supposed to be for matting photos. However, they would make great places to journal too.

This layout is also for that thrifty, gifty that I gave. The patterned paper is from We R Memory Keeepers Nonsense line. It is very girly and kind of trendy and teeny-bopper(ish). The polka-dot riboon is from Bazzill, the word "unkown" is a Making Memories rub-on and the dragonfly is an Accucut die I used at the local scrapbook store.

I love this little album and I do have a few more photos to post of it. It was a very fun album to create, and to be truthful, I almost kept it. It would be perfect for someone with a young daughter! (like me!!) Okay...or like the friend I gave it to. Hopefully, she is enjoying it too!

Well, my kiddos are back to school. Of course, at the Gem house, it also means I am back to school. The week has started off as well as could be expected. My DD is having a bit of a problem getting back into the swing of things. She seems to think that whenever I ask her to do something for school that it is a great imposition and she needs to argue with me. The past few days have brought more snow to our Valley, so the kids have been playing, playing, playing. They were outside with their dad this afternoon making BIG snowballs and BIG snow people.

Well, off to conquer some things that need to be done! Have a pleasant week and thanks for stopping by!