I'm back after taking a few weeks off from my blog so I could concentrate on Christmas. I hope that everyone had a safe, fun filled, happy holiday. Mine was interesting. Why is it that sometimes the holidays bring out the worst in people? You go into it thinking "Oh it's Christmas and I love this time of year ......." and so on, but then you end up fighting with your family. I've definitely had better holidays, but I guess the important thing is that everyone is healthy and doing okay. That's all I want for my family, is for everyone to be healthy, happy and able to sustain the way of life they have set up for themselves.

At any rate, this year I decided to do a different twist on the Christmas cards. Instead of doing the traditional colors of green and red, I chose some other colors to work with. These are two of the finished pieces I made for a couple of my friends. I stopped making the traditional cards a few years ago and now I make either little collages or hangings or something along those lines. That way they can hang on to them and hopefully set them out each year.

I hope that everyone out there in blogland has a safe and wonderfully exciting New Year. 2010 here we come.

Happy New Year!!!

This was my recent article on ATCs in the newest Sew Somerset. I love how they started the photos off in these bright reds, it really catches the readers attention I think? I made all these little "throw rugs" or at least that's what I called them, and then I attached those to my ATCs. They turned out pretty good I think. The article talks about how being so busy you sometimes don't even have time to make an ATC, and then when someone asks to trade with you, you don't have any available. I altered one of those Maya Road lunch pails and then filled it with ATCs. So now I'm ready for an impromptu trade.

I always thought that when you were published, that you were not suppose to show the whole article on your blog out of respect for the magazine and it's sales. I thought you could show little bits & pieces of the article as a teaser, but not the whole thing. But more and more I see artist's showing their published articles on their blog. So I decided why not? I did look on the publisher's site to see if it said anything about this, and it doesn't.

This is the article they did on me in Craft Stamper which is a UK stamping magazine. If you've never looked at this magazine do yourself a favor and check it out. They have some really amazing designers in this particular stamping magazine. Jo Capper Sandon who's work I admire so much is not only on their design team, but she's in the magazine quite a bit. There are also some other artist's who I'm sure you will recognize by name if you pick one of these magazines up. This magazine is a little more expensive than some others, but one of the reasons for that is because they give you a free clear stamp every month. Not to mention they have some pretty amazing giveaways. I was so honored to be in this publication not to mention it was my first overseas article.

I was in need of two Thank You cards for two different men. I of course didn't want them to be too feminine, because most of the cards I make are. These two cards here are what I made. I have to show real constraint to not use ribbon or frill of any type on my cards, and as you can see here it was a losing battle in this instance. I used Basic Grey papers for both cards. I have to say Basic Grey is probably hands down my favorite or one of the top five favorite companies. Every once in a blue moon they will come out with a line I don't like, but it's very rarely. For instance, this new line they have coming out in December for next Valentines Day, I hate it. Which I can't even believe, but I tend to not like papers, embellishments and so on that have a child like drawing to them. I like very polished, beautifully detailed papers. But I do love their other new line that is coming out which has greens, yellows and blacks together. Those colors once you see them together are so complimentary. And they continue to expand on their embellishments which gets quite expensive.

At any rate, that's enough about Basic Grey. I am such a paper, embellishments and art supply fanatic that I could talk in great detail about every company there is. Isn't is amazing when you think about what types of supplies you liked when you first started and what you like now? It seems to change as often as you grow artistically. But I suppose that's normal.

Health Care Reform.......what a joke!

In case anyone was wondering the woman in the center of my newest collage which I have titled as "Spilt Milk" is Scarlett Johannsen.

Can I bitch and complain about something really quick that has nothing what-so-ever to do with artwork? I don't think a lot of people read my blog so I don't think that it really matters any way. I am just furious about this total cluster f--k of a health care system we have here in the States. Let me just say that I'm used to dealing with Medicare and all it's BS because I've been disabled &/or on disability since 2000. So, every year when there are changes, or I have to start with another new company, or I have to constantly get prior authorizations from my Doctor I'm basically used to it. Plus, because my sole income is my Social Security Disability I'm considered low income, so the State picks up what I can't afford. Which is one good blessing in this whole, big mess.

But last year was the first year my Mom was on Medicare full throttle with this joke of a Part D Prescription coverage. What they are doing to our senior citizens in this country is horrific. How do they expect people on a fixed Social Security income to be able to afford $5000 out of pocket expenses EVERY YEAR on prescriptions? It's as if you are being penalized for being sick or having a chronic illness. Now I'm not sure how it works exactly in Canada, the UK or France, but I've heard good and bad stories about their health care. I realize the idiots up in Washington are currently working on a new system for us which means they will be messing it up even more than they already have. The Federal government should have never gotten involved in this in the first place, because inevitably when they get involved, whatever they are involved in gets completely messed up.

Yesterday I took my Mom to this senior counseling woman who can tell you about all the different Medicare plans. Well quite frankly I left there more fed up and confused than I already was. My Mom is very involved in what is going on in Washington and she is constantly reading the paper and what not. I always tell her that if she was younger she definitely should have gone into politics. But she was telling me about several different articles that she has read on this topic that say the older generation in this country should just come to terms with the fact that they are going to die so that Health Care can focus on the younger people. Can you even believe that BS? (Excuse me my words, I'm pissed as you can tell.) I wonder how the politicians would feel if someone told them that about their Mother.

So all of this Medicare crap is so confusing my Mom kind of leaves it up to me to handle for her since I've been doing it for myself for several years now, and to be fair I pretty much volunteered myself. But it's so overwhelming and stressful, when we came home from talking to that lady yesterday I went into the bathroom and just cried for a half an hour. I of course didn't want her to see because I don't want her feeling worse than she already does, but I was so overwhelmed and stressed.

The whole thing scares the living daylights out of me. Then of course as we were leaving this woman just had to tell us "well if that bill goes through, prepare to have to pay for all your own medications in 2011." Are you kidding me, did you really have to drop that bomb on us as we were leaving?

You see my Mom and I both have arthritis, two different kinds but in the same arena. One of the medications that we both take is extremely expensive. Well I luckily, for right now any way, get mine for next to nothing because I am considered low income. But this past year for half of the year my Mom was charging on her credit card $600 to $700 for the one medication. She can't afford that, but yet according to Medicare her and my Step Father get too much from Social Security to be considered low income. It's better in this country if you are low income if you can believe that?

It's just such a mess and I am so stressed about the whole thing, but yet I have to keep my composure and not show the stress because I don't want my Mom getting upset and then her blood pressure goes through the roof. Is anyone out there having any problems like this at all? Maybe I need to become a Canadian citizen?

Another Collage with a new Mystery Woman

If any of you have been following my blog then you know I've been in the process of making different color schemed collages with mystery women in the center of the collages. They are famous woman so it's fun to try and see if you can guess who they are.

This collage is my white/cream/ivory colored collage. My next one is going to be oranges, corals and tangerine colors. And I was then going to maybe do one in red, whites and blues. What I'm having so much fun doing with these is the whole Masterboard rule of thumb. So I take the collage down to Staples and make different sized copies of it and then I make cards, tags and other art projects from the copies I've made. I'm thinking that maybe once I have several of them all done I might submit them to Stampington to see if they might like them for an article. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I don't have a lot of luck getting into Somerset Studio, I've only been in it twice I believe. Their other publications I am lucky enough to get into, but just not Somerset Studio. I did send Stampers Sampler the collage I did with Penelope Cruz in the middle and the colors were pinks, lavenders and corals. That's the one they are doing a challenge on that I talked about in a few posts back.

At any rate, try and guess who it is in this collage. I'll tell you all tomorrow who it is. Of course since it's 2:00 am in the morning it is already tomorrow isn't it?

By the way, if you get a chance go over to Tim Holtz's blog. He is doing his annual 12 Days of Christmas tags and on top of that he is having some really amazing giveaways. He is such an inspiration I swear, what he can do just with a manila tag, it boggles the mind.