Using Recycled Game Pieces

What do indoor recess, grandma's house and power outages usually have in common?  Board games!

 For some reason, they never sound enticing unless you have nothing else to do.  I rarely suggest them as a past time, but once I start playing, I'm always the most competitive.  If you have old games lying around, then you have plenty of potential materials to work with.  Game pieces are fun and nostalgic and can be used to create millions of new things.

Scrabble tile pendants have been around for awhile.  Two years ago I made my own by following a web tutorial (I wish I could remember the site) and was proud of them, but they are time consuming.  After making sketches, I scanned them, added color, printed, cut, glued, filed and glazed.  The process took days.  The tiles turned out great, but I doubt I'll ever do it again.  If I ever need another one, there are plenty for sale on Etsy.  This seahorse is my favorite but the mustaches were most popular.

The highlight of this lucky charm necklace is a cluster of new charms and old pieces.  I used a drill to make a hole in the hat, but most pieces can be strung easily.  Because different alloys have been used to make game pieces in the past, I found the same shaped pieces with different tones.  I'm pretty sure this necklace gives me good luck.

Monopoly money is so pretty.  Why isn't real money made in such cheery colors?  I gave these mini sketch books out to my coworkers for Christmas. Putting them together was very easy.  I folded the bills in half with a few pieces of paper and sewed a binding.  While watching tv, I doodled on the covers with permanent markers.  Each one is different and unique.