Stop Playing Games

Okay, this is it. I'm between a rock and a hard place; my employers are still preventing me from doing my job, our income has taken a massive hit as a consequence. I'm applying for jobs but in the meantime I need to do something.

Luckily I am a thrifty person at heart; I have just been distracted. Now I need to stop playing games, spend as little as I can, sell as much as I can. I like the idea of being a frugal entrepreneur, and from now on I'm going to take it a little more seriously.

And as I've stopped playing games, I may as well make the game boards into some funky journals and notebooks! A few weeks ago Dave did a solo mission to our local car boot sale, scouting for board games on my behalf. Most of the games shown come from there, or from one of the local charity shops.

Dave picked up about a dozen Ladybird books as they were only 5p each. They had all clearly seen better days and I wasn't sure if they'd sell as notebooks. Of the six I made, this is the only one that made it to be photographed, the others were snapped up by friends as soon as they were made! I do have some more still to be made. The pictures in these books are fantastic and the useable ones are stashed away ready for further crafting.

Pokemon Monopoly, anyone? Dave had me in stitches telling me about the woman who sold him this one. "It's a collectors' item!" she told him defensively as he had a closer look. "Why, are there many people who collect board games with smashed boxes and most of the pieces missing?" he asked innocently. (Nope, just me as it turns out). Miraculously the board itself was in good nick. I've since learned that the only 'collectable' bit of this game is the playing tokens themselves. Guess what were all missing?

E.T phone home. I really liked the look of this game, but nearly every piece was missing. Or at least, I think they were - without any rules the game was kind of incomprehensible. Still, it made some gorgeous notebooks. The dice and token actually came from my box of spares, but I won't tell if you don't ;-) 

The ubiquitous Scrabble board journal. I have so many Scrabble boards. (It is official, I am a geek.) I have the British green boards, the 'new' green board, the everywhere-else burgundy board, and a pink breast-cancer care one. Of course, I will offer personalisation on these journals, but I will leave it up to the buyer whether the tiles are attached charm-style or glued onto the playing area itself. 

The Simpsons game was a real steal at 50p - because two tokens were missing and one was damaged. Didn't stop me from making a Homer journal though - and with enough materials left over to make Lisa, Bart and Marge in the future as well!

Remember I bought a Little Mermaid board without the playing tokens? Well... the charity shop found them again... and I'd already chopped the board up. Oops. What a cute little book for a Disney Princess fan, though!

Now this isn't a spammy buy-my-stuff post (although all of these journals are available via my Etsy (£ and $ sales) and Dawanda (€ sales) if anything particularly takes your fancy! :-) ). I am after opinions. Do you like any of them? Which and why? How do I improve my listings or photography?

All advice gratefully received.