Rose Diamond Art and a Queen Bee

Have you gotten into Diamond Art yet? I absolutely love it. I find it so relaxing. And despite my aging eyes, my awesome magnifying lamp means I can see actually see what I'm doing, day or night! I recently finished Leisure Arts' gorgeous Rose Diamond Art (affiliate link here and throughout the post). I cut away the background and temporarily set the rose down onto a piece of blue cardstock to get an idea of how it would look for a project I'm considering. 

I love the rose against the sky blue and will probably proceed with the project I have in mind. But in the meantime, the rose makes the perfect accessory for my latest kids' craft, a Queen Bee. 

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Queen Bee

Materials: 

• construction paper (yellow, black, pink)
• silver cardstock
• wax paper
• microtip scissors
• black Sharpie
• craft glue

Steps: 

Use the scissors to cut the following pieces, as shown in the picture:

• large yellow body
• small yellow head
• pointy black stinger
• thin pink wand
• small silver star
• silver crown
• 2 wax paper wings

Set aside the pink and the black scraps. You'll need them later.

Use the Sharpie to draw vertical stripes on the body. Curve them as shown. 

Assemble the bee by gluing the head in front of the right side of the body. Glue the stinger behind the left side of the body. Glue one wing to the front of the body, pointing toward the back. The other wing goes behind the body, pointing toward the front. Attach the crown to the head and the star to the end of the wand. 

Draw eyes, eyelashes, and a smile on the bee's face. 

Cut six very skinny legs from the black cardstock scraps and glue them to the body. Three go in front (the bee's right side) and three go in back (the bee's left side). I positioned the right legs to match up with the black stripes. 

Cut 3 tiny diamonds from the pink cardstock. Cut one in half vertically, then add these 'jewels' to the crown. Cut an even tinier heart to make the queen's lips. 

Note that I temporarily added black paper behind the wings in order to get them to show in the photo. In real life, they are just wax paper and look good, but they simply wouldn't photograph or scan well. 

Another project for my Invertebrates page!