The Clue in the Crumbling Wall

Happy Saturday and welcome to another Nancy Drew challenge!  This week we're focusing on book 22, The Clue in the Crumbling Wall:

Both of these beautiful covers are by Rudy Nappi.  The OT is on the left and we have a thrilling action scene with Nancy removing a box from the titular crumbling wall while bad guys are chipping away at the other side (the real mystery is how the bad guys don't see the girls).  Once again I love Nancy's dress, which is my favorite shade of green, though Bess and George have made some lovely color choices as well.  Good job all around.

For the RT cover, we're still in the collage era of cover design.  We still have a bad guy (just one this time) chipping away at the wall and Nancy looking worried about it, but we get a bit more of a view of Heath Castle in the background which I love.  This one kinda has a similar feel to the RT cover of The Mystery of the Ivory Charm as it uses similar green tones for most of the cover, but thankfully this book is far superior to the hot mess that is Ivory Charm.

Let's take a peek inside:

Case file:  A female police officer who works with juvenile offenders asks for Nancy's help in finding missing dancer Florianna Johnson, who is to inherit the old estate of Heath Castle if she can be found in the next three weeks.  Florianna's niece Joan has been in trouble for stealing plants (including two rosebushes from Nancy's yard), and Joan's mother is not well, but Florianna has been missing for nearly 10 years.  Nancy, Bess, and George investigate Heath Castle and find that extensive damage has been done by men searching for something valuable in the walls of the castle.  Of course Nancy outwits the bad guys and locates Florianna, reuniting her with her family and saving the estate from further ruin.

Here's my card:

Since the book begins with Joan stealing Nancy's rosebushes, I decided to go with roses for this card and I had to use the Stacked Stone background stamp for the crumbling walls in the book.  There's a subplot involving river pearls, so I used pearls for my embellishments, and actually this is the first time I've used the Smoky Slate pearls, I quite like them.

I took Shaded Spruce from Nancy's dress and went with a combination of Groovy Guava, Calypso Coral, and Crushed Curry, inspired by Bess's outfit and hair.  Sorry George, I didn't use blue but you look good in that color.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  All Things Fabulous, Stacked Stone
Ink:  Groovy Guava, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Shaded Spruce, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Smoky Slate, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Fabulous Florals dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Smoky Slate Pearls

On to the RT:

Case file:  This is one that follows the OT very closely, just a bit condensed, and a couple of the names have been changed; Florianna is now Juliana and some of the more minor characters have their names changed too.  The mystery itself plays out the same way as the OT.

Here's my card:

This time I wanted to feature Heath Castle on my card, and the closest I could get to that in my stamp collection was this collage-style stamp from Provençal.  I happened to find a small line-drawing rose image in the Dear Friend stamp set while I was looking for a greeting to put on here, which is just what I wanted for the background strip.  I used Marigold Morning cardstock for that piece with the roses, but used Peach Pie ink since I thought my Marigold Morning ink pad was probably dry--turns out those two colors are nearly identical.

Once again I used pearls as my accents on this one; I chose Marigold Morning as my supporting color because of--what else?--Nancy's hair.  We can only see the top of Nancy's shirt here but I kinda hope she's dressed just like Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Provençal, Dear Friend
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Pie
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Shaded Spruce, Marigold Morning, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Word Window & Modern Label punches, Mini Dimensionals, Pearls

I very much enjoyed this installment and remembered bits of it from my childhood, I give it four and a half stars.  If you're inspired by Nancy's latest adventure, please leave me a comment so I can see what you make : )  Meanwhile, stay tuned for next Saturday when we listen for The Mystery of the Tolling Bell.  Cheers!

Paper Players: Sparkling New Year

Okay, so in years past I haven't usually posted on Sundays, but for 2022 I will be because I'm a guest designer for The Paper Players this year!  I am so very honored to be joining this fabulous group of artists for the next year.  So here's the kickoff challenge for 2022:

And here's my card:

You say sparkle, I say unicorn, so I found this stamp from The Greeting Farm and dug in my stash for a variety of colored glimmer paper.  I showed this card to my husband and told him I had to make a card with sparkles; he said clearly I did not understand the challenge brief because the unicorn herself isn't sparkly.  But she IS because she's stamped on Shimmery White cardstock and I added some Wink of Stella to her horn, haha!  Here's what the card looked like when I tried to take a picture with flash:

So, does my card sparkle enough?  Upload your own sparkling creation at the Paper Players blog, can't wait to see what you create!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford

Jennie Maier

Supplies:
Stamps:  All Things Fabulous from SU, unicorn from The Greeting Farm
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Blushing Bride, Stampin' Blends in Balmy Blue, Petal Pink, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Shimmery White, various retired glimmer papers
Accessories:  Stampin' Dimensionals

Guest Designer...Radical!

Hey hey, y'all!  Fun news for today...my sympathy card was chosen as the winner of that week's Color Throwdown challenge, which means I get to be a guest designer today!

And here is the super-radical color palette for this week:

I won't lie, these colors immediately scream EIGHTIES to me and I love it :) I used Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, and Basic Black, with the addition of Smoky Slate for my background to make this:

I hadn't used Butterfly Brilliance recently and what's more fun and colorful than butterflies?  I was going to do colored embossing powder on black cardstock but I decided to go for white EP on colored cardstock instead, maybe I'll try the other way 'round if I get a minute this week.

I also used the Sunday Stamps sketch for this week:

Such a fun sketch, I like it!

Hope you join in the fun at Color Throwdown this week!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Brilliance, Stacked Stone, All Things Fabulous
Ink:  Versamark, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  White EP, Clear EP, Brilliant Wings dies, Dimensionals, retired Glitter Enamel Dots

SUO Challenges: Gettin' Sketchy

Heeeeyyyy yooouuuuu guuuuuuys!  Ready for another SUO Challenge?

This time we're getting sketchy!  We even have two options for you; please excuse my terrible photo of the catalog but I was in a hurry before the movers came to pack up everything so this is what I've got:

That's page 94 of your catalog, aren't they both fun?  (Side note:  I do need to get my hands on that bundle, it's adorable!)  I decided to go with the card on the left and used two brand new stamp sets to make this:

Oooh pretty roses!  I did cheat a bit and use the no-longer-available Purple Posy ink pad, but you could get a very similar look by stamping off Highland Heather ink for the largest rose image, then full strength Highland Heather for the middle part and Gorgeous Grape for the darkest part.  I think my glitter enamel dots are retired too, I don't keep track of what accessories are current because I typically don't use them very quickly. *shrug*

So which sketch will you choose, left or right?  Make your choice and upload your card on the SUO Challenges blog.  Have a great day, Goonies!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  All Things Fabulous, Stacked Stone
Ink:  Gray Granite, Purple Posy, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Just Jade
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Gray Granite, Highland Heather, Purple Posy, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Fabulous Florals dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Enamel Dots