Happy Saturday and happy birthday to MEEEEE! Ryan had the nerve to argue with me about how old I am, as if I am not aware...he was trying to make me older than I really am. This child would argue about absolutely anything. Anyway, it's time for another Nancy Drew Challenge and today we are on #34, The Hidden Window Mystery! And this is officially the last book to have two versions of the text; starting next week we'll have just one cover and one text version to look at, until we get to the paperbacks which have lots of cover variants. Anyway, let's investigate The Hidden Window Mystery!
Both of these covers are by Rudy Nappi; for the OT on the left, we have a scene from the book where Nancy is out in the middle of the night in her jammies and chases a peacock. For the RT, we have Nancy looking pensive in a lovely cerulean shirt, and behind her is the stained glass window she's hoping to find. I love all the blues and teals in this book cover and you know what I just realized, I took a photo of my old flashlight version (glossy cover with the flashlight in the corner), but since then I've acquired a matte cover copy. Same art, but no flashlight.
Anyway, it's a tossup for me between these two covers; I like the giant peacock fan on the left, but I love the colors on the right. Let's take a look inside, shall we?
Case file: Nancy reads a magazine article about an Englishman who is searching for a stained glass window that used to be in his ancestral home, and travels with Bess and George to Charlottesville, Virginia, in search of it. We get to learn about the process of making stained glass, Nancy investigates a mysterious walled estate nearby where they hear odd shrieks, and in the end Nancy engages in some property damage (with the owner's consent, of course) to uncover the long-hidden window. We have lots of peacock feathers, live peacocks are doing the shrieking, the stained glass window features a peacock on a knight's shield, and people are superstitious about peacocks. Peacocks everywhere.
Here's my card:
If you've been stamping for as long as I have, you may remember the Polished Stone technique, which is what I used for the background. You wet a cotton ball with isopropyl alcohol, add a few drops of ink refill in your desired colors, and pounce it on glossy cardstock (I think photo paper would work as well, but I still have a small stash of glossy cardstock that SU! used to sell). The more you pounce, the more the colors blend together and you end up with this gorgeous background. Easy technique, though I did end up with two multicolored fingers : ) I used three drops of Pear Pizzazz and one each of Tranquil Tide and Blueberry Bushel, you definitely want to add more drops of the lightest color or it will get overwhelmed by the darker colors.
I have over half a dozen peacock stamp sets, so I had lots from which to choose for my cards today. I went with this bird from Pretty Peacocks since it most closely matched the book cover; I stamped it in Night of Navy on white cardstock, sponged on some Pear Pizzazz ink, and then added more color with my Crayola colored pencils. I even gave the eyes on the peacock's fan a bit of a reddish tint to match the cover art.
Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Pretty Peacocks, Royal Peacock
Ink: Tranquil Tide, Pear Pizzazz, Blueberry Bushel, Night of Navy
Paper: Tranquil Tide, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Glossy White, Frosted Floral DSP
Accessories: Apothecary Accents Framelits, Dimensionals, Noble Peacock Rhinestones
Next up is the RT:
Same basic story, and interestingly enough this mystery starts out in a very similar fashion to
Nancy's Mysterious Letter: her elderly mail carrier (not the same one though) has an accident near her house and Nancy has to go chasing mail being blown about by the wind. We also have a couple of bad guys in this story who are using the mail to try to defraud people, though it's different from Edgar's Lonely Hearts Club scam in the other book. I just found it interesting how similar the setup was in these two books.
Anyway, here's my card:
I actually made this one first and isn't that peacock die GORGEOUS. Royal Peacock is another bundle that I bought either on eBay or Facebook last year and I think it was worth it just for that die. Yes, it took some time to punch out all the fiddly little bits on the peacock's tail, but I love how this turned out. My Polished Stone background this time is Tranquil Tide, Night of Navy, and Ballet Blue, and this is when I discovered that I don't have an Azure Afternoon ink refill. Guess what's going on my next SU! order.
Here you can see the matte cover of the book as opposed to the glossy flashlight edition; I like the feel of the matte covers better in my hands but that's just my opinion. Anyway, I cut the peacock out of some foil paper and I think it might be Blueberry Bushel rather than Night of Navy, I don't have the sticker that said what colors were in that particular package but I love how it looks regardless. The greeting is stamped simply on Basic Beige and I lined the inside of the card with Basic Beige as well, though for now I'm hoarding all my Nancy Drew-inspired cards instead of mailing them out.
Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Royal Peacock
Ink: Night of Navy, Tranquil Tide, Ballet Blue
Paper: Tranquil Tide, Night of Navy, Basic Beige, Glossy White, Blueberry Bushel? foil
Accessories: Detailed Peacock dies, Textured Notes dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Charming Shimmer Faceted Dots
For my birthday today, the hubs and I are going to see the extended edition of The Two Towers on the big screen, and then we're meeting up with friends (and Ryan, they're keeping Ryan for us since he would not sit still for a movie that long) to have dinner at Chuy's. That's all I wanted for my birthday, a movie and tacos! Tomorrow I'm going to see The Return of the King by my onesies, but I waited so long to get my ticket that I'll be sitting in the front row and therefore I will be IN the movie.
Hope you enjoyed this look at The Hidden Window Mystery, I give it four stars. If you make a card inspired by this book, please leave me a comment here so I can see! And come back next Saturday, where Nancy will investigate The Haunted Showboat. Fun!
