Craft stick bee puppets

These super cute craft stick bee puppets are what I call a double whammy craft. I love double whammy crafts!

What I mean by ‘double whammy’ is that they are two activities rolled into one; a fun Spring or Summer-themed craft, and a DIY toy for play. If you are learning about bees or mini-beasts they could be educational as well.

You might also like our paper plate rocking bee craft

Last week I was working on some firefly craft concepts (I’ll have more of these to share soon). When I’d finished crafting the fireflies there was way too much leftover paint, and I hate wasting paint — it’s expensive!

So I threw in one more project to use up the paint which turned out to be these cute craft stick bees. They are super easy and quick to make, here’s how.

How to make craft stick bee puppets:

You will need:

• Jumbo craft sticks (one per bee)
• Black and yellow acrylic paint
• Craft glue
• Light blue tissue paper
• A small square of black card stock
• Black marker
• Scissors
• Paintbrush

How to:

Paint a yellow head and some stripes, ending the stripes halfway down your craft stick

Paint on the black stripes, and allow to dry.

Cut the tissue paper into squares approximately 10cm x 6cm (4×2.3″).

Roll each strip up horizontally and pinch it together in the middle. Twist it (gently, or it will tear). Glue them on using a dab of craft glue.

Trim two very thin strips from the card stock for antennae. Ours are about 6cm long (2.3″). Glue them on.

Wait until the glue is dry before turning over and drawing a face on with black marker.

All done.

You could extend this project by creating a cereal box puppet theatre for your bees — then put on a show!

Bee books for kids

You might also like

• Make a set of 3D cube insects using our printable template
• We have a tutorial to create peg dragonflies as well as peg bees, both have free printable wings
• Here is a gorgeous doodlebug 3D art project, this one is great for older kids
• Kids will love learning about symmetry with this butterfly squish art project
• Here are 20 Insect crafts kids will love