Story-inspired decor: Using book jacket covers as art!

There's nothing like getting a new book.  The way the binding cracks a bit when you open it for the first time, the crispness of the pages, the excitement of a new story… I just love it!  My children are very fortunate to receive many books as gifts and never fail to light up when a new story is added to our collection. One of their uncles gives them fabulous new books regularly, and without fail, they excitedly rip open the package, take out the book, remove the jacket cover and toss it aside, and dive into the story.  It's wonderful.

But this brings me to my jacket cover dilemma.  Once we started reading hardcover books with our son, we quickly realized that jacket covers had to go.  They were always getting crumpled or taken off or bent or otherwise ruined, so it just seemed easier to remove them from the beginning.  Not knowing what to do with them, I kept them in a small stack on a closet shelf.  Should I just recycle them?  Keep them to put back on the book someday when the kids got a little older?  Many of the hand-me-down books we received from family members still had the covers on, which amazed me somewhat.  I kept them, thinking I'd put them back on the books someday, but then I had an idea for how to use some of them.

As our library of children's books has grown, we have developed many family favorites.  It has become clear that, while there are many books we love and enjoy, some stories will always hold a particularly special place in our hearts.  (Or maybe just my heart, I don't know.)  My children definitely have certain favorites that we've read countless times, and I know that twenty years from now, they will remember these stories fondly.  As I was thinking about how to create a little reading corner in my daughter's room one day, I thought, "Wouldn't it be cute if I could put some art up on the wall from her favorite stories?" Jacket covers would be the perfect thing!

It took me a while to find frames that I liked (and that weren't crazy expensive), but, as it so often does, Target came to the rescue.  I got several frames on sale for about $2 a piece and love them (especially because the piece on the back that can be used to stand the frame up rests inside the back of the frame, not on top of it.  This makes it hang on the wall so much better.)  I pulled out some of our favorite book covers and got to work.

Can you tell which of our favorite books are featured here, besides the Curious Garden?

I have several other story book covers that I'd like to frame, too, and think the wall would look even better that way.  A few of our favorite books are paperbacks so we don't have jacket covers to frame, but that's okay.  I think I'll just print some images from those books on our color printer and frame those, instead.  Hopefully Target will have more of these frames in stock the next time I go so I can stock up on a few more!  I'd love to hang some in my son's room, too.   I still have a big stack of jacket covers in a pile in the closet, but some of them, at least, have now been put to good use.