The Bee House – A Tiny House for My Little Insect Friends {recycled}

Hello again,

So today I have something different from the usual fare.  It’s a little bee house complete with bees  buzz buzzing around!

This is intended as my DT project for the April MTW Main Challenge and so I have been thinking about this one for a few months but this was not what I had in mind!  It just came to me when I used up the contents of this box – not me personally since it’s cat food lol but the kitty did enjoy it thoroughly. So it’s a small box that contains 4 sachets of overpriced cat food but the box itself is actually quite sturdy so it seemed a waste to just throw it into the recycling, and then I thought about this challenge and decided to make a little insect house which then became a bee house.  Here’s how…

The top flap of the box was cut to form one side of the roof just by finding the mid point and drawing the lines, then cutting it into the V shape.

That took care of one side, but I had to add other recycled box cardboard to create the rest of the roof.  The existing side flaps for the box would do as roof supports when it came time to add the corrugated cardboard.

I cut this piece of corrugated cardboard off of another box, and used this craft knife to scrap off some of the paper to expose the corrugation, and roughen it up a bit to make it more rustic.

Before I put the roof on, I thought it was a good idea to add a little entrance for my bees.  I marked out the middle in pencil, and then drew around this washi tape which was the perfect size!

I cut it out using a craft knife and then I had all my house pieces ready to assemble.

I gave my little house a couple of coats of white gesso (needed because of the bright text) and then a coat of Paperartsy Fresco paint in Stone.

Leaving that to dry, I stamped out some insects from Tim Holtz Entomology set using Archival inks.

I coloured them in using Distress Markers.

I used the matching dies to cut out my little insect buddies.

I added some Nuvo Drops in black to all of them, then some yellow to the bees, and then some glittery Stickles.

Back to the house, and I stamped some of my favourite weed stamps in Olive Archival, around all four sides of the house.

I added some brickwork to the little house using this cardboard stencil I made for a previous project and it’s still going strong!  It was die cut from another TH set.  You can see more about it by clicking here.  This time I mixed up some texture paste with Paperartsy Fresco paint in Brown Shed.

I left it to dry but gave it a helping hand with a burst from my hairdryer.  All that was left to do was glue the roof on and let the bees move in!

And they sure did!   Buzz buzz buzz…

They even invited some of their little ladybird friends along…

The bee house – something I would really love to have some day – I’m all about saving the bees! Without bees we would have no flowers and no food!

So my interpretation of the word inspiration is the every day activity that goes on mostly unnoticed by us, a hive of activity if you will.  Save the bees!

Here are the details for this month’s More Than Words main challenge:

I’d love to see what you make so don’t forget to enter the More Than Words Main Challenge which is open till the end of the month!

Challenges

PROJECT RECIPE:

Finnabair white gesso
Paperartsy Fresco paints – Stone, Brown Shed
Tim Holtz Entomology stamps and dies, Distress Markers, Texture Paste
Archival ink Onyx Black, Watering Can, Olive
Rubber Dance Weed Love
Nuvo Drops
Stickles
From Stash: cat food box, corrugated cardboard from box,  brick stencil made from cardboard for previous project

I started something new for April:

Since we are all stuck inside and can’t leave the house, I thought I would try and do two things:
1. use this time to finish any unfinished projects
2. use as much recycled materials as possible (I do this a lot anyway) but also not to buy new stuff!
So, with that in mind, I will note the above on any posts, if applicable.
UNFINISHED PROJECT – NO
RECYCLED MATERIALS – YES (cat food box, corrugated box cardboard) cardboard stencil,

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