Freshly Made Sketches #500 - A Decade of Inspiration!

Happy Wednesday! Our family just returned from a fabulous couple of weeks away in the Northeast, where we were able to explore Boston (one of my favorite cities), parts of Vermont and New Hampshire, and end up in one of the most beautiful states - Maine! We had a wonderful time, with lots of good food devoured and new memories made! I am glad to be home and back in the "normal," however - so that I can spend some time crafting!

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. This is a special one - #500! It has been ten years since FMS began, and I am so happy and honored to be a part of this team, and today's celebration. Our hostess, Linda, has been with the team all that time, so it's fitting that she brings us this week's sketch. There are lots of prizes to be had, so read on!

Our vacation was HOT - record temps in Boston - and back home we have had heat indexes over 100 every day. Most likely over 90 again today and the rest of this week. I am finally ready to move from the hot to the crisp fall air, so bring it on! I am hoping my breezy sunflower card will help do the trick!

I flipped the sketch and my sentiment isn't exactly a skinny strip (I love how big and chunky it is though!), but hopefully the team will let me stay :-)

I am using the wonderful Sunflowers Dies from Stampin' Up!, along with a fun sentiment (Big Words) from WOW! Embossing (yes, they have stamps!). I have a subtle embossing folder (SU!) for my main white panel to add texture to the background, along with some fun patterned paper from Simple Stories. The leaves and foliage sprigs, as well as the sunflower center are cut from shimmer cardstock (Michael's). A fun fall card for a friend to say hello!

We have a LOT of prizes to give away, and all the details of those can be found on the FMS blog. Thank you to all of our sponsors! To win one of the sponsor prizes, you will have to play along with this week's fab sketch:

I hope you will join our sketch challenge this week, help us celebrate, and add your creations to our gallery for a chance to win! This challenge will end at 3:00 EDT time on Monday, August 30. Be sure to take a peek at the gorgeous cards my teammates have made on the FMS blog! Click through the links of each designer -- ESPECIALLY because there are prizes to be had on many of their blogs as well.

I will be awarding TWO prizes packages to two different commenters  here on my blog (random drawing). To be entered, all you have to do is leave a comment here on my blog. Winners for my prizes must be from the USA only, due to shipping costs (but I would love any comments from all over the world!). I will announce the winners on September 1st. Check out the prizes:

Package #1) TWO fabulous surprise embossing powders from WOW! Embossing, as well as a stamp set and coordinating die set from Picket Fence Studios ($45 combined value)!

Package #2) ONE adorable surprise stamp set from Honey Bee Stamps and some fabulous embellishments from Picket Fence Studios ($20 combined value)!

Thanks for stopping by today to help us celebrate #500! 

Freshly Made Sketches #497

Happy Wednesday! It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Our hostess for this week is the talented Jacquie, and she has created a layout that has a lot of room to play!

I have been on a "use your gorgeous papers" kick, and chose that first - one of the beautiful Honey Bee Team Tie-Die papers. If you don't have this paper pack, you simply must get it. It has beautiful backgrounds that each of the HB team members made themselves - and they're all amazing! I used one of the pieces I trimmed for the lower part of the sketch (most of it is hiding under the sentiment, but you can see the pink on the left).

I decided to use my big Love You Stamp & Die XL from Hero Arts for the main part of the card, cutting the die twice (lavender and white cardstock), and adding one of the sentiments to follow the sketch. I wrapped the side with metallic blue thread from Kreinik and added five iridescent sequins for fun.

I hope you will join our sketch challenge this week, and add your creations to our gallery! This challenge will end at 3:00 EDT time on Monday, August 9. Be sure to take a peek at the gorgeous cards my teammates have made on the FMS blog!