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.
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.
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.
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.
I put the bottles in the trunk and added some crinkly paper for packing purposes.
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!
LOVE this! Luke would love this. I'm pinning for next year!
ReplyDeleteThat 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!
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome! It'd be a great gift idea too, just a decorative case of beer. You did a great job!
ReplyDeleteYou did AWESOME!!!!! I can't believe Pinterest didn't have anything. You are going to be the beer advent queen in pinning world! :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is the BEST!!! My husband would die! :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, favorite post and idea EVER! It looks so great and what a fun idea! Totally doing this one of these years!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis 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!!!
ReplyDeleteOh 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!
ReplyDeleteThis is the CUTEST idea ever! I will totally be doing this for my husband (though it may start late...)
ReplyDeleteThis 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!!
ReplyDeleteSuch a cool idea!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing!! I may have to whip this up real quick!
ReplyDeleteGood job, LOVE it, turned out awesome!! Seth is one lucky guy. :)
ReplyDeleteIt turned out SO AWESOME!!! I LOVE IT!!
ReplyDeleteSerious props for creating everything on your own. And, so happy Seth loves the gift!!
I adore this and you should become a Pinterest sensation with it! It's amazing and such a great idea!!!
ReplyDeleteThis 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!
ReplyDeleteThis is the most creative thing I have seen all day! I love it!!
ReplyDeleteThis 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!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is soooo cool! You're an awesome wife!
ReplyDeleteGenius! Alcoholic advent calendars should really be more of a thing. I want one for myself ;)
ReplyDeletei'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!
ReplyDeleteWow!!! 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?
ReplyDeleteliz @ sundays with sophie
How fun is this? You did a great job. The bottles look so fun and festive. I am with Sara on the wine advent!!
ReplyDeleteHow 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.
ReplyDeleteThis 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.
ReplyDeleteI totally LOVE LOVE LOVE this! It's so fun and creative! I will have to save this for a future present!!! GENIUS!
ReplyDeleteYou are seriously like the BEST wife ever. I must join your ranks and put one together for Russ next year.
ReplyDeleteDid you give this to him early or did you give it to him for Christmas?
ReplyDeleteHi 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!
DeleteI am working on trying to find a chest...any ideas of where to look? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi 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!
DeleteI saw this last month. Brilliant idea!!! I plan on doing this for my boyfriend this xmas! Thanks for the great idea!!
ReplyDelete