Melissa Dinwiddie is an amazing talent. It’s like everything she touches becomes beautiful. At 12 she was in adult-drawing classes. At 19 she was a dancer at Juliard. When she was 27 she was in galleries for her paper cut art and by 29 she had her own business making commissioned calligraphy and papercut art for clients all over the country.

Now Melissa runs the Creative Sandbox. It's a community, a consulting agency, retreats, and playdays. But most of all it's a way of life where art is just art and creativity is (almost) always fun.

Her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Tiny Buddha, The Abundant Artist, Creative Pro, and Life Hack.

Some things we talk about:

• abandoning drawing in 7th for not being “good enough”
• getting into Juiliard at 19 and dropping out at 20
• starting her own business at 29, getting divorced, shutting her business down and
• starting over with The Creative Sandbox.