Mix and Match Card Game

I wanted to create a card game to go alongside my book. I was inspired by looking at flip books for children where you can mix and match animal body parts to create new creatures, such as this one by Jen Skelley (http://www.jenskelley.com)

I wanted to link this with my book, and so I see how this idea would translate into a character with different outfits. I drew a basic template of my character so that I could make sure each design matched up at the edges where I wanted to cut - between the neck and shoulders, and just below the arms - so that when put together no matter what combination you used it would still look seamless.

I made eight designs in total, which fit onto two pages that can easily be printed and sold. I tried to vary the designs between fancy dress to match the theme of my book and regular outfits a child would wear, such as a winter coat and scarf, or a pair of pyjamas.

Once I had the designs I printed them off and cut them. I think in the future I need to add a dotted line where they need to be cut to make it easier for people to cut themselves, and perhaps print each design on individual pieces of paper so that they have more space around the edge of each one.

They look really nice together as a set, and in the future I can expand on these and add other outfits to make separate sets that people could purchase. I would need to make sure that any future designs I made were the same size as these and fitted together with them so that people could use them all together, which would make them more collectable and make people more likely to buy multiple sets. 
I could also design a set using a different character. Or perhaps make a character with different facial features and hair, but make sure their body proportions and posture matches this set so that they could be interchangeable if you purchased both sets.

When assembled together the images match up completely lengthways, however because they are on different widths of paper the edges of the paper do not match up which is something I will need to change. 

I can fix this by designing a grid on photoshop and lining them up perfectly before I print them off again, but I would have to make sure I didn't resize them as this could affect how well they match together.

I can also look into other materials to produce these designs onto to make them more sturdy and long lasting. When I was a child I had a game like this but with teddy bears, and the designs were printed onto blocks of wood, meaning that they didn't get damaged and lasted much longer, however this would also add to the production cost of this game, and therefore add to the price I would have to sell them for. 

It would also change the nature of the object entirely, and how I would be able to sell the items. While this is still a card game it still is very simple game that is cheap to produce, and I could sell as a package with my book as a special edition as well as selling on its own. It is easy to make, easy to post to people from my online shop, and has a low production cost so would be more affordable.

If I were to produce this game on wooden blocks I would be unable to package this with the book as they would be bulky and heavy, and would also become more expensive to buy, however it would be much more sturdy and a better quality product.

A way I could solve this is to produce them on card as a standard product, but also produce a "special edition" version printed onto wood. 

I think this is a really effective method that I can greatly expand on and adapt to make lots of different versions. It is definitely something I would continue to use in the future, and although this set was made to match my book I can make various versions of this to go with any books I make in the future.