Create Your Own Craftwork Patterns and Artwork from the Public Domain and Sell Them on eBay

There are literally hundreds of different things I have seen selling on eBay which are essentially made from books, magazines and newspapers, both old and new.    

They include:

#  A beautiful trinket box, I bought recently on eBay, made from wood, which had a picture of a boxer dog applied to the top, and the whole thing glued to protect the picture and add a lovely sheen.  The same seller uses all manner of pictures for his trinket boxes, including early named location street scenes, advertisements for products long since disappeared, early movie and theatre stars, and so on.

#  Another eBayer sells decoupage items, again very early pictures and scenes, and stated to be original items from early publications.  Decoupage is a bit of a time-consuming art but simply means applying layers of paper onto one another, creating a few bends and folds, to eventually create a 3-D effect that can be mounted and framed.

#  Jigsaw puzzles can be created from early pictures.  These can be physical items or computer desktop puzzles which we sometimes make and offer as free gifts with out doggy prints and collectibles.  You could use the original paper item to create a really exclusive one-off product for physical items or you could use reprints instead where the item is in the public domain.

#  We’ve also seen original and reprint items laminated and sold as tablemats for humans and animals.

#  Items in the public domain can be used to create your own unique brand of giftwrap and gift tags.  We’ve seen such items selling very well through niche market categories such as dog breeds, railway memorabilia, angels, witchcraft for Halloween, equestrian, and so on.  All you have to do is scan in your favourite pictures, open a ‘Word’ document, and manoeuvre the pictures into place on a page of appropriate size.  A4 works best for giftwrap and almost any size works well for tags which can also be laminated and cut to size.

#  Public domain items can be copied and sold to scrapbook enthusiasts, either copied from the originals or you  might go one better and offer one-off, unique items cut directly from the pages of old books, magazines and newspapers or else limited edition copies.

#  Woodwork plans are especially good sellers.  They can be for log houses, sledges, anything, and they will always attract a ready audience.  If they are in the public domain you can  reproduce them as many copies as you like.