Easy bee craft for kids – bubble wrap bee art

Such a cute and easy bee craft for kids! Combine an oil and water paint resist technique with some bubble wrap printing to make a fun bumble bee art project.

 

 

Bubble wrap bee craft

This project is part of our complete Sunflower School resources – see them all here.

 

For this bumble bee art project we’ll use an oil and water paint technique to create our bees, and then explore a simple printing technique to create a honeycomb background.

 

For this project you will need:

white card

pencil

scissors

yellow oil pastels or wax crayons

black watercolour paint

bubble wrap

sticky tape

yellow, brown or gold watercolour or acrylic paint

paper plate or shallow tray

googly eyes or black marker pen

lollipop / craft stick

transparent plastic sheet (optional)

 

How to make your bumble bee

Use this oil and paint resist technique to create a stripy bumble bee craft. It’s a fun and simple painting technique for children to try, as they explore the different properties of oil/wax and water.

Draw out a bee shape on a piece of card.

 

 

Use yellow oil pastels or wax crayons to draw on your bee’s stripes.

 

 

Then paint all over the bee using black paint. Notice how the oil pastel / wax crayon resists the paint and your stripes appear.

 

 

Stick on googly eyes, or use a marker pen to draw on eyes.

Cut out wings and fasten them on to your bee’s body with glue or sticky tape. You can use card to make the wings but a piece of transparent plastic, while harder to cut, does look great.

If you’d like to you can stick your bee on to a lollipop/craft stick to make a buzzy bee puppet. You can also add a strip of card on to the back of your bee to make a finger strap, so you can play with your bee like a finger puppet.

 

 

 

How to make your beehive print

Set out some yellow, gold or brown paint on a paper plate or shallow tray. I find acrylic paint adheres better to the bubble wrap, but watercolour paint is an alternative you can try.

 

 

Paint a sheet of bubble wrap using a paint brush.

 

 

Then flip your bubble wrap over onto a piece of card. Press it down with your hands so all parts of the bubble wrap touch the surface of your card.

 

 

Then peel away the bubble wrap to reveal your honeycomb print.

You can use the printed honeycomb as the backdrop for some imaginary play, as you act out the story of your busy bees. Or fasten the honeycomb to the wall and use tape or glue to add your bees to make a gorgeous bee work of art.