Gift Ideas, Holidays / Entertaining, To Buy / To Try

Dean & DeLuca Gift Bows


It’s a regular Christmas miracle people! I’ve done something crafty and lived to tell the tale. I re-discovered the How About Orange homemade gift bow tutorial recently while reviewing the “Christmas” tag on my Delicious account. This was an item I’d saved way back in 2009 when I can only assume I was suffering from some sort of holiday induced delusion. Of course I had just recycled all of the magazines that had been laying around the apartment so I had to wait until something suitable arrived in the mail.


Then yesterday a Dean & DeLuca catalog appeared and the glossy food-filled pages seemed irresistibly perfect for the project. Cutting out the strips for the bows was surprisingly easy although the cats insisted that they help so the process involved a lot of, “Stop it Watson!” and “Dexter No!” exclamations. I definitely re-affirmed how completely non-craft minded I am though when it came time to shape each section into loops. CK eventually had to show me how to do it. You can probably tell from the images which one I made completely wrong and the two that are shaped correctly.

The instructions mention using something called “glue dots” to put the bow together. I just used tape. Glue dots sound like something a serious crafter would have on hand at all times so I bet some of you have a ready supply. It took me 90 minutes to make three bows so keep that in mind. Regardless, I think they’re still pretty cute! Can you tell which pages I used?