We are making this

This is the 2nd lesson I have made for homemade gems. The first was lost to the www last year. This lesson is actually easier, with a more exact look each time. I think these would be great for scrapbooking and decorating other things you make like snowglobes. Here we go!
I made my gems in DIP10, but you can do this in any version, if you know where the tools I use are. If you don't you are welcome to ask me, I will try to help ya out!
I opened a new project and resized it to 200x200 pixel. You can make them smaller or larger, that is up to you and what you need them for. I then inserted a square shape, but you can use any shape you want! Square is just easier for you to learn with. I took the black border off of it and filled it with a solid color, again these is up to you, I love purple, you may not ;-)

You will need to duplicate your colored square 2 times, click and hold CTRL then click d 2 times. In your stack you should have this

Click on the very top colored square and fill it with white. And click on the very bottom colored square and fill it with the next darkest color to your middle square. Your stack will look like this

Now click on your white square in your stack

Go to TRANSPARENCY/GRADUAL and apply this filter

Your top layer will look like this and you will size it down so that it is in the middle of your colored square

Now click on the middle colored square in your stack

Go to EFFECTS/EDGES/SOFT and add this effect about here

Your gem should now look alot like this

The gem is finished, except for the "setting". I think a gold or silver border looks nice, but that is up to you! First, you will go to your stack, click on the first layer, then click and hold the CTRL key, then click on the other 2, selecting all of them, it will look like this

And in your work area, you will see a lock at the bottom of your gem

Click it to lock it

Now insert another square shape. Take the border off of it. Resize it down so that it just a little bigger than your gem. You will go to your stack and click on the new shape, hold and drag it down, so that it is behind your gem. Now click on the new shape, and you will go to EFFECTS/FILL/GRADIENT and fill it with these filters

And your gem should look like this

Your gem is done! But if you want it to be unique, you may go to EFFECTS/FILTERS and try them out. The following filters I used and added!

Here are some others I made this way