Saturday, November 22, 2025

The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

Happy Saturday and I'm happy it's time for a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week's book is great too, take a look at The Ghost of Blackwood Hall:


Let's talk about the OT cover on the left and WHY does it look like Nancy is delivering a singing telegram?!  Also Bess and George seem to both have dark hair.  This book is actually pretty spooky so this cover seems like it doesn't fit, though someone in a Nancy Drew fan group on Facebook said this was their favorite book cover.

I like the RT cover on the right better, I think it fits the spooky vibe much better with the ghostly organist.  Nancy's hair is a weird shade of orange (as in Flaming Hot Cheeto orange), I'll give you that, but at least we can tell Bess and George apart.  I think Bess looks totally adorable on this one.

So let's take a look inside!


Case file:  Nancy meets widowed Mrs. Putney, who thinks her deceased husband is contacting her and believes everything the ghost says until she discovers that a box of jewels she buried in the woods per the ghost's instructions has been substituted with fakes.  Nancy's investigation takes her, Bess, and George to New Orleans, and we get seances and all kinds of suspicious characters.  Nancy doesn't go to the titular Blackwood Hall until a bit late in the book, but we get a haunted house too!  Nancy exposes a group of fake mediums who have hoodwinked people out of lots of money and finds Mrs. Putney's missing jewels too.

Here's my card:


I think the OT cover is a little bit silly with the singing telegram of it all, so I made a silly card to go with it.  Mrs. Putney and several other characters believe that they're being contacted by deceased loved ones and I could not resist this funny image of the ghost on the telephone.


I used blue for Nancy's shirtwaist (that is a shirtwaist, right?  Or is it just a vest?) and green for the overgrown plants in the background.  Had to get the woodgrain pattern because a lot of this book takes place at Blackwood Hall or in the woods nearby.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Boo-la-la and Hey Boo from The Ink Road
Ink:  Versamark, Basic Black, Stampin' Blends in Pecan Pie, Shaded Spruce, Pool Party
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Pacific Point DSP
Accessories:  Tinsel Gems, white EP

On to the RT!


I think after #18, The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion, the revised texts stay very close to the originals other than condensing the plot from 25 chapters to 20 chapters, and that is the case here.  But I still made a second card, here it is:


I think the RT cover is pretty spooky so I made a spooky card to match the vibes.  I started by using blending brushes on some white cardstock for my blue and green background, then spritzed with a bit of water and let it dry.  For the haunted house, I embossed shimmery black embossing powder on black cardstock, then die cut it out so it's sparkly and fun.  I hunted through my dies and punches until I found this old something-label punch (I forget its name) that matched the ticket corners on the main image die cuts.


I have green and blue for George and Nancy's outfits, and a bit of deep orange for Nancy's Cheeto hair and maybe sorta Bess's shirt...well, it's a bit more red but whatever.  Good color choices on all three girls, no one looks like they shopped in Steve Irwin's closet this time.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  The Raven
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Azure Afternoon, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green
Paper:  Garden Green, Granny Apple Green, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Spooky Night DSP
Accessories:  Scary Silhouettes dies, ? label punch, Earthy Matte Dots

So there is The Ghost of Blackwood Hall.  I read these both in October and the spooky vibes were spot-on for Halloween season, five stars for both books.  Absolutely loved this story!  If you're inspired too, leave me a comment so I can see what you make!  Next time we''l be searching for The Clue of the Leaning Chimney.  See you then!

No comments: