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These two DIYs will have your kids buzzing

23 Sep 2021

Celebrate Bee Aware Month with these two creative DIY ideas sure to transform your home into a hive of activity. Bee Aware Month is a time when we are encouraged to celebrate bees and all they do for us – they not only produce honey but also by play a critical role in our economy, biodiversity and food chain. Teach your children the importance of bees and get crafty at the same time with these two projects that use simple household objects such as toilet paper rolls and eggs.

For more info on Bee Aware Month, click here

This toilet roll craft is the bee’s knees

You will need:


Step 1: Start by painting your toilet rolls with two coats of yellow – Fleur used Resene Pirate Gold. Once they are dry, use a small paintbrush to add four stripes of Resene Black and leave to dry. Flatten the toilet roll.


Step 2: Use a stapler to staple the front of the roll together. Staple the back as well, but this time insert a short length of black pipe cleaner and staple this in place. Trim the front and back of the toilet roll at an angle.


Step 3: Cut some black pipe cleaners into four lengths of about 12cm long and hot glue three of these to the underside of the toilet roll for legs. Hot glue the fourth length to the head as an antenna and bend it into shape.


Step 4: Cut some wing shapes out of newspaper and hot glue these to the bee’s back. Bend the legs into shape. Finish by adding two googly eyes – Fleur chose a big eye and a little eye for a quirky expression. If you don’t have googly eyes you could paint your own using Resene Black and Resene White testpots. 

Give these egg-cellent bees a try!

You will need:

  • Four toilet rolls
  • Five papier-mâché Easter eggs
  • Resene testpots in your choice of colours – Fleur used Resene Pirate Gold
  • Paintbrush
  • Black pipe cleaners
  • Permanent marker (optional), you could use a Resene Black testpot instead
  • Newspaper
  • Hot glue gun
  • Scissors
  • Stapler

Note: These bees could also be made from Kinder Surprise containers or polystyrene eggs.

Step 1: Start by painting your toilet rolls with two coats of yellow – Fleur used Resene Pirate Gold.

Step 2: Once the rolls are dry, flatten them and cut them into four equal lengths.

Step 3: Fold the cut lengths to form hexagons and staple these together to make a honeycomb pattern.

Step 4: Paint five eggs with two coats of yellow – Fleur used Resene Pirate Gold.

Step 5: Take a pipe cleaner and wrap it around the middle of one of the eggs. Twist the two ends together a couple of times and then trim off the excess length – but leave enough length to form two legs. Repeat this for the front and back of the bee. Secure these in place with some hot glue.

Step 6: Cut a length of pipe cleaner about 12cm long and hot glue this to the top of the head as an antenna. Bend this into shape. Cut two wing shapes out of newspaper and hot glue these to the back. Finish by drawing on a face with a permanent marker or paint on using a Resene Black testpot.

Step 7: For the bees in the honeycomb, only attach two sets of legs in the middle and at the front and don’t attach any wings. Tie some white cotton to the three bees with wings and hang them from the bottom of the honey comb. Push the other two bees without wings into the honey comb.

project and images Fleur Thorpe

Published: 23 Sep 2021