The Secret in the Old Lace

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week we are on book #59, where Nancy investigates The Secret in the Old Lace:

So, the arch cover is my least favorite of this trio, but I like Nancy's outfit the best out of all of them.  We have a moody gothic cover with a Captain Hook dude staring down at Nancy from a wall with a sinister cloaked figure behind him, but I just don't like Nancy's face and hairdo on this cover.

Next up is the pink checkerboard, we have Nancy and George confronting a phantom in what looks like a dungeon but WHAT in the 1980s is Nancy wearing??  I like the girls' shoes but Nancy's outfit is definitely mockable.

The fashion doesn't get much better on the orange checkerboard cover, this time we have Bess and Nancy.  Bess, why would you put a purple top with maroon pants?  Nancy, what are you smuggling under that ginormous blouse?  The bit with the painting described in the book is good, though.

Case file:  Nancy enters a magazine contest where she writes a fictitious ending to a real-life mystery of a Belgian nobleman who disappeared in I think the 19th century, and Bess conveniently pops up with a present-day mystery for Nancy to solve in (you guessed it) Belgium.  Nancy has to figure out who the present-day heir is to some jewelry discovered in an old house in Bruges, and along the way she really does solve the mystery of the missing nobleman.  Alas, there were no waffles.  Opportunity missed.

Here's my first card:

So upon perusing my stamp collection, my options for lace were surprisingly slim pickins.  At last I landed on using both Tasteful Touches and Touches of Texture and once again I managed to incorporate an arch for the arch cover, it's becoming a game to design cards around that shape.

My color palette is Purple Posy, Petal Pink, and Concord Crush so even though the card looks like it's got black on it I promise it's very dark purple.  And I included just a touch of Golden Glow to match Nancy's hair; I used it on the flower center.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tasteful Touches, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Purple Posy, Concord Crush, Petal Pink
Paper:  Purple Posy, Petal Pink, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Dimensionals, In Color Opal Rounds (they're Fresh Freesia, but they looked good with the Purple Posy on my card)

Here's my card for cover #2:

Before the girls take off for Europe, a criminal breaks into Nancy's house.  She calls Chief McGinnis who rushes right over and then she pulls out her own fingerprinting kit (yeah, I have one of those in my hall closet too, Nancy) and he comments that he'd never seen her dust for prints before.  And that was the PERFECT opportunity to use True Crime Vol. 2 from The Ink Road.

I kept this one a very simple design and went with Melon Mambo, Basic Gray, and Cloud Cover for my colors and we're just ignoring Nancy's outfit now.

Supplies:
Stamps:  True Crime Vol. 2 from The Ink Road
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Basic Gray, Cloud Cover, Basic White
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Enamel Dots

And on to cover #3:

So there's a bad guy who pretends to be a ghost running around this house that Nancy, Bess, and George are investigating, but Nancy notices the "phantom" is wearing boots and later she finds a guy wandering around Bruges wearing cowboy boots and of course he's the rightful heir to the jewelry.  So anyway, boots are a recurring clue in this book.

This one was the hardest of the three to come up with a card for some reason.  Super bright and possibly not coordinating colors (sorry Bess, I am not digging your outfit), but I went with Mango Melody, Sweet Sorbet, Tahitian Tide, and stamped the boot image in Night of Navy.  So hopefully that color combo feels cohesive on my card?  Well, not every card can be my favorite.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions
Ink:  Night of Navy, Mango Melody Blend which should probably be tossed
Paper:  Mango Melody, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet & Tahitian Tide DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Hydrangea Hue glitter pen, Dimensionals, In Color Matte Dots

This book is another travelogue and we learn a few things about lace making along the way.  I had forgotten that this one takes us to Belgium and you know what?  I've been to Bruges!  I did not visit the same museums as the girls did, nor did I foil any nefarious criminal plots, but I can imagine where they were in the book.  Still, I think this one is a middle-of-the-road Nancy Drew book, not terrible but not great either, so I'm giving it two and a half stars.  If any of these book covers (or the story) inspire you, pretty please leave me a comment!  And stay tuned next week when Nancy takes on The Greek Symbol Mystery.