5 DIY Crafts for Used Books

by 01/17/11 10 Comments

Pretty Purse

Purse from Book Covers Country Living

While these little purses may not work for the everyday grind, we love the idea of taking them out for a strol...once the weather warms, of course. Photo: CountryLiving.com

As many of the projects in this story deal with the actual pages of a book, we thought it best to toss in an idea about how to reuse the covers as well. Brought to us again by the creative minds of Country Living, this purse tutorial is one of the best out there.

Ranking at more of an intermediate level, this craft will help you create a cute clutch in 11 steps or less (or more, if you’re this writer…), according to writer Barbara McNamara, whose easy guide will have you with a new bag in hand in no time.

We recommend having a book in mind before you go out to buy the handle kit and liner fabric, as you will want these items to coordinate through patterns or colors. Don’t forget to have your iron handy as well, to help the fabric lay straight as you cut and measure.

Also, larger, hardcover books will work better to provide space for all the various and sundries you’re bound to toss into this particular purse.

Next: Literary Table Legs

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Jennifer Berry

Jennifer Berry

Jennifer Berry is the Social Media Editor and Sr. PR Director for Earth911.com. You can follow her on Twitter @jenn_berry.


  1. Mo Orsatti

    posted on October 20th, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    Great and inexpensive decorating ideas! Love it!

  2. Emma Kay Dorsey

    posted on December 21st, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    so cute!

  3. Dawn Martin

    posted on March 13th, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    Like the purse idea. Anyone notice that you can use the entire book--with no waste--by using the binding for this craft--then by using the pages for the first craft idea in this story? and, I'm still reading so there could be more.

  4. Lina Cuartas

    posted on March 22nd, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    Although it hurts to see my beloveds torn up, these are some truly neat unconventional ideas! love the table!

  5. MaryAlice Ramon-Zepeda

    posted on March 22nd, 2012 at 4:57 pm

    Awesome ideas! I plan on making the wreath out of old sheet music, which is currently in a box in the attic, that my kids have collected & learned to play since elementary school as well as the table out of old college text books & novels my kids have read/used throughout the years!

  6. Maggie Swanson Moody

    posted on March 25th, 2012 at 3:14 am

    Great ideas! I love the wreath and the purse.
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments. The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.

4 Archived Comments

  1. Jon King

    posted on January 17th, 2011 at 5:56 pm

    Great idea’s… our local book stores are taking trade-ins’ now but they have SO many in stock.

  2. Erica

    posted on January 19th, 2011 at 11:43 am

    These are great ideas! I’ve done the secret hollow book before using the same tutorial you referenced. Be warned that it takes a really LONG time to cut out all of those pages. The wreath looks rad. I’ll try that next.

  3. Nicole

    posted on January 28th, 2011 at 8:50 am

    I am a purse freak, I still cry a little inside when my daughter carries one of my favs that I passed on to her cause she loved it, and I love her more than the purse. But this is awsome, I am determined to do this. Now I just have to find the perfect book, which is hard because I love to read and have a hard time getting rid of any of the ones I have, even for trade. Funny huh

  4. Flo

    posted on February 3rd, 2011 at 10:47 pm

    When I first saw the title to this article, I thought “Are these people NUTS?” But then I saw the beautiful and quirky results and was simply tickled. Unfortunately, not all books can be salvaged, sold, and / or rescued. These projects bring a fun life to books that have LITERALLY failed the test of time.

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