The Spider Sapphire Mystery

Mornin' y'all and welcome to this week's Nancy Drew Challenge!  We are on #45, The Spider Sapphire Mystery:

I think all my covers are by Rudy Nappi from here until we hit paperbacks.  I like Nancy's signature flippy 'do and her top here, quite a lovely color with her hair color, and despite having "spider" in the name of the book and large and in charge in the cover art, this one is much less spider-tastic than The Secret in the Old Attic.  Anyway, this is my childhood copy and I don't think it's supposed to have that splotch below Nancy's eye, I used to read a lot in the bathtub as a kid and I think some of my books show evidence of that.

Case file:  Nancy and the Drew Crew are planning to go on safari to Africa, and at the same time, she's helping her father with a case where a maker of synthetic gems is accused of stealing a natural sapphire with a spider trapped in it (I know spiders could be trapped in amber, but can sapphires work that way?).  Nancy has to locate a kidnapped Ned before they can go on safari, and in Africa she's tasked with tracking down a man who may or may not have been eaten by lions, she's very busy.  Of course the kidnappers are also behind the gem theft and Nancy catches them like Pokémon (I am guessing here, I've never played Pokémon) and reunites the safari missing man with his sister after she cures his amnesia.

Here's my card:

I thought I'd go for a pretty literal interpretation of the cover art here and I was quite chuffed to find that pattern in the Perennial Essence DSP that incorporates the colors of the book cover.  I made my own spider sapphire by stamping the spider on Azure Afternoon cardstock and then covering the whole piece with clear embossing powder.

I couldn't figure out what greeting would go well on this card so I elected to leave it as is.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From the Crypt
Ink:  Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, So Saffron, Azure Afternoon, Perennial Essence DSP
Accessories:  Clear EP, Ornate Frames dies, Moody Palette Glossy Dots, Dimensionals

But wait, there's more!  I made a second card:

There are some pretty goofy parts in this book, like the man who has lion-induced amnesia, when George gets snatched by a man wearing a baboon costume, and a real baboon steals the wig off a snobbish girl on safari with the Drew Crew but Bess gives her a makeover and magically makes over the snob's personality too (which I believe because Bess is magic and I would want to be friends with her).  Anyway, I thought I'd play with the more whimsical parts of this book and got out this smug lion from Inspiration Squad.

Still kept to the colors on the book cover, this time with more yellow.  That lion just looks so satisfied with himself, doesn't he?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiration Squad
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Peach Pie, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Cute As Can Bee DSP, Bee Mine DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Details dies, Layering Circles dies, Nested Essentials dies, Fine Sparkle Gems, Dimensionals

I tend to like the travelogue-style Drews and this one has some fun silly bits, but it does also have some portrayals of people of African and Indian descent that are negative or just disrespectful by today's standards, as Averie said in her True Drew podcast that I listened to earlier this week.  I'm going to give it three stars just because I do like the super silly bits.  If you're inspired to make a card, please leave me a comment, and we'll see you back here next week when Nancy searches for The Invisible Intruder.

The Message in the Hollow Oak

Welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today's book is number twelve, The Message in the Hollow Oak.

This time, the revised text is completely different from the original and both of them are a trip.  This is where the revised text covers start going with more of a collage effect rather than a scene out of the book.  Let's take a look at them, starting with the original text.

Quick side note:  I love the horse playing peekaboo by Nancy's hip, I didn't notice him at first and now he makes me giggle every time I look at the cover.  Peekaboo!

Case file:  Nancy wins a radio contest and the prize is the deed to some land in a super remote part of Canada, so she, Bess, and George head for the border with an older lady to chaperone them.  They're involved in a pretty serious train accident but keep on going anyway, only to discover that unscrupulous men are digging for gold on Nancy's land.  She manages to trick the thieves and ends up with a bag of gold and along the way she saves a kidnap victim and reunites two people who had been separated by a misunderstanding years before.  Those two used the titular hollow oak as a letter drop to pass notes to each other.  Lots happening here.

Here's my card for the OT:

We have lots of big, burly lumberjack and gold prospector types in this book, but I was thinking of the one whom Nancy reunites with his long-lost sweetheart when I made this card.  And it was a great excuse to bust out my Wood You Be Mine stamp set!  I put some Cajun Craze Faux Glass Dots on there for accents but they kinda fade into the background. 

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wood You Be Mine?
Ink:  Early Espresso, Old Olive, Stampin' Blends in Old Olive, Neutrals, Pretty in Pink, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Gray Granite, Boho Blue
Paper:  Bumblebee, Old Olive, Boho Blue, Beauty of the Earth DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Faux Glass Dots

Now let's look at the revised text:

Case file:  Aunt Eloise's PI friend dares Nancy to solve an old mystery that he and his buddies couldn't crack on their vacation--find a message left by a French missionary in a hollow oak tree and follow the clues to find a treasure.  She stays with Ned's cousin as part of a university archaeological dig and not only does she do some digging with them, she does find a series of hollow oak trees and finds the treasure despite another treasure hunter harassing her.  No gold prospectors in this one but it's still pretty wild.

Here's my card:

The cover of this one looks super spooky and Halloween-y, but the book isn't set around Halloween and the only skulls in it are the fragments that the archaeological dig find.  Still, I couldn't get the idea of a skull card out of my noggin so I made this one.  I did cover up the jack o' lantern on this stamp with a flower that's meant to represent Nancy on the cover.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From the Crypt, Thoughtful Expressions
Ink:  Versamark, Island Indigo, Timid Tiger, Whisper White
Paper:  Island Indigo, Basic Beige, Beauty of the Earth DSP, Beautifully Penned DSP
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, black EP,, Dimensionals

Since the book doesn't really have much to do with skulls despite the cover illustration, I made a second card:

Pretty sure that's Nancy's family motto right there.  I happened to see Textured Timber when I got out Thoughtful Expressions for the first card and I just had to use the tree images for a second card.  Still have orange flowers for Nancy though.

What's funny is that when I first sat down to make a card for this book many weeks ago, I hit a creative block and couldn't figure out what to do.  That's about when I snapped up the OT versions of the books and went back to reread from the start, gave it a few weeks and when I came back to this one I ended up with TWO cards for the book that was giving me a block.  Hooray!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Textured Timber, Thoughtful Expressions, Feathered Flight
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pecan Pie, Island Indigo, Stampin' Blends in Old Olive & Timid Tiger
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige
Accessories:  Thankful Labels, Thoughtful Expressions dies, Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

I'd be delighted to have you play along, just drop a link in the comments to your Nancy Drew inspired creation.  You can check out Hey, Nancy Drew for more chatter about the books, and stop by next week for lucky #13, The Mystery of the Ivory Charm!

Gothic Halloween

Happy Halloween, y'all!  I'm wearing a super cute shirt featuring Gretchen the mini horse with a witch hat on and it's bright orange :) and my Stitch Halloween jammy pants and socks so I am appropriately festive.  I'm glad that my costume for tonight is nice and toasty--we got quite a bit of snow yesterday!  Like, a couple of inches!  Now it's bright and sunny out and the high is in the 50s, so the snow might be gone by the time trick-or-treating starts, but this is the first time I've ever experienced snow on Halloween.  Ha!  I put all our Halloween candy in a big bag up by the front door where hopefully I will not be snacking on it all day long.  We've got a lot of kids in the neighborhood so that bag of candy weighs probably 20 pounds...I wanted to be prepared.

You know I couldn't resist making just one more Halloween card this year.

Once again I'm reaching back in the retired archives for a cool Halloween stamp set.  I'd never used this particular image stamp before, what would you call it, anyway?  It's From the Crypt, and there's a creepy skull that I haven't used too (next year).  I added Wink of Stella to the bat's wings for some sparkle but you can't see it in the photograph, and I thought the greeting from Fancy Flexible Phrases was appropriate for the ornate bat design.

I started with the Atlantic Hearts sketch and made it a little more CAS:

I like how the torn edges on the top and bottom add a bit more detail without making the card front feel too busy.  I was trying to make it more CAS so I could still enter at Addicted to CAS:

And sadly, that is most likely my final Halloween card for this year.  But I am plotting an entire parade of Halloween cards for next year, I love making them.  In the meantime, I'll still make some fall cards and Christmas is going to start creeping in here soon.  But for now I am enjoying the last bit of Halloween joy.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From the Crypt, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Ink:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Basic Black 3/8" taffeta ribbon, Wink of Stella

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Woman

Ever make a card that you feel requires an explanation?

Like, why am I making a spider-riffic card in pink and yellow when we're nowhere close to Halloween?  Wellllll, when my parents were here last November, my mom saw a pair of spider earrings that she liked but she didn't buy them.  She asked me to get them if we went back to Heidelberg, which we did last week, so now I have spider earrings to send her and of course I needed a spider card to go with them, right?  I looked through all my Halloween stamps and found my spider, and then that creepy sentiment just made me laugh because my mom knows how much I hate spiders!

Also I was inspired by the Festive Friday challenge, which has nothing to do with spiders:

So from the list, my card is feminine (debatable; I'm saying it's a girl spider), it has pink, sparkle (even sparkly pink!), patterned paper, embossing, and swirls (on the spider and the patterned paper).  I was absolutely sure I had some sort of pink swirly patterned paper and after much searching, I found this one from the long-retired Sweet & Sour DSP pack.  Well, I found that scrap, which I then built my card around.  I have one more scrap of that pattern left, and it's 6 inches long and only a half an inch wide.  I used up some scraps of Crushed Curry DSP too and found the pink rhinestones in my stash.

Those are the earrings in question.  The amber spider bodies were my inspiration for using Crushed Curry, I figured it was close enough to the amber color and I have Crushed Curry embossing powder, so that worked.  And Crushed Curry looks good with Regal Rose, my retired pink color.

Have a great, non-creepy day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  From the Crypt, Boo to You
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Basic Gray, Sweet & Sour DSP, Crushed Curry DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Crushed Curry DSP, Noble Peacock rhinestones, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Best Fiends

Happy Halloween, folks!  I had randomly drawn the name of another, non-Halloween stamp set for today's Friday Flashback, but since it's Halloween I couldn't resist:  I had to feature my favorite Halloween ghouls, Best Fiends!  So let's take a Friday Flashback with Frankie, Drac, and Agnes.

That trick-or-treat bag wasn't easy to fussy cut but I loved how it looked on Frankie's card here :)

Also features Rough Edges Alphabet and Flannel Plaid

I have a friend whose birthday is today so this was his birthday card one year.  I love the bats on this one--I stamped them in Basic Black on Vintage Violet paper (this was back when we had Vintage Violet as an In Color) and then colored in their eyes with white gel pen.

This was a first birthday party invitation for my friend's daughter, who was also born on Halloween.

Also features House of Haunts, From the Crypt, and Background Basics

And now we're up to baby book pages!  One of the stamps in Background Basics is a pattern of circles with little dots inside them, and I love that for these pages because it kinda sorta suggests eyeballs without actually being eyeballs.

Also features House of Haunts and Background Basics

This was the baby book layout for the little girl whose birthday is on Halloween.  It took FOR.EV.ER. to color in all three Best Fiends, but since her mama is a total Halloween nut I just had to go the extra mile on this layout.

Also features House of Haunts, From the Crypt, and Background Basics

One more baby book layout that's pretty much the same as the first one on this post, but different colors.  The spider stamp is from Best Fiends but I never gave him a name.  The pumpkin from House of Haunts would be Jack, obviously.  So on to the new card creation for today!

I couldn't help it, I had to choose Agnes.  And I knew exactly what patterned paper I wanted to use on here too, I love the Perfect Plum worked into the Cast-a-Spell DSP.  You can't tell from the photo but I sponged some Soft Sky behind Agnes, it looks good IRL.  But what really makes me smile about this card is the inside:

Bwahahahaaaaa!  I've seen people do cards with Agnes and this sentiment from Edgy Eloquence before, but I never put them together my own self until now and I love it.  I think this card will give the recipient a giggle even if I'm not sending it off until today (my bad).  I used the sketch from Create with Connie and Mary:

It kinda seemed like a lot of layers at first but when I saw the design team's work with the sketch I thought hey, I can do that.  I kind of wish I'd done the sketch as a mirror image because there's some blank space under the front of Agnes' broom but oh well.  It wasn't big enough to put the bat in there (who also doesn't have a name, man did I drop the ball) so it had to stay blank.

Anyway, that's it for me this week.  Have a wonderful Halloween, everyone!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Edgy Eloquence
Ink:  StazOn Black (someone remind me to get an ink refill for this!), Pumpkin Pie, Perfect Plum, Old Olive, Basic Gray, Soft Sky, Whisper White
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Cast-a-Spell DSP
Accessories:  Oval Framelits, Word Window & Modern Label punches, Regals Candy Dots, Dimensionals