Alpha Dictionary Challenge - D is for Damsel!

Life continues busy here in Magpieheaven. Today, however, I was determined to complete a spread for The Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge. If you would like to see the other terrific words and illustrations, participants in the challenge came up with, just click HERE. I chose the word damsel from my dictionary. As some distressing of the page went on, I wonder if she qualifies as a 'damsel in distress'. Please excuse the awful joke and put it down to tiredness!

My damsel, who the dictionary tells me, is a young, unmarried woman, a maiden, is a Renaissance beauty from a  Retro Cafe Art Gallery Collage Sheet. To create the impression of Fresco paintings, I spread an uneven layer of Grunge Paste over my pages. I then painted them with Paper Artsy Frescos in Pumpkin Soup, Smoked Paprika and just a little South Pacific here and there when the GP was dry to complement the colours in my central image. I edged my pages with some Treasure Gold in Green Amber, Classic and a little White Fire. Just click on the images if you would like to see in more detail.

The playing cards, which my young Renaissance maiden may have been using to divine her future or merely to while away the long, hot afternoon are a digital download of vintage playing cards. The two windows behind her are die cut from Tim Holtz Coredinations paper and a Spellbinders die. The script in the background is from a 'Non Sequiteur' plate and I used Versafine red ink for this. The butterflies are cut from my beloved Graphic 45 paper, which I'm still finding it hard to put to the blade!!! Crawling up the page/wall is a black beetle from a set of Stampington Clearly Impressed stamps called 'Butterfly Girl'.

The damsel on the facing page is looking out from a die cut window made from some wrapping paper that resembled an illuminated book and torn pieces of this are also layered onto the page in other places. I also used some Dresden gold foil as a border along the top of my pages and under the window on this page.

 I used one of the die cut windows as a stencil and also Grunge Pasted through a chicken wire Crafters' Workshop stencil to give a honey-comb effect. As well as more butterflies, there are some dragon flies from a Paper Artsy 'Ink and the Dog', Wings plate. These are the kind that are sometimes known as Damsel Flies, I believe!

Here is a close-up of my definition in a Tim Holtz book plate, fastened down with some green pearls. I really enjoyed this opportunity to play for a few hours, even though I had to hurry to clear everything away for the family meal. I shall try to visit as many D words as I can over the next few days. Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting my damsels.