My game (Sterling's Gift) uses a new (at least new to me - there are some smart folks out there who might already do this) method of displaying inventory items.
I came up with the idea when I was trying to make my game realistic so that when you picked up an item into inventory you could display a picture much better than the ICON pics.
I do not use the "inventory" features at all (I use flags and logic to determine when an inventory item is displayed).
Sterling's Gift uses very little in the way of 3D graphics (only for some special effects), the rest of the game utilizes photographs.
I take a picture with the item of interest on a table. Then I remove the item and take another picture (tripod and manual camera settings to ensure no change in the rest of the pic). Then I take another picture of the item on a black or white poster board and using Photoshop I make the black or white background transparent. Then I crop and save the picture as a GIF with transparancy.
In the game, when you click on the item a flag is set (which allows a new nonfunctional hotspot to be seen at the top of the page (which is the GIF image) - Looks Great
You need more flag logic to make sure that when you return to the spot where you picked up the item it is not there (your second picture is used after you pick up the item). Any then more flags when you use the item by clicking on it. It is more work but in my opinion and for my game it was well worth it.
Attached is a screen shot from within the project that shows the "inventory" items on the top of the frame.
www.sterlingsgift.com