Hack The Holidays

Your hands-on, screen-printing, bath-bombing, book-binding DIY gift guide.

by Holly Otterbein

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Published: Dec 2, 2009

By: Evan M. Lopez

At first, I was afraid that asking people to get involved in this year's DIY Gift Guide was a bit like begging Google for its secret algorithm, pro bono. I had to persuade some of the city's best cooks, gardeners, artists and business owners to hand over step-by-step instructions to their life's work — for free — all so our readers could give their beloveds something handmade and homegrown for the holidays.

I expected, at best, a few dropped calls.

Instead, the average response went something like this: "YES YES YES YES YES!" read an e-mail from Jeremy Lauder, the Derisory Designs owner who taught me how to screen print a T-shirt. Other people's reactions weren't quite as capitalized, but were just as gracious. When I nervously bugged Margaux Kent, founder of The Black Spot Books, at least 73 times to help me get the stitching on her hand-bound books just right, she laughed. "Of course I'll help," she said. "And stop saying 'sorry for asking' so many times."

Sure, on some level, publicity was probably a motivating factor. But don't take that thought too far, Scrooge. A good, healthy part of it also came from pure, wholesome, Google-size holiday cheer.

Gift Photos by Neal Santos

Nano Gardening
A Piece of Me
Dropping The Bomb
Bleu Christmas
Screen Saver
Page Turner
T-Shirt Gifts
Green Thumb Gifts
Book Gifts
Kids' Gifts
Food Gifts
Bath/Body Gifts
Book Quarterly: The Big Four
Book Quarterly: Small Fortune