Nancy Drew Halloween Party - The Invisible Intruder

Another Spooktacular Nancy Drew Halloween Party has come and gone--featuring the classic Nancy Drew book, The Invisible Intruder. In this book, Nancy Drew and her chums join several other couples on a ghost hunting adventure where they make 5 stops on the ghost tour and tie all the ghostly happenings to a gang of swindlers and thieves. The last stop on the tour finds them at a shell and skull collector's home and tangle with creepy butler, Jeffers, who did it!

The cover features skulls from the scene at Cranshaw Manor so I created a skull mantel to showcase that and several other skeleton/skull type decor:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nancy Drew silhouette window featured Nancy Drew's famous silhouette profile combined with a skeleton marionette - an image I combined from an old vintage Halloween costume box of a witch with a skeleton marionette. I also features the 3 ladies from the vintage Nancy Drew silhouette endpapers on the other porch window.

 

I ran with the skull theme and featured a skeleton frolic of sorts and showcased the 5 stops on the ghost tour with an activity. The stops included a haunted canoe shown here with the octopus from the chapter where it attacks Nancy's boyfriend Ned, Madame Tarantella's prophesies, a phantom horse/rider at an old guesthouse and a haunted fortress where prisoners are dying to escape, and finally the creepy Cranshaw Manor. Everyone had an activity to complete by going to each of the ghost tour stops.

 

 

 

 

Inside Cranshaw Manor, we tried to bring it alive with Jeffers the creepy butler, and other skull/shell decor.

 

 

 

 

The mantel from the cover was expanded to set this scene--eventually the meringue bones would be piled high on the black cake stand.

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone got to take home some swag including these skeleton favor boxes and old-time candy skull cups and pumpkin favors.

 

 

 

When everyone arrived we had appetizers out - homemade salsa, guacamole, and queso with chips and blood red punch. Dinner was soon served: Mexican fare - red chile beef enchiladas, green chile enchilada casserole, pinto beans that had been cooking all day, pico de gallo and other garnish veggies. Desert - for all you Bess Marvin fans - was key lime pie, Rice Krispie Treat Cupcakes, Reese's Peanut Butter Cookie Cups with bone/skull decor, and meringue bones. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took some photos and had our Nancy Drew Trick or Treat exchange - lots of neat things in the exchange this year! Here's a few samples...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Drew Books: Scary Things Kids (& Adults) Do #45

 

"If I play just the right combination of Scots Wha Hae on this old bagpipe, I'll get this Stargate up and running! 1930s River Heights, here I come! Who needs Scottish sheep thieves and that pesky Loch Ness Monster anyway?!"

(Geoff Lapin, thanks, this was too funny not to bring over to the blog...)

Nancy Drew Books: Scary Things Kids (& Adults) Do #44

Geez, if I only knew what volume number these Nancy Drew books are, it would make them less mysterious and tweedy!

Countdown to Nancy Drew Halloween Party #1 - Skeleton Wreaths

This year's Nancy Drew Halloween party is based on the book The Invisible Intruder. It's book #46 in the classic series and finds Nancy and her chums on a ghost hunting adventure. They end up at a creepy mansion of a skull and shell collector at the end of the adventure and so that creepy mansion serves as the basis for the decorating and party. So, I decided to play up the skeleton theme but keep it classy and have a skeleton frolic of sorts in the outdoor and indoor decorating. 

I started out this weekend by making 4 simple wreaths to hang under our outdoor light fixtures and then created a larger wreath with a bag of "bones", some crepe fringe, wired ribbon and a crow perched on the skull. Creeeeeepy!