Bee Keeper Backdrop

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Sheet of foam core 48"x 60" OR 2 smaller sheets taped together
• 2 pieces of foam core or any spare cardboard 14"x 18", for 2 Beehives
• Roll of blue cloudy sky bulletin paper
• Roll of duct tape, any color
• Roll of white thick rope
• X-Acto® knife
• Cutting surface
• Metal straight edge ruler
• Can of Super 77 spray adhesive
• Wire cutters
• Black pipe cleaners
• Larger yellow pom poms
• Small black pom poms
• Sheet of black felt of black cardstock
• Glue gun/glue gun sticks

DIRECTIONS:

BEEHIVE

1. Make sure the sheet of foam core is the size you want. To make a bigger sheet, cut one of your two sheets to be about 12" wide and the length of the foam core sheet. Lay the new cut sheet next to your bigger sheet and duct them together from the top to the bottom going lengthwise.
2. Using your spray glue, completely cover one side of the foam core. Make sure you spray on a thick coat. Let it dry for about 5 minutes and then lay the paper on top. When you lay the paper down, start from one side and one end of the width and not length of the board. Roll it onto the foam core, smoothing it out as you go and apply some pressure to make the paper bond well. Once the paper is completely on the foam core, rub the surface with your hands to make sure the paper is bonding to the foam core. Trim off any excess paper using your X-Acto knife.
3. Cut out your shapes for the beehives from the cardboard or foam core. Make one slightly bigger than the other. They should around 14"x 18" with a curved dome on top.
4. Using your glue gun, glue the first row of rope across the front bottom of the beehive. When you get to the end at one side, loop it back to make the next row, gluing it in place as you go. When you get to the top of the beehive, wrap the last piece to go onto the backside of the beehive and glue down to hold it in place. Snip off the end.
5. Repeat this process for the second beehive.
6. Glue the beehive onto the sky backdrop, placing them so that they will not be blocked by your body. (You can overlap the beehives and glue one slightly in front of the other.)
7. Cut black circles out of the black felt or black paper to make the openings for the beehive. Glue them in place onto the front of the beehive.

BEES

8. Glue two large yellow pom poms together.
9. Make three rings of the pipe cleaners to slide onto the two pom poms. Place one in the middle of the two pom poms and one centered on each pom pom. Lightly glue them in place. Make as many bees as you desire. Glue the bees randomly onto the sky background.

Craft Hack Tips and Tricks:

• When applying the paper to the glue sprayed board, take your time to line to up evenly at the bottom before unrolling it onto the board.
• When rubbing the paper onto the foam core, rub from the center of the board towards the outside edges.