Book Crafts: Making Books Into Art

“May your shelves always overflow with books” reads a typographical quote printed on a vintage dictionary page. This framed book art is crafted by Bookishly, Louise Verity’s studio in Northamptonshire, UK, which designs products to share the joy of reading. Her very first book craft was framed pages from Alice in Wonderland featuring John Tenniel’s illustrations, selling a set of six to a customer in Alabama. Later, Louise had the idea to start inking quotes over the text, and that’s how the current Bookishly framed book page design got its start. Thirteen years later, there are 80 book page designs available featuring notable lines from texts ranging from Dracula to Peter Pan with “Though she be but little she is fierce” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream being Bookishly’s most popular quote. 

Louise is not alone in her design of literary-inspired crafts. Book-loving artisans have ideated many unique ways for books to not only line your shelves but also to adorn your walls, accessorize your attire, deck your halls, light your bedsides, transport your coffee, and personalize your wedding. Read on to discover art crafted from beloved texts and to learn how to create your own bookish crafts at BookGive’s book bouquet event on April 23.  

Décor and Accessories

Amanda Ballard is a self-described voracious reader whose love of books blossomed when she discovered her grandmother’s stash of book of the month club novels from the 1950s. When health concerns required her to make a career transition out of banking, she sought out book crafts she could create and sell using those vintage texts. Inspired by paper wreaths on Pinterest, she began practicing those designs with a pad of clearance scrapbook paper before transitioning to constructing wall art with pages of the classics, including Pride and Prejudice and other used or discarded books.

She and her husband Nathan now run BallardDecor from their home in Roseburg, Oregon, and have expanded their products to include earrings, hair barrettes, magnets, greeting cards, and gift bags made with both book pages and vintage travel maps, having found a set of 1891 Century encyclopedias for $5. They love making custom creations, such as lapel pins, with personal significance to brides and grooms, with special requests including quotes from The Little Prince and maps that featured the groom’s birthplace, Wales. 

Malena Valcárcel of Alicante, Spain also specializes in décor and jewelry, “transforming books into a new story in a way to make people stop and appreciate – if just for a moment – the magic of books.” Rescuing discarded texts, Malena crafts them into scenes, ranging from treehouses to castles.

The sculptures may be based on storybook tales, including Where the Wild Things Are and Malena’s favorite The Little Prince, or inspired by songs, such as “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison, pictured here. A former English teacher, Malena got her start simply by making paper shapes and figures in her free time, creating her first piece “House in a Field” in 2014. She names that patience is how she was able to perfect her craft with each sculpture taking between two and six weeks to complete. Malena also creates jewelry from book pages with unique geometric designs, all of which are sold on her Etsy shop. 

Holiday Ornaments

A head-over-heels lover of books and a papercrafting teacher and designer, Faith Chan of Greenville, Delaware has been “giving damaged books new life since 2005” with her Novel Adornment® art ornament collection. The first ornament she created was a personal piece using a well-loved copy of Pride and Prejudice whose pages and spine were falling apart. Not having the heart to throw the book away, Faith wanted to create a keepsake that would enable her to still read the lines and allow the Christmas tree lights to illuminate the paper.

Sketching, trial and error, and the development of unique papercrafting tools resulted in the genesis of the Novel Adornment® design: readable corkscrew curled strips in a clear glass ornament. Two years later, Faith’s business was born when a client saw her art ornament on display and declared she “must have it.”

After using her own damaged books, Faith acquired a collection of texts to use for her designs at garage and estate sales, used bookstores, thrift stores, and online sellers. She has more than 400 titles ranging from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to Dr. Suess’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish on her Etsy shop and more than 100 additional titles available for custom order requests in unlisted stock. Of her more than 30,000 Novel Adornment® ornaments sold to-date, Pride and Prejudice and A Christmas Carol are the most popular titles. Faith appreciates how meaningful the “small pieces she creates with her own hands” can be for her customers, including two bibliophiles who gave ornaments featuring the first book they ever read together as their wedding favor. 

Lamps

In your search for your next reading light, consider one with a book as its foundation. Eli and Cortney Hornyak started their used bookstore, The Bookworm, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, four years ago, and as they began collecting books to sell, they received a lot of hardbacks without the dust jackets. Knowing they wouldn’t sell those in the store, they began to ideate ways to use them, and Eli remembered learning how to build a lamp in his high school shop class. Practice and better hardware and tools allowed Eli to perfect the book lamp design. They now have 23 styles (and counting) on their TheBookwormMB Etsy shop, ranging from Jurassic Park to Phantom of the Opera with their wizard stack and Stephen King book lamps being the most popular. They also build custom creations that have unique meaning to the customer, including a lamp made from a stack of Dorothea Benton Frank books, a local author whose beach reads are set in South Carolina. 

Tumblers

Caulene Millikan of Medford, Oregon first started making beverage tumblers in 2020, inspired by a TikTok video that featured a fall glitter snowglobe motif. She recently made her first book-inspired cup when her friend requested a wizardly design. Using book pages and strips of glitter in the colors of Dawn’s favorite Hogwarts house, the Wizard House tumbler was born. This first bookish design is available on her DesignByNene Etsy shop, and Caulene hopes to expand her designs to feature novels such as The Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. 

Book Bouquets 

Medjoy Astudillo started making paper flowers eight years ago as an alternative to fresh flowers for her wedding, seeking out vintage books for her bouquet because of her fondness for the color and texture of old books. She turned her hobby into With Love & Petals, where she designs book flower arrangements for special events as well as hosts workshops in her hometown of San Diego and YouTube tutorials to guide book lovers in the creation of their own literary crafts. She herself learned by studying videos and photos online, practicing the techniques, and adding her own signature style, using tools that are common in many households: a glue gun, tweezers, wire cutters, a screwdriver, and a pair of purple kitchen scissors. Her most challenging and favorite flower to make is the Marianne Book Rose, which takes precision to cut, curl, and bend the paper to achieve the finished floral look. Medjoy’s arrangements have been included in more than 1,000 weddings, including both of Melinda and Anton Medrano’s ceremonies in Southern California. Medjoy crafted a custom tropical teardrop bouquet for Melinda, using preloved book pages and one flower made of their love letters featured in the center of the bouquet, and a boutonniere for Anton, also crafted from their love letters. The wedding also featured bouquets and boutonnieres for the wedding party as well as book corsages and book garland. 

Photos by @RuffMedia, featuring bride and groom @melindammedrano and @anton4u_

Make Your Own Bookish Décor 

If you’re feeling inspired to craft your own literary designs, register for BookGive’s Book Bouquet Class. Learn to make paper roses and butterflies with BookGive volunteer Miranda Ericksen (who also doubles as BookBar manager) using texts that would otherwise be recycled. 

The event is open to anyone 10 years of age or older, though youth ages 10-15 should participate with an accompanying adult. The event is $20 and includes all materials and a snack, and every participant can take home five free books! Proceeds from the event support BookGive’s ability to deliver books to organizations and community members across its seven-county region. 

Seats are limited to 20 participants per class, which will be hosted at 1 pm and 3 pm on Saturday, April 23, at the Service Station, 4890 Lowell Boulevard in Denver. 

As Medjoy describes, “making paper flowers isn’t easy, but if you keep practicing and studying the process, you will and can make beautiful things happen.” Get your ticket to start learning and practicing today!

Support the Artisans

Bookmark this page as a gift guide for the book lovers in your life, and follow the artisans featured here to see their latest designs: @thebookworm.mb @noveladornment @designbynene @malenavalcarcel @withloveandpetals @bookishlyuk

This blog contributed by BookGive volunteer and Advisory Coucil member, Colleen Maleski.