Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving


Copyright 2007 Melynda Van Zee

My wish for you today is that you are able to see-to really see the "beauty of it all". It is so hard in our world to take the time and the space to really soak in the beauty that surrounds us-the beauty in our families, the beauty of our friends, the beauty of nature and the beauty of ourselves. Take the time today to soak in the blessings of your life. Write a list of 5, or 10, or 25 or 100 "Things I am Grateful for..." Turn that list into a scrapbook page or just tack it to your frig, or tuck it in your journal so that 5 years from now you can look back and remember the blessings of today. You heart may heal in the the process and your focus may shift from the immediate troubles of today to the things that are really important.

With Passion,
Melynda

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Get Inspired Scrapbooking Event





Things I'm excited about RIGHT NOW!

1.These photos from the Get Inspired Scrapbooking Event held in Clive, IA last weekend. We had a blast. They had a great set up-my friends who came to scrap for the day were sitting at the tables right in front of my vendor booth so I could sit and paint/demo, while they sat and cropped. What a better day can a girl have than having best friends and my mom all scrapping, shopping and painting together! I taught a class, demonstrated a variety of paints and techniques and featured some of my new prints.

2. Oh YES! talking about new prints...one of my fondest dreams has come true! Gorgeous printing has come to my house-the HP Photosmart Pro B8350. It prints 13 x 19!!! So the first day I have it in the studio, I printed a batch of 4 x 6 photos to give to my girlfriends (photo proof of our girlfriends weekend in Independence, MO-let's just say it involved tatoos-airbrush of course, crafting out of a Uhaul on the side of the street, and waaaayyyy toooo many late nights and sugared pecans). I also printed signs for my vendor booth, a gorgeous 12 x 12 digital layout for a Leadership Class I am taking, and over 30 prints of my original art. It was a tad bit amazing that I managed to get that all done on my first day of printing. Plus-the prints turned out better than I imagined-to be able to print archival quality fine art prints at home-well, I've been waiting for this day for a long time!



3. Sidewalk chalk soaked in water. Simple things make me happy, too. A group of us created a Call to Worship on the sidewalk leading into our church. We soaked the chalk in water and-oooh! I felt like a kid again (although when I was a kid they would of NEVER let us decorate the front of church with chalk!)

4. Scrapbook store shopping...I went BY MYSELF for almost an hour Friday night and browsed...saw the new Creative Cafe stuff, bought some Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, Scenic Route background collection, a bit of Hambly, KI Memories 12 x 12 black swirl cut outs, some Doodlebug black chipboard alphabet and a Bo Bunny chipboard alpha with some cute swirls. I needed that trip-needed to browse-needed to touch-needed to just wander and think about the possibilities...

5. OK-I really wanted to wait-spread out the fun with these, but I just can't so... here is the first of my latest series of watercolors. I created 95 6 x 6 originals that all answer the question..."In my future life..."

Enjoy!