Rhinestone Tees and More

Artistic Voyage - Mixed Media Cruise

I am thrilled to announce that I have been asked to be a instructor on a fabulous sea cruise that will take place in November 2008.

Where is this cruise going you ask? It's a 5 day Caribbean Cruise out of Miami visiting Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel Mexico.

Who are in the instructors? Cyndi Duncan, Founder and Editor In Chief - Altered Arts Magazine, Lori Roberts (yeah that's right ME) - Senior Designer Altered Arts Magazine and Lauren Ferguson - Designer Altered Altered Arts Magazine.

This fun filled cruise is packed with classes fit for a Mixed Media Artist Queen AND you can bring your significant other along for the cruise and have a wonderful get-a-way!

Here is what I need from you! Please go on over to the site of Crafting Cruises Forum (CLICK HERE), and you must register (I promise it wont hurt a bit) and take a little poll that I have started. We would like to know what type of classes you would want to take if you were going!

Now you MUST register and PARTICIPATE in this little poll I will randomly pull a name out of the hat and will send the winner a nice surprise package. YOU DON'T have to register for the trip just the forum and MUST participate in the poll to be eligible.

Retail Value of the Prize OVER $50.00!!! Now how cool is that?

The cut off date to enter this contest is Sunday, March 23, 2008.

See Lauren's blog for more info! CLICK HERE!

I've Been Tagged!

I have been tagged by my very good art friend Linda Cain. I am sharing 7 facts about me. So, if you were tagged, here's what you have to do:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Ok seven things about me (I am sure that my kids will say there are 100's or even 1000's! :)

1,) I will walk into the room where one of my kids are and start talking about something. They tell me I have random thoughts all the time and they have no clue what I am talking about.

2.)I have to say my prayers each night no matter how tired I am.

3,) I can't stand the smell of any kind of cooked egg! YUK!!! GAG!!!

4.) When I was pregnant with my first daughter I got so sick from the smell of Kentucky Fried Chicken and could not eat it for over 20 years.

5.) I can't wear PJ's always a night gown.

6.) I skipped school when I first got my license (I was only 16) and got a speeding ticket that day. I never told my parents and went to court all by myself. I even had to go to driver ed class to have the sentence reduced to illegal parking. Never told them!

7.) Last but not least I managed to dent the car door on my fathers new car (passenger side). I would park the car so he would not see it. He came home from work and said somebody hit the car at work! PHEW!!!! Ah no I never told him. eeek!

OK I have to tag 7 people they are all good friends and artists that I admire:

1.) Wanda H

2.) Mel H.

3.) Matthew

4.) Ligia

5.) Andrea

6.) Nathalie

7.) Sue Stringfellow

Ok that was not that easy to pick just 7 people. I could go on with my list of artists and friends. I have visited all the blogs of the people I tagged. I hope they have as much fun as I did.

Another Tip IN Page Theme - Floral Beauties

Ivette's theme was Floral Beauties. This is my page for her book. The gal in the center on the right hand side is an image from Altered Pages.

Tip IN Page Theme Cats

A Tip In Swap is being hosted on the yahoo group for Altered Pages. Chris' theme was 'cats" and this is what I made for her book. Actually all images for this page were cut from magazines except for the blue butterfly wings that are from Altered Pages collage sheet.

A lot of thinking going on...

I have been doing a lot of thinking about my art and what it might lack in terms of words, verses etc. I find at times it is difficult for me to place this form of art on my pieces. So I plan on concentrating more of why I have created this piece of art. What it says to me and what I feel. Rather then just slapping something together and placing it here. Hopefully as time passes you will see a difference in what I do. I am not sure why this has come over me all of a sudden. But I think I like the idea. Change is good! Well at least I hope it is! :)

I feel the need to create what is in me rather then following along. I may be on a different path in life right now and it makes me feel good.

Love and Light to all!

Polka Dots

Image is from Altered Pages.

An ATC that I made this afternoon. Image is from Altered Pages.

One is like being without

The kids went out on Sat. night leaving me home alone with the dog. It was so peaceful here that I did not know what to do! Ha! So I made a couple of ATC's. The background on these two ATC's were made with masking tape. I tore pieces and placed on my ATC and then painted the tape. I used Golden's paints. Stamped images are from Inka Stamps and man image from Ten Two Studios.

3 Reasons it takes courage

Here is the second one using the same technique. Stamps used are from Inka Stamps and image from Ten Two Studios.

Thank you all!

I really appreciate all the positive comments both here and personally. To answer a couple of questions. The canvas that I used was a board canvas that I cut with an Exacto knife. I broke through the board and then cut with scissors. I am so impatient and not so good with one of those knives. I sanded the edges and then glued decorative paper on the back of them. Treated the canvas with some gesso and painted with acrylic paints. Applied the tissue paper and then the napkins using gel medium.

As far as those lovely butterflies...I just took a piece of card stock and painted them with acrylic paints. Using a coral, yellow and a soft green that I just squirted on and used a foam brush to splat the paint around. Once dried I used my favorite ink pad India Black Ink from Stewart Superior and then cut them out. You can't see in the photo but I layered the butterflies. There are at least 3 of them just using some pop dots to give it dimension.

The large butterfly on my dad's picture is a lace butterfly that also was painted. The wings of that butterfly are also raised to give it more depth.

I was going to connect them but decided that they would look great on the mantle resting on book plates.

Peace to all my friends!

Happy Early Birthday MOM!

Next Monday the 25th of Feb. is my mother's 87th birthday and she was supposed to have her cataract surgery this Friday but due to a condition that she has developed (Desert dry eye) they can't do it. This means she has to wait another month for it. UGH! She is so disappointed. So I decided that even though the pins that I made for her are so pretty she would not be able to see them. I started thinking that they should be mounted on something. Well since "houses" are in and I have not attempted to make my version I decided that the pins needed a "house" to live in so Mother can see them better. So this is what I created for her. I am so excited to take them over to her but have to wait until Sunday to take them over.

I made them from a canvas that is 9x12 inches and cut them in the shape of the house. I covered them with Angel tissue paper and napkins. The butterfly image is from Inka Stamps. I love that stamp!!! I think it is one of my favorites. You can do so much with it. Most of the other images are also from Inka Stamps.

I think my UTEE pins are very happy in there new home and will adorn my mother's mantel this Sunday.

I know these are not the best pics but I am no camera geek and the shine from the UTEE I can't get a good one. But you get the pic! LOL!

YOU MAKE MY DAY AWARD

You Make My Day Award

Gayle from "A Stampers Touch" and a good artist friend of mine awarded me with the "You Make My Day Award! What a nice thing to wake up to this morning! "The rules for the “You Make My Day” award are to re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through email or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times, and if you do, consider yourself really, really loved. So to pass it on and keep the love going ~ here are 10 of the 100's of blogs that keep me inspired and bring a smile to my face. Check them out when you have a few minutes... perhaps there are some new friends to be made!

You know it is very difficult to only choose 10 because there are so many!!! So I will list those that are very dear and near to me and those that have offered inspiration and friendship to me over the years!

Melissa Because she loves fairies and delights the world with her creations! She is the mother of four beautiful children and still finds time to create. You go girl! Remember Mel near or far you are always in my heart.

Linda Cain - we have been art friends for a while. She is most kind and generous. I am so happy to know her! And a very talented artist!

Clara Stacko - is the Managing Editor of "Altered Arts Magazine". She certainly deserves this award because she has to put up with me! She edits my articles and that in it's self is one heck of a job. Thank you Clara for all you do!!!

Cindy Roland Cindy and I go back to the days when I first started rubber stamping many many years ago. I met her on "StampSmith" yahoo group more then 10 years ago!

Estelle - Ah now there is a lady! Estelle is the owner of "The Stampsmith" Rubber Stamp Company located in NY. Her rubber stamps are just beautiful and top notch! If you love photo art stamps then this is the place for you!!

Tim Holtz Need I say anymore!

Suze Weinberg A truly remarkable and talented woman! She is always there to stimulate you with new and exciting ideas and her videos are just spectacular! An inspiration for all of us! Suze you rock on girl friend!!!!

Gillian Allen the heart and soul behind Art-E-Zine! Where else can you go to view some of the most spectacular art work of many artist! Thanks Gillian!

Mary Jo McGraw oh WOW!!! My Idol! Some day I will get to meet her!

Last but not least and oh I wish I could send out 110 more awards....

Cyndi Duncan Founder, Editor-in-Chief of Altered Arts Magazine and Altered Book Club your Mailbox Muse! Thank you Cyndi for giving me the opportunity to work with you and the magazine.

Ok there it is 10 blogs, friends, sites that I frequent, keep in touch with or just enjoy so much!

Peace to all my friends!

Suze made me do it!

I have had my melting pot for a long time and I bet I can count on my two hands how many times I have used it. I try and try and it never comes out for me. Well as we all know Suze Weinberg posted her latest Photo Show for all of us to see. Hmmm...I thought I have all the things that is required for this project well why not give it a try.

My mother's 87th birthday is coming up and she has everything! It is always so hard to get her something that will delight her. We all know that our mothers are always our biggest fans of our art. :) She is going to love these!!! Trust me they look so awesome in person!!! I can't wait for her to see them.

So I made these for my mom. Dad has been gone for almost 8 years and I found this pic I had of him. The pic of the gal is of course my mother when she was in high school. Now that was a long time ago! HA HA! Good thing she is not on the internet.

I made these according to Suze's Photo Show with a little bit of variation. Instead of using the clear UTEE I used black because I did not have enough of the clear on hand. Instead of using chipboard or cardboard I used my little samples of formica tile that I had laying around. I also stamped into the hot UTEE with a rubber stamp on my dad's piece.

For my mom I wanted to use the foil that I had but how was I going to get that to stick? I dipped the tile into the UTEE and then placed the foil on top of it. Oops it cooled to quickly, so I took my heat gun to it and heated it up! WOWSER!!! It wrinkled and shriveled up and went into the groves...OK so I took it off and VOILA! I am going to try that again using some smaller pieces on it. I am very pleased for my very first time.

THANKS SUZE!!!!!

Valentines Day Cards

I finally had a chance to play a little. Here are a few Valentine cards that I made up. The images used are

from

Inka Stamps.

Hearts for our Troops Update!

Where do you find the words to thank so many that made this possible? The out pour of support from so many of my friends that belong to many of the same Yahoo groups that I do was way beyond what anyone could imagine. So many of you were so kind, thoughtful and oh so supportive!

I asked a couple of weeks ago if anyone had any Valentine images to share so that we could use them to make Valentine's cards for our Troops stationed overseas. Not only did I get an abundance of them I also received many beautiful hand made cards! I have posted some of the pictures here of some of the cards that I received. Let me tell you that they did not just send one of each but many!!! There were so many more but either I did not have a scan or we were so busy that day we forgot to get pictures of them all. Especially the ones that were made by the children. Just BEAUTIFUL!!!

The workshop that was held at Michaels had to be moved to a different date due to the time needed to get them to our men and women in time for Valentine's which caused some little problems but nothing that we could not handle.

These pictures of the children that attended the workshop eagerly making Valentine's just melt your heart!

The supplies were donated by YOU and Michaels Craft Store here in North Las Vegas! Those tiny little hands creating cards full of love and joy! There were also other ladies that attended to make this event successful.

I want to personally thank Cyndi Weinbaum, Amy Remillard, Leslie Dick, Nance Jones, Dawn Regalman, Fran 2000a1 (don't have her last name), Donna Gray, Gail Schmidt, Kim Borchardt, Kayla Fujimoto, Nicki Conroy, Leslie Clark, Amanda Howard (click on Mandy's name to see her work she sent cards all the way from the UK!!), Susan Shute, Ligia Rios (she is such a sweet heart and OH SO talented) and her friend Sherry (friends that were there making cards in the pictures) Inka Stamps, Robin S Monville and last but not least the beautiful children of North Las Vegas! There were others that attended but they were camera shy! :(

From the bottom of my heart I can't thank you all enough for your support, love and kindness that you have given so freely!

Love and Peace to all my friends!

Lori ^i^

What's NEW at Altered Arts Magazine????

Our new FREE interactive e-magazine is ready for download! Click on the link below to add it to your shopping cart.

Click here for your FREE copy!!

Please Note: This is a FREE product. Included in the item description is a coupon code that you must use at check out so that you are not charged.

Be sure to read the item description completely for important information.

You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader 7.0 or later to view the e-magazine. If you do not have this program installed on your computer, you can download it for FREE from: www.acrobat.com

Packing Tape Transfer Challenge

The Designers from Altered Arts Magazine were given a challenge to create ATC's using packing tape to transfer an image. I have posted a small image of one that I did and you can see it in full size and the others that I did by clicking HERE.

We would love to have you participate in this challenge and you can read more about it at my Altered Arts Magazine blog.

Till the next time

Think Monday - ATC Photo Image Stamps

Did someone say Photo image stamps? The theme for Think Monday Think ATC is using Photo Image Stamps

WOW!! I just love them! These two pieces feature photo image stamps from "Stampsmith"!

I am sorry to say that lately I have not been using them and need to get them out. I love using Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Ranger Crafts) on mine. They make them look like a real vintage picture. Just stamp your image with the ink pad and then take a brayer and run it over a few times to make certain that the ink is well distributed on the stamp, then stamp on glossy card stock for a beautiful realistic picture! If you don't have glossy card stock then glossy photo paper works just as well. Just be careful when you heat set so it does not bubble! LOL! Trust me I know.

I also like using Memories Black India Ink for a crisp image as well.

I have more of my cards that I have made using photo image stamps at my picture trail site and can see them there.

Mixed Media Monday ~ Whimsy

Mixed Media Monday's theme is Whimsy and I just love this little gal! The image is from Altered Pages.

Theme Thursday - Valentines

It's that time of year with love in the air and the theme for "Theme Thursday" is Valentines!

Here is one that I made using images from Altered Pages. I made the background using paints and stamps and then giving them a light wash of gesso.

The Land of Inka

Sending "Hearts to our Troops"

Thank you for stopping by and reading this. Some of you know that I work at Michaels here in Las Vegas and one of the gals and I are getting together to have a free workshop at our store to make and send cards to our troops for Valentines Day. Since Nellis Air Force Base is located here we have made arrangements to get them there FAST! The workshop will be held on Saturday Feb. 2, 2008 from 10 AM to 5 PM and we are hoping to reach a goal of 100 cards!

We are in need of some images that are Vintage American Themed, Cupids, hearts etc. that will be appropriate to make cards for them. If you happen to have a copyright free image that you are willing to share with us it would be greatly appreciated. You can email them to me alteredartexpressions@cox.net and we will have them printed to make the cards.

Also if you want to join in the fun and don't live here and would like to make a card(s) to send please let me know and I will send you an address to where you can mail them.

Stamped images are also welcomed. If you are an owner of a stamp company and would like to donate a Valentine themed stamp to use in this workshop we would be honored and will make certain that everyone knows you contributed to this special event!

Thanks again for reading this far and if you can help in any way it will be greatly appreciated!

I forgot to mention one important thing!!!! Michaels is contributing all the card stock, papers, embellishments, glues etc that is needed for this project! WOW! Thanks Michaels!!!!

People have been responding and it gives me goose bumps! Please if you are going to make cards don't put heavy embellishments on them. Cards or postcards are fine! I need to have your cards here in Las Vegas by the 2nd of Feb so they can leave on the 4th of Feb. One of our gals husbands that is at the base here will make certain that they get there.

You can email me for the address to send your cards, contributions of images etc at alteredartexpressions@cox.net

Bless you one and all for the tremendous response!

Lori ^i^

Start of a new year!

Can you imagine that it's already 2008! I remember when my son and I sat in our living room on Dec. 31, 1999 only moments from the strike of midnight and held our breath because of all the hype about Y2K. Well here we are!! My computer was so old at the time and was not Y2K ready but I managed to get it going by setting the date back at sometime in the 60's so it would work. LOL!

I made this 4x4 in celebration of the New Year! I don't get to play to often because of so many commitments that I combined 3 of the challenges that have been set forth for us to try.

For Mixed Media Monday here is my creation for celebration, for Theme Thursday I added the flourish and for 4 x 4 Friday I used sequin waste as a stencil.

My image is from InkaStamps and the flourish and stickers are from K&Company. My little rhinestones do not sparkle in the scan but rest assure This Little Angel is ready to party!

Gothic Arches Challenge

I have loved this site and not had the time to play and decided I needed to do something different so here is my entry for The Gothic Arches Challenge. Make sure you check out all the beautiful entries for this challenge. These gals are kicking it up a notch!

You can find the template for it here.

4 X 4 Friday Blue and Silver

There is always a first time for everything and I don't think that I have ever made a 4 x 4 knowingly! I saw that the challenge for 4 x 4 Friday was blue and silver.

I messed around with my alcohol inks earlier for another challenge and had this background sitting on my desk and wanted to use the tree stamp on it. Well since I used photo paper and not glossy card stock I found out you cannot use your heat gun on it or it will bubble. Oops~

So I took a piece of reg. card stock and colored it with chalk inks and then stamped my image and used my silver embossing powder. TA DA!! That EP has been around in my stash for toooo many years not being used. I wish you could see the silver in the background using the alcohol inks but it just won't scan!

I liked it so much I made it into a Christmas card! This only took about 5 minutes to do so I have some more of those silver "Merry Christmas" stickers so I will make up a few more cards to send out.

Theme Thursday Challenge

I needed some play time and love the challenges that are posted. Here is my challenge for Theme Thursday.

Mixed Media Monday Challenge

Natalie B. - from Australia chose backgrounds as the theme for this weeks challenge. I love working with alcohol inks! I just did a demo at Michaels Craft Store a couple of weeks ago and I was so surprised how many people do not know about them! I had so much fun with this demo but the best part was allowing the customers to play with me! Needless to say we ran out of some of the products oops!

So here is my challenge for Mixed Media Monday!