NANCY DREW – GIRL DETECTIVE & CRAFTY SLEUTH

By Penny Warner
Author of THE OFFICIAL NANCY DREW HANDBOOK (Quirk Books)


Nancy Drew had many talents besides sleuthing. She was especially crafty, and excelled at arranging flowers, knitting sweaters, painting pictures, sewing frocks, and so on. She never went anywhere without her sleuth kit, filled with collected clues, detecting tools, and other essential items. If you’d like to make a Nancy Drew Sleuth Kit, just follow Nancy’s simple instructions below. (And for those hard-to-find sleuthing items, email me at the address below and I’ll send you a free magnifying glass, lipstick pen, flashlight, whistle, and mini-notebook.)

Materials Needed to Create Your Sleuth Kit:
- Small file box, fake book, cute purse, cigar box, or other smart container
- Paper decorated with old-fashioned designs from the 30s and 40s
- Second-hand, inexpensive copy of a favorite Nancy Drew book
- Sheets of 8x10-inch white adhesive paper to make stickers
- Two-sided tape or glue stick
- Antiquing ink and small sponges
- Decorations, such as old keys, antique ribbon, costume jewels, and other items mentioned in Nancy Drew books.

Instructions

1. Decorate your container with old-fashioned papers and pages from old Nancy Drew books. Antique the papers by swiping the edges with antiquing ink using a small sponge. Attach them to the container with two-sided tape or glue stick, if they aren’t already adhesive.
2. Make your own stickers featuring Nancy Drew book covers and other mystery-related items by downloading free clipart, printing it onto adhesive paper, and cutting out the shapes. Stick them onto the decorated container.
3. Embellish the container with ribbon, jewels, keys, and other mystery items.
4. Fill with detecting tools, such as:
- Small flashlight (to see in dark passageways when the lights go out.)
- Magnifying glass (to study mysterious footprints of nefarious characters.)
- Compass (to find your way out of the labyrinthine tunnels.)
- Fingerprint powder (or face powder) and clear tape (to lift suspicious fingerprints.)
- Notebook and pencil (to jot down important clues.)
- First aid kit (in case someone is bitten by a poisonous snake.)
- Small tool set (to free yourself from inside a locked trunk.)
- Change of clothes (in case you get your outfit dirty or need a disguise.)
- Morse Code Decoder (in case you have to tap out a secret message to your chums.)
- Lipstick (to write SOS in case you’re kidnapped.)

For more ideas and information about Nancy Drew, check out THE OFFICIAL NANCY DREW HANDBOOK by Penny Warner at http://www.pennywarner.com or go to www.NancyDrewForever.com.