Santa's Beer Sleigh

Okay, so this post is WAY behind schedule, but out of all the gifts I gave this Christmas, this one was my fave so I have to share it with you.  The cousins in my family always do a gift exchange and this year I drew my cousin Travis, and I had absolutely no idea what to get him.  Then I thought to myself, what does Travis love the most?  Well, he's a thirty year old dude, so beer, obviously!  But I couldn't just give beer, so I dressed it up a little.  First, I made beer reindeer (or reinbeer as I like to call them).  I used brown pipe cleaners for the antlers, brown and red fuzzy balls for the noses, and little googly eyes for the eyes.  I wrapped the pipe cleaners and glued on the eyes and noses.

Then I made a beer Santa.  I wrapped red felt around the can, topped with a black ribbon belt.  For the hat, I found this awesome Hershey kiss, shaped and wrapped perfectly!

I used the beer box for the sleigh (this was an 18 pack).  I just cut out the sides in the shape of a sleigh and did some taping with clear packing tape.  In the back of the sleigh, I put the rest of the beer cans with little ribbons on top to be Santa's presents.  (I also enclosed a gift card, couldn't just give beer!)

And then I put it all together!  I used the top of the box to lay out the reinbeer in front of the sleigh.  Here's the whole thing all together, Santa and his reinbeer!

The sleigh was a smashing success.  Tons of fun to make and give!  If I were to do this again (and I totally will), I would use something much sturdier to mount it on.  It was very difficult to travel with this baby and I had to do some reinbeer surgery when we arrived at my aunt's house.  But totally worth it, don't you think?