[Gifts for the Husband] DIY Beer Advent Calendar

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

I'm so excited to share this with you today! A couple weeks ago, I shared that I saw that beer advent calendar at Costco. I had asked Seth if he would like it but he took a look at the beers in it and decided that he didn't think he would like enough to make it worthwhile. Plus it was pretty expensive, so if he didn't think he would like the beers, I didn't want to try it. BUT when I shared about it,  Desiree casually commented that I should make my own. And an idea was born! I absolutely loved her idea and couldn't believe I didn't think of it earlier, so I immediately got to searching Pinterest (because duh) for how to make one. To my surprise, I could barely find anything! How had this not been done before? I was shocked. So, without Pinterest's help (*audible gasp*), I made Seth a beer advent calendar for Christmas!
Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

I'll be honest. I'm sure this could have been done better, but given the fact that I had no template and really had no clue what I was doing, not to toot my own horn, but I am REALLY happy with how it turned out!

Going in, I had NO clue how I wanted to make it work, so I did what anyone would do... I headed to Hobby Lobby and hoped for inspiration to pop out at me. And luckily for me, it did! I literally walked around the whole store twice before I landed on this idea. I found this Merry Christmas trunk, googled how tall beer bottles are, and guesstimated that I could fit 24 beer bottles in the trunk. So at 50% off, I picked up the trunk, some crinkle paper for packing purposes, and some Christmas paper. If I were to estimate, I'd say the total came to maybe $15-$18 for these three things.

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar
Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

Then came the actual wrapping of the beer bottles so he couldn't tell what they were. I knew I needed to wrap the main label but then some had additional labels as well as a cap so I had to get creative. To be honest, I didn't even measure the paper, so these instructions are really technical, but basically I just measured the paper up to the bottle to make sure that the paper would cover the label and I cut. If I had to guess, it's probably 4-4.5 inches tall and cut from a piece of paper portrait wise. I did this with 10-12 different paper designs so the bottles would be wrapped uniquely. I then taped one edge to the bottle and then wrapped the paper around, lined it up, and taped the other side.

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

For the top label on the neck of the bottle, I cut a strip of paper and had planned to wrap it around and call it a day. But I ended up not liking how that looked, so I cut a little off and wrapped it a little tighter and liked that look better.

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

To cover the top, I made numbers. This will let Seth know which beer to open on which day. I got real technical with this process and pulled out one of Mason's blocks and traced it to create a circle. It would have been a WHOLE lot easier and faster if I could have found my circle punch, but alas, I couldn't so I made due with what I had. Once I cut out all the circles, I added my numbers, and put some tape on the back, and then taped them to the lids of each of the beer bottles.

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar
Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar
Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar
Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

And at this point, I was pretty much done! It was pretty easy but was very timely. If I had to guess, I'd say the whole thing probably took 2-3 hours.

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

I put the bottles in the trunk and added some crinkly paper for packing purposes.

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

Chasin' Mason : Beer Advent Calendar

And there you have it! A DIY beer advent calendar! I'm very happy with how it turned out and Seth was SO excited to find out that this was his gift. I plan to let him "open" the beer in the morning so he can see what it is and then put it in the fridge to cool so he can have it with dinner. Hopefully he likes the beers I chose as I didn't realllllly know what I was doing. I kind of know the kinds of beer he likes  so I just went to Total Wine and More (they have a giant single beer selection!), looked in the kinds he likes, and picked top rated, cheap-ish beers. And by cheap-ish, I meant they all cost between $1.99-$3.99 per beer, so if you're trying to plan, overall I spent $65 on this gift. 

I definitely think it was worth it, and if he ends up liking the majority of these beers, this just may be my new go to gift!



32 comments:

  1. LOVE this! Luke would love this. I'm pinning for next year!

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  2. That is AMAZING!!! Drew would flip over it. I wish I had thought to do something like that. I'm pinning it for next year. Great idea!

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  3. This is awesome! It'd be a great gift idea too, just a decorative case of beer. You did a great job!

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  4. You did AWESOME!!!!! I can't believe Pinterest didn't have anything. You are going to be the beer advent queen in pinning world! :-)

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  5. This is the BEST!!! My husband would die! :)

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  6. Oh my goodness, favorite post and idea EVER! It looks so great and what a fun idea! Totally doing this one of these years!!!!

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  7. This is the BEST men's advent calendar Ive ever seen! Did you get any pictures of the beer prewrapping? I wonder if you could send the beer company a picture and get some recognition for your crafty and hard work! Im totally pinning this!!!

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  8. Oh my goodness!! I love, love this idea!! How awesome :) I think I am going to have to do this ASAP. Trying to decide if I should start it now or have it as a gift and have them be 1 new beer a day to try in the new year! Thanks for this!

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  9. This is the CUTEST idea ever! I will totally be doing this for my husband (though it may start late...)

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  10. This is genius!! I love this idea! I want to do this with wine so I have an excuse to drink an entire bottle of wine every night this month!! ;) Kidding. Pinning this right now!!

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  11. This is amazing!! I may have to whip this up real quick!

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  12. Good job, LOVE it, turned out awesome!! Seth is one lucky guy. :)

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  13. It turned out SO AWESOME!!! I LOVE IT!!
    Serious props for creating everything on your own. And, so happy Seth loves the gift!!

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  14. I adore this and you should become a Pinterest sensation with it! It's amazing and such a great idea!!!

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  15. This is a GREAT idea! My husband would love it. I am thinking I could do this on a smaller scale for the dice game that is played at my in-laws each year. Thanks for the awesome idea, and for linking up with us today!

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  16. This is the most creative thing I have seen all day! I love it!!

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  17. This is absolutely AMAZING! I'm totally stealing this idea for next year, because I don't have time to get my act together this year. But seriously best wife ever award goes to you!!!

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  18. That is soooo cool! You're an awesome wife!

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  19. Genius! Alcoholic advent calendars should really be more of a thing. I want one for myself ;)

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  20. i'm DYING over this. its hands down genius. and i wish you'd shared sooner. . . i mean secrets dont make friends ;) i know a certain husband who would have loved this. oooh. i would have loved this with bacon instead of beer. and now you know what to get me next year!

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  21. Wow!!! Best gift for a beer drinker in your life! I love how easily this was done. And now you can keep the trunk after he's finished :) How did you pick the beers?

    liz @ sundays with sophie

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  22. How fun is this? You did a great job. The bottles look so fun and festive. I am with Sara on the wine advent!!

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  23. How creative! I love that you made it yourself with beers that he might like! Your husband should rate the beers at the end for us or list top five.

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  24. This is totally the coolest thing I've seen so far this season. I say, market these babies! Happy you shared these on our Tuesday Talk party this week. I'll be featuring this on next week's Tuesday Talk. I think any man who likes his beer would be in heaven. I know mine would.

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  25. I totally LOVE LOVE LOVE this! It's so fun and creative! I will have to save this for a future present!!! GENIUS!

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  26. You are seriously like the BEST wife ever. I must join your ranks and put one together for Russ next year.

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  27. Did you give this to him early or did you give it to him for Christmas?

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    1. Hi Ashley! I wanted to make sure to reply to you, but I couldn't email you back since your email is not connected to your profile so hopefully you come back and see this! I gave it to him early. On December 1st actually. That way he could have it as an advent calendar and count down to Christmas. He got to open a new beer every day!

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  28. I am working on trying to find a chest...any ideas of where to look? Thanks!

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    1. Hi Ruthann! I couldn't reply to your comment through email because your comment didn't show your email, so hopefully you come back here to check! I found this chest at Hobby Lobby I believe. But I bet they'd have something similar at Michael's or maybe JoAnn's too!

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  29. I saw this last month. Brilliant idea!!! I plan on doing this for my boyfriend this xmas! Thanks for the great idea!!

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