Once again I’ve perused the endless book-related offerings on Etsy for you and put together a post filled with suggestions for handcrafted gifts, many of them made with recycled materials. As always I’ve linked both to individual sellers’ stores (click on the seller’s name) AND to the items themselves (click on the photo). If you click on an item but find it’s sold out, visit that seller’s store to see if they’ve listed the item again or contact them to request that they do so. Many sellers have information on their store page about the likelihood of their being able to get these gifts to you before Christmas. (Time is obviously running out!)

Oiseaux sells wonderful personalized bookplates, featuring vintage children’s book illustrations like this one of cavorting fairies:

And this one of three kids on a hilltop:

Luv4sams will make you a bracelet featuring your favorite words from the dictionary:

Ephemeralogie creates fun paperweights using "retro" images, many featuring readers, like this one:

But my FAVORITE find are KokoStudios‘ framed butterflies with wordy wings that are referred to as "Ex Book Worms." (Though I suppose technically they would have had to be book caterpillars.) This particular batch features text from Treasure Island.

The butterflies above would look nice hung alongside this "Bookgirl Print" by Ward Jenkins (a.k.a. Wardomatic) whose Flickr page is one of my favorite places to poke around:

ReFabulous is selling a wallet or card holder featuring Avi’s Midnight Magic:

IKCDesign features some GREAT checkbook covers made from recycled children’s book pages and such. Here’s one from A Light in the Attic:

They also sell this SUPER clever bookends made from recycled records. Here’s The Clash’s Combat Rock, repurposed:

If you like your bling to sport books, consider these earrings from laurenelgee:

I am totally enamoured with this pillow from Pillowphyte that features a stack of books in the center, bordered by fabric sporting text from Dick and Jane books:

A lot of people on Etsy sell journals made from repurposed books. TylerBender rebinds his beautifully, making them pricier than some of the others I’ve seen, but much, much nicer too. You can look at all the options currently available in his Etsy shop OR send him any hardcover book that you’d like to have rebuilt as journals like these:

ISOSC makes toys from recycled books, like this Jacob’s Ladder, made from a hardcover book called Real Estate Principles:

Illustrator Lauren Castillo (whose art graces the pages of What Happens on Wednesdays by Emily Jenkins and Buffalo Music by Tracy E. Fern, among others) has an Etsy shop where she sells prints of some lovely paintings. Here’s "Brooklyn Snow" for example:

If you’ve got a bit more money to burn, take a look at the music boxes jenkhoshbin makes out of old books! I LOVE this idea! Here’s one that was a copy of The Star Rover by Jack London in a previous life:

Remember that fun Olivia fabric I featured way back in February? Well CustomKids used those entertaining patterns to create this fabulous chef’s hat AND a matching apron!

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I know a LOT of librarians who’d love to own a print of this painting called "Penelope" by Erin McGuire, whose shop is paperbones:

Moonlightbindery has finally found a great use for old New Yorker covers — they put them on the cover of a beautiful, coptic bound journal like this one below, featuring an illustration by Dan Clowes (who’s probably best known for Ghost World).

SackReligious is one of many Etsy sellers that creates handbags made from hardcover books, like this "Crossword Clutch", which is perfect for that crossword junkie in your life.

The SackReligious store also currently features this mirror "decoupaged with excerpts from classics including Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Sherlock Holmes, A Tale of Two Cities, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Romeo & Juliet, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Time Machine."

Looking for atypical holiday decorations this year? Suspend this "book mobile" made by theshophouse from a discarded copy of The Spirit of Christmas from your ceiling then invite me over to take a look. I think this is so COOL!! 

I love the idea behind the reading-themed wreath below from SurprisetheEyes. Hmm… 

Must consider making my own variation. Perhaps with Shrinky-Dinks, which I’ll be featuring in a post later this week… Artsy-craftsy types, stay tuned!