Recycled Holidays: Help Save the Earth with Upcycled Gifts

With the holidays just around the corner, you may be thinking about the special gifts you'll get your friends and family. Instead of purchasing the next big gadget, popular toy or fancy jewelry, why not try making a few of your gifts instead? Not only will it cost you less money, but it also could help you declutter your home and save precious materials from ending up in a landfill.

In celebration of this year’s One Book, One Chicago selection, The Sixth Extinction, consider using recycled and repurposed items to make a few of your gifts and help save the Earth in the process. Check out these books for some inspiration:

In Homemade Holiday, you'll find 40 holiday craft projects perfect for both decorations and gift-giving. Why not use your outdated nail polish and old ball ornaments to create beautiful marbled tree ornaments? Or perhaps you'd prefer to knit slippers with leftover yarn or create candles with repurposed bottles? The possibilities are truly endless.

If you're looking for environmentally friendly ways to wrap your homemade gifts, look no further than Simply Green Giving. Here you'll find unique ideas for gift wrap, bows, cards and more.

Maybe you have a lot of old and unwanted clothing that you're looking to reuse. If so, check out Big Hook Rag Crochet. You'll discover 25 projects that use eco-friendly fabric strips to make slippers, accent rugs, accessories and more.

If you prefer to gift your loved ones with homemade jewelry, then check out Jewelry Upcycled! Here you'll find plenty of ideas to reuse metal, plastic, glass and fabric to create unique jewelry pieces your loved ones will be proud to wear.

Who doesn't have a bunch of leftover paper products in their home? Instead of throwing it out or tossing it into the recycler, consider picking up Paper Made! You'll learn about proper techniques when working with paper and find a variety of craft projects suitable for year-round crafting.

If you'd like even more crafty gift ideas, check out The Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts. With hundreds of project ideas, you're sure to find something to suit your needs.

Have you completed any great crafting projects lately? Tell us about them in the comments!