Baby, It's Cold Outside...

and this penguin doesn't seem to mind! I did this card as a "thank you" to a friend who has gifted me several times this month! She is very generous and has such a giving nature. I wanted to thank her with a special card.

The penguin is an Archiver's Exclusive die from Quickutz (still available at your local Archiver's stores). The stamp sets are: Snowflakes (Hero Arts-Warmest Winter Wishes), flourish on left (Stampendous-our of their Jumbo Tree set), Flourish on the right (Autumn Leaves-double scroll) and the sentiment is from Hero ARts). The snowflakes and flourishes were stamped with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder. Then I added some bling and ta-dah!!! The penguin has a happy home!

It is still in the middle of the day here at the Gem House, so I must be off to teach my kiddos. History and Phonics are up next! Have a great day, Peeps...thanks for stopping by.

Believe....

that I will finally post a project again!! And here it is! Okay...this is just ONE of the many projects I have had going on, and now am finally getting posted!

This is a card I did for my design team project over at Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. Nicole has some lovely Christmas stamps. You ought to head on over and check it out! She also has asked another lovely lady to be part of the design team there, so you will want to watch out for Sally Lynn MacDonald.

On this card, the "believe" was stamped with white ink on a dark blue cs background. Then I used a totally "un-Christmas" background. It is a shimmery paper from the Luxurious Line from DCWV. On that icy looking paper, I used Versamark and stamped those little snowflake/twinkles using another PPRS stamp. I used a tinsel embossing powder on the Versamark. My embossing poweder had some silver glitter in it, but was mostly clear. It worked perfectly for the look I was trying to acheive. (See close-up below.)

Those are pretty much the details. I did add some bling to make it a bit more sparkly.

I must tell you that here at the Gem house, things are wild and crazy. With two young children, how can Christmas be anything but crazy??! This Gem mommy is close to losing her mind today, in fact. (That started LOOONNNGGGG before the kiddos arrived, however.) Lots of working at my part-time job, doing school with the kiddos, extra projects and just added stress seems to be taking it's toll. It might end up being one of those "Calgon, take me away!" weeks. (Okay...I am showing my age. How many of you out there remember those Calgon commercials.)

I will be back soon to post more projects. I have several already dumped to my hard drive now, so life will be easier for a while. Or not.

Have a great week, Cyber-Friends!!

Enablers, Be Aware!

Okay, Peeps....here is another blog candy alert. And ya' all might want to order some Shimmerz Paints while you are over checking out their sight. They are celebrating the Grand Opening of their Online Shopping Cart!!! Hop on over there and check out how you can win some Shimmerz, and if you don't win, you will then know how you can buy some! (okay...it is such great stuff that you might want to purchase it regardless of whether you win or not!)

Attention all you Penny Pinchers!

Check out this blog and leave a creative/money saving gift idea and win a chance for a $500 Walmart gift card!

And Peeps, I know you think I have forgotten you out there, but I haven't. I have been so busy working, eating Turkey, scrapbooking, eating Turkey, making Christmas gifts, eating Turkey, taking pictures of my projects and eating Turkey...that I haven't taken time to blog lately. Sorry. Pictures on the camera is scheduled to be downloaded SOON!

Have a good start to your week!

Blog Candy ALERT!

Hello, Peeps! Sorry that I have been away so long. Between life and making Christmas gifts...I haven't had much time! I am planning on taking some photos over the weekend and then posting them. So just a few more days. The closer Christmas gets, the more things there seems to do. (And the higher my pile of projects gets on my desk!)

So I wanted to assure you that I haven't forgotten you out there.

During my daily round of blog hopping I found a great blog that is giving away some candy. Whimsy Stamps, a new stamp company about to debut their new lines of stamps, is giving away some blog candy. Click on over there to check out the details. The stamps are ADORABLE!!!!!
Check it out: Whimsy Stamps blog candy

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great FRIDAY!

I'm evidently not above bragging....

about myself. I guess I am going to go ahead and do it. I have a secret. One I am about to tell you. I work at a scrapbook store in town. I work at Archiver's. (There...now you know!) Recently we had a little healthy competition within our 44 stores for calendar layouts. Each employee could submit and I did my standard 8x8 page. I got my layout back a couple of weeks ago and nothing was said. So I didn't think anything about it. Until we got the pages in for our Holiday Gift Ideas book that is displayed on the counter in the store. And guess what? My layout is in that binder! Yeah!!! Well, since I am also such a well-informed employee, (insert a snort here...) I knew that the ideas and layouts from the pages in the binder were also supposed to be on their website, I checked it out. Well, there was my layout again!!! So if you are all interested in viewing it, here is the link:

http://www.archiversonline.com/ideas/1707

Okay. Now my back is starting to hurt from all that patting I am doing on my own behalf. Also, my arm is starting to cramp...so I will move on!

My husband (accounting student extraordinaire) is about to finish his degree. On Dec. 1 is his last class. We have been working towards this for 2 1/2 years. Not only has he been going to school full-time through the University of Phoenix, but he has been working full-time. If that is not enough, he constantly battles fatigue and other physical ailments due to a rare genetic disease he has. So let me brag him up too, while I am handing out kudos! He is going to graduate with honors! Way to go, Darling Husband!!! But along with the degree is also the stress of finding a new job. One that will help pay for this wonderful degree. And in case ya' all haven't noticed...the economy is in a "bit" of a slump. So he is stressing. So for all you prayer folks out there...we could use a few sent up on our behalf. Thanks so much for that. God is good and even when we don't hear his voice...we know He is there.

That is a lesson that we could probably take to heart concerning the recent election too. Whether your candidate won or lost...God is still sovereign and He is still answering prayer. Whew. I am relieved about that. I remind myself frequently of that also.

So with that, I close. Hope you are having a good week!

Amateur photographer.

Last week we went to the park and took some photos. We had decided that the kiddos needed some "school photos" and since we school at home...we either had to pay someone at a studio or do it ourselves. So, since I am very frugal (translate that to "CHEAP") and since we invested in a nice camera last year when our previous one was dying a sloooowwww death, we did it ourselves.

I have always been a little hooked on photography. I had a very nice 35 mmm SLR in college and had acquired several Nikon lenses for it. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) So when I looked at a digital camera, I wanted something that would work with the lenses I already had. Okay...back on subject. Sorry.

Anywhooooo....we went and took some photos. Some of them turned out fabulous, some turned out okay, and some were just goofy. Then there we a few that were just, well, bad. I had learned in a college photo class that only about 10% of the photos you shoot will be good ones. That statistic seemed to hold true in this case. So any of you photo buffs looking for the perfect shot...just feel assured that you will get it, but may have to shoot a lot of photos!

So here are a couple that I took. They are okay. I haven't had much time to do much more than go through and look at the pictures. We will be choosing the best ones for "school pictures" and when those are chosen you will probably be subjected to seeing them also!

We also took some photos at Halloween, so I will get some of them posted...or I will get scrapbook pages done and post those. I may not get those done until Valentine's Day...ya' know I am really very prompt! hee-hee!

I continue to work away at those Christmas projects. I guess you all have to take my word for that, since you won't be seeing any sneak peeks for a while yet. Hope you all are progressing on any Christmas gift projects you are working on. I know there are a lot of you out there because we see you in our local scrapbooking store where I work!

Hope you all have a warm and wonderful week. Don't forget to get out there and vote!