One of the facebook groups I belong to has all kinds of exchanges. Some are  Happy Mail where you mail to your partner things that fit the monthly theme and some we make specific things to send.  One of the upcoming exchanges is for textured tags.  I have never really played around with texture much.  I never really THOUGHT about it.  So I went and got myself some modeling paste, dug out some stencils, chip board, matte medium and other assorted items and got to it.  How hard could it be right? I am here to tell you that it is highly addictive.  Like chips, you can't have just one.

 The best thing that I discovered about texture is how you can manipulate color!  I had Gelatos ( I just adore the Faber Castell Gelatos BTW ), iridescent medium, acrylics, stamp dyes you name it I probably tried it.  Here is a sampling of the final products.

I don't think the pictures actually do this much justice.  I am really pleased.  I am listing some of the products that I used below.  Have fun!

Another piece finished.  This one took me several days.  Because it is colored pencils, it took a lot longer.  I love playing with colored pencils and wish I had a really good set. 

Here is the first penciled in version.  It is all just circles all over the paper.  All different sizes. 

As you will see in the final rendition, I ended up making a lot of changes.
I really need to work on my lettering.  I wonder if anyone is truly happy with something they create.   I love the colors though. 

Both knitting and crocheting have been frustrating me recently so this morning I chose to draw.  When I went to sleep last night I had a flower idea kicking around in my head and I started with that then I went back to pinterest to find ways to fill out the picture I had started and I found this... by Christine Hawkins

I loved it.  I thought it would challenge me on a couple of levels.  This is what I came up with.  Lots of changes but still very much her idea... (I am in NO way taking credit for that).  I like what I came up with though and once again, I learned a lot.  I love that so many people share the things they do so others can learn from them!

Here is challenge 4 again, this time with color.  I am just not really happy with it.  not all of it, just the "braided" part.  Guess I have to re think it but it is finished for now.

I finally finished another Zendala Dare from The Bright Owl.  This is #4.  Since I don't get around to doing them very often I am just picking and choosing as I go along.

This one went through several incarnations and I am still not entirely happy with it but the best thing about these is you can just print out another one and start again!  Thank you Erin!!

After I made my first #23 I kept thinking about the shapes and envisioning other combinations, especially since I started looking at the ones others had made and had seen their interpretations.  I am a color junkie too so of course, this one had to have color.  As I played with it and kept thinking I wasn't satisfied, I pulled out my gold metallic pen and went to town.  This now reminds me of an Oriental fabric I have sitting in my closet (waiting for me to decide on the quilt pattern it needs).  I don't have great colored pencils but love layering and blending them.  Someday maybe I will get a set of Prismacolors...(I truly do lust after them) but in the meantime, these will do.  Thank you again Erin!! Bright Owl  I am playing with #24 now!

I went back a week to get this challenge from The Bright Owl.  This was the challenge from two weeks ago.  Not only did she give the form but it was suppose to be done using just one tangle.  I tried several before landing on this one.  I really wish I had a bright red marker like these Sakura Stardust pens I used here.  I ended up using blue and green but I think red would have been wonderful!  Over all I am pretty happy with it.

I am working on another version of Challenge 23 now.  I sat here looking at a blank one and had another idea for it.  I can see how these can be very addicting.