Catalyst Fifty-Five

Catalyst Fifty-Five

March 29, 2009, 8:20 am
Filed under: catalyst

 

As always, thank you to all of our visitors and all the encouraging comments you left for us. For those of you who did, thank you for playing along with us.

 

Ok! Here’s catalyst number fifty-five:

 

Tell us about a time you felt unconditional love for someone or something.

 

We’re so excited to have Melodee Langworthy as this week’s Guest Artist.

 

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Melodee a year ago at a weekend workshop and she is, by far, one of the nicest people I’ve met. I’ve always been awed by her talented use of stamps and rubons, two things I have a lot of and use rarely.

 

If you read scrapbooking magazines you’ll know that she has been published in Creative Keepsakes, Memory Makers and Scrapbooks Etc. Legacy magazine and graced the covers of three magazines. She also teaches classes all over the world, in person and on her site. Melodee’s unique classes incorporate her love of photography with her creative stamping techniques. You will always find a fun mix of graphic stamping styles.

 

You can find most of the stamps Melodee uses at the Art Warehouse stamp site and if you’ve never seen her art, you are really missing out, so make sure to check out her blog.

 

 

 

 

Here is Melodee’s art with this week’s catalyst. You can click on it to see a larger version with more detail.

 

 

 

Journaling Reads:

I treasure each and every visit we have with our Birth Mother. To have the chance to share his young journey with her makes my heart happy…for her to bond with him.

 

We are so thankful that we were able to have an “open adoption”. We could not have been blessed with a sweeter lady!

 

Technique Highlight:

 

 

If I had to pick only one tool to create with, it would have to be stamps for my art projects. Stamping is one of the best choices to really expand your color choices, text and embellishments in your art projects and never run out of the product! I really love the fact that you can use the same image/text in one color…come back and stamp in a different color and it creates and entirely different emotion in your project just by changing up inks.

 

In this project I opted to use a mix of Creative Cafe rub-ons along with some stamping to give added depth to project.

 

By stamping or using rub-ons on buttons you also can make some very fun embellishments.

 

Another great way to stretch your dollar and obtain a great look is by making your own tags out of coordinating paper. I simply cut out tags in several different sizes and used as layers in various places in the layout.

 

For my title I stamped and layered with dotted line rub-ons in the upper left corner to add a bit of a graphic feel. By utilizing images that were already printed in the background paper, I created button embellishments adhering a rub-on in the center.

 

The journaling section is a blended mix of stamps, rub-ons, layered paper and hand journaling.

 

 

Thank you so much Melodee; we’re so very honored.

 

 

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Here are some interpretations of the catalyst from members of our team.

 

Wendela:

Wendela Says:

When I was a little girl, 8 years old, my sweet girlfriend had a lovely big brother! I wished he were MY big brother, because he was tall, with brown hair, blue eyes, and sooo sooo sweet… I think at that moment, I was really In love with him…but I was too young…and he 5 years older….

 

About 12 years later….we fell in love, engaged, and we married!!! And now many years later..we have 4 kids, and are still in love with each other!

 

 

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Karen:

Karen Says:

I must say my first experience with true, deep, unconditional love was my husband but then my son was born and the power of loving someone that small, someone whom I carried inside me for nine months and someone who is so much a part of me is indescribable. I will forever love him and my love for him will always be unbounded.

 

Why is this in a binder?

 

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Lia:

 

Lia Says:

My current favorite bag. It has my unconditional love, which it totally deserves. It carries all I need and more, even substituting as my crop bag when I’m heading to a crop from the office. It matches all my outfits, and gives me a touch of glam even in my dowdy-est clothes. Even after my cat pee-d on it *sigh*, I love it still. It’s not the most expensive of my bags, but it is serving me well. I *heart* it!

 

 

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Opal:

Opal Says::

Without a doubt, I know the moment I felt unconditional love. I was at work, teaching a class of 6th graders, and it was towards the end of the school day when two boxes were delivered to my classroom. I opened them as the last child was out the door, and was stunned to find two dozen long stemmed pink rose buds. I was puzzled. It wasn’t my birthday or anniversary…who would be sending me roses? I opened the tiny card, and read….”To our Grandma…from Baby A and Baby B…”, and then saw the sonogram image…and in that instant, my heart flooded with unconditional love, for my daughter, and my grand babies.

 

 

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Lori:

 

Lori Says:

I always believe that love should be unconditional, else why bother. I didn’t realize the depth and power of a love for a child until I had one. I have no love for any other that runs as true, deep and unconditional as does the love for my children.

 

Journaling Reads:

I never knew the meaning of unconditional love, until you.

 

 

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Larissa:

 

Larissa Says:

When it comes to unconditional love the only one I know is what I feel for my daughter, which I felt since the very first moment I saw her, all redden and wrinkled, yelling before this strange world to which she was arriving.

 

I wanted to protect her from everything and everyone, give her everything I couldn’t have, see her flourishing like a beautiful flower, turning my life into something rich and meaningful!

 

The last time I was taken away by a plenitude, unconditional love sensation, happened on a Friday morning on December 2008 when she was dressed as Tinker bell. She was as happy as ever, running around the garden, touching the flowers, climbing up the trees and allowing herself to be photographed, aware of the fact she looked lovely!

 

And I only questioned myself if I would be worth that miracle, that preciousness, which I know I will love it forever, with all intensity and every part of my being!

 

Journaling Reads:

For a moment I saw

A beautiful fairy

Running happily

Around my garden…

For a moment

I thought…

“It’s a miracle –

She’s too beautiful!”

For a moment

I knew…

That all my dreams

This little fairy will turn them true

Poor fairy,

Runs happily

Around the garden

Without knowing she carries

Her mommy’s

Dreams to be lived…

 

 

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Lucy:

 

Lucy Says:

The first time I felt unconditional love was when I had my daughter. The love that I feel for her is unconditional and will always be. I created this mini book with some of my definitions of unconditional love. I started with a mini chipboard binder from the AMM march kit and painted with layers of acrylic paint and then layers of stamping and masking. I distressed the words and hearts with charcoal pencil and water soluable wax crayons. The hearts are freeform cut from an old dictionary. This book is dedicated to her and has a letter from me in one of the envelopes.

 

 

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Now it’s your turn: show us your therapeutic art around “Tell us about a time you felt unconditional love for someone or something.” I urge you to give it a try. This was a particularly healing catalyst for our team, I hope it will prove to be that way for you, too. Embrace the healing power of art. It can be any form of art as long as it speaks to you.

 

Leave us comments with your work and you will qualify for the RAK we offer to a random participant. If you don’t have a community or blog where you upload photos, you can upload them on our flickr group.

 

 

Remember, this is not a competition. If your art makes you feel even a bit better at the end, you’ve won.

 

Until next week, enjoy each and every moment.

 

 

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