Scrabble Family Tree

I know Scrabble crafts have been way over-done the past few years.  You name it, there's a Scrabble craft- earrings, coasters, tree ornaments, etc.  But when I came across a bundle of TWO Scrabble games at my local thrift store a few months back, I couldn't resist the temptation to buy them because: 1) I hadn't done any Scrabble crafts, and 2) I felt certain I could come up with something cool for them.  And at a couple bucks for BOTH games, they were a bargain.

I brought them home and took a peek.  There was a vintage version and a newer version.  I immediately fell in love with the vintage one- the board colors, the smoother & better crafted tiles.  I started playing around, and ended up with a family tree, of sorts, with the names of all our family members.  I grouped them by family, and since my parents don't share any letters in common, I used one of the blank tiles and added an ampersand.  I kind of loved it!

But there were two issues: the vintage board had a pretty noticeable tear, and there weren't enough of the old tiles, so I had to combine the two.  It was OKAY, but the discrepancy between the old & new tiles was really obvious to me.  So it sat in our dining room the past few months, and every time I went to a thrift store, I looked for a Scrabble game, to no avail.  I even had my folks scouring their thrift stores.  Now I'm sure I could have found one on eBay*, but what fun is that??

Fast forward to this past weekend when my folks were in town and we were visiting a few of my favorite shops- I found another vintage Scrabble game!  Granted, I really hemmed & hawed over the purchase because $12 is way more than I paid for the first two.  But the board was in perfect shape and there were lots of the beautiful old tiles. 

I swapped out my "new" vintage board for the older torn one, though I was disappointed to see the beautiful grey shade was a lot lighter in the new one.  Alas, the colors are a lot better than the actual new board.  I was able to write out all of our names and only had to sub in 5 of the new tiles- points to the first person to spot which ones they are!

I haven't glued down the tiles yet, I'm still trying to decide what method I want to use for that, but I really love the look and think it will be sweet hanging among our family photos.  I'm just hoping that my brother & his wife's new addition will fit on the board!!  One of the names they're considering fits perfectly, no pressure.  :)

I don't think I've ever seen this done with Scrabble tiles, have you**?

*Note, okay I just looked on eBay for the vintage Scrabble game, and they were a lot cheaper than I expected.  Oh well, I still like that mine was a hunted treasure.  ;)

**Note, while I was at it, I also Googled "Scrabble Family Tree"- I should have known I wasn't the FIRST to come up with this idea (duh!), but I don't recall ever seeing it done, and I STILL LIKE MINE all the same.  Oh, and someone was SELLING them for $225.  Hmm.....  ;)