Happy Saturday and Nancy Drew Challenge day! Today we are on Nancy's 68th adventure, The Elusive Heiress:
Okay, we've got some fun action happening on the arch cover with Nancy in fancy dress and firecrackers scaring some horses, which does happen in the book but Nancy is inside the stagecoach rather than watching from afar. The one on the right is the cover I grew up with; I like the composition of it but I don't think it tells us much about the mystery at hand since it's just a broken window. I think this Nancy looks like Erica Durance as Lois Lane on the show Smallville (she's my favorite Lois Lane), but maybe that's because I've been rewatching Smallville lately.
Case file: Nancy is tasked with tracking down the daughter of an aging millionaire; said daughter ran off 30 years ago to marry a man her father didn't approve of (good for her, the millionaire sounds like a butt). Nancy and Ned travel to Cheyenne, Wyoming, while Carson follows a lead to Canada. En route to Cheyenne, Nancy is asked to watch after a little girl named Jennifer who is on her way to meet her mother, but the mother doesn't show at the airport and so now Nancy has two missing persons to find. And also there's a rodeo which is a lot of fun.
Here's my first card:
Nancy and Ned are staying with an old friend of Nancy's mother while they're in Cheyenne, and the local police are so busy with the big rodeo that Jennifer stays with them too because Child Protective Services isn't a thing in the Drew-niverse. Ned and Nancy play pretend parents and take Jennifer to various rodeo activities, including a carnival one night so I made a card with Carnival Treats.
My colors are Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, and So Saffron; I initially had thought to do something with firecrackers instead but for some reason this is the card that came out.
Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Carnival Treats, July Fourth, Super Cool
Ink: Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, So Saffron, Versamark
Paper: Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, So Saffron, Basic White
Accessories: Everyday Arches dies, white EP, Dimensionals
I actually made a second card for this cover:
Ned and Jennifer go ride a Ferris wheel while Nancy gets assaulted at the carnival and is left unconscious under the bleachers, which is a normal day in the life of Nancy Drew and I'm glad I was not a teen detective.
I swapped the So Saffron for Basic Beige on this card and kept the design simple.
Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Feeling Sentimental
Ink: Poppy Parade, Pacific Point
Paper: Poppy Parade, Basic Beige, Blueberry Crisp DSP
Accessories: Everyday Arches dies, Not Quite Navy taffeta ribbon, Dimensionals
On to the second cover:
The book is set at Cheyenne's Frontier Days rodeo so I had to have a cowboy card! I actually had to stamp the horse and cowboy three times before I found the look I wanted. I think every time I've used this stamp set (Out West), I've used just this image so this time I decided to incorporate the horseshoe and made my own border. Then I decided that there was too much space under the horseshoes so I tore off the edge of the card front and backed it with some Rococo Rose gingham.
My colors are Island Indigo, Rococo Rose, and Pecan Pie for this go-round. There is a variation of this cover but the only difference is the colors on the title block; the artwork is the same so I never bothered to track down the variant. I've had this copy for at least a couple of decades. I wanted to make another card for this cover but I ran out of time.
Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Out West, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink: Early Espresso, Pecan Pie, Island Indigo, Rococo Rose, Versamark
Paper: Island Indigo, Very Vanilla, Rococo Rose DSP
Accessories: Deckled Circles dies, Dimensionals, clear EP
Oddly, I had absolutely no memories of this story when I picked it up this time and usually I remember at least *something* about the books that have to do with horses even tangentially. Maybe it's because the artwork on my childhood copy is horse-free? At any rate, I really enjoyed it this time around though I think that people could have looked harder for the titular heiress thirty years ago because Nancy seems to track her down pretty fast. I had a great time reading this one so I'm giving it four and a half stars. If you're inspired to make a card by either the book covers or the story, leave me a comment below! And I'll see you next Saturday when Nancy searches for The Clue in the Ancient Disguise.
