You don't have to be crafty to have a handmade holiday! You can buy handmade gifts like these awesome book journals for the folks on your list instead.

Jacob of Ex Libris Anonymous creates his beautiful book journals in his Portland, Oregon studio. He was kind enough to send me a journal to review, but I'd been a long-time fan of his work. He constructs each journal with the cover from a vintage book, and they are a mix of blank pages and pages from the original.

What I love about Jacob's journals is that he manages to keep so much of the character of the original. The Ramona Quimby journal that I picked out not only has original pages in it but the original library card:

That piece of tape on the cover is also part of the journal's charm (see the photo at the very top). Maybe the original owner or someone who borrowed it from the library taped a note to the cover, or maybe the book was out on the table while she was working on a crafty school project and that was just an errant piece of tape that got stuck to her library book.

Old books have more stories than just the pages within, and I love that Ex Libris Anonymous journals capture those moments.

Journals make great holiday gifts for men or women of pretty much any age. Who doesn't have thoughts, lists, and reminders to write down, right? And everyone has a book or author that's close to their heart!

You can find Jacob's journals on the Ex Libris Anonymous website and in his Etsy shop.