The Secret Beehive

I have a goal to begin keeping bees next year...which means I am obsessed with all things

bee. They are such amazing creatures and learning about how they help our environment has been mind blowing. So I came up with a very simple project of a beehive hidden among a flower garden. The steps are so simple leading to a gorgeous finish!

Materials Needed:

~Cereal box

~Paint (we used IKEA squeeze paints)

~Watercolor Paper

~Any beehive looking stamp such as bubble wrap

~Oil Pastels

~Watercolor

~Model Magic yellow and black

~Wire

~Hot Glue

~Plastic from recycled egg crates

First cut a rectangle from the face of your cereal box, leaving an inch border for gluing of the flowers. Then using your beehive stamps (bubble wrap) dip it flat into gold then print on the inside of the cereal box. Gold paint can appear pale so several coats work best, as well as using some brown paint.

Next, discuss and study flowers with your children. With sharpies create large flowers on the watercolor paper. We had some with stems and some flowers created using only the number 3 or 8! Have some fun! Then give detail to the flowers with oil pastels, taking care not to fill in the entire flower. Now use the watercolor to paint each flower. To create even more detail and depth use the IKEA paints to add soft lines and dots.

Once the flowers have dried you may cut them out. We helped our kids with this but the cutting does not need to be perfect. then arrange the flowers around the cereal shadow box. We used cut egg crates behind some flowers just to give some depth and perspective. Hot glue seemed to work best.

Now for the bees!!! We made wings using the flat portion of plastic egg crates (I do not throw away anything apparently). My little buddy said they looked like a bone and he's not wrong. I didn't take a picture but basically the model magic will need to wrap around the middle of the wings to hold together. So first use yellow and make a small snake shape then wrap around the wings! Then make a small head to attach to that. Add an oval shape for his stinger. Use the black portion of the dough to create lines, antennae, and eyes. Slip a 3-4" wire into that buzzy little guy and we are ready to attach him to the hive! Use your finger to twist the wire then attach the end using hot glue to your project. Some of our artists wanted a bee sitting on a flower. In this case we did not use a wire but instead let the model magic dry a bit then glued the bee on!