The flower and the bees

These are made for a 4-H banner that will be in the county fair. This was the best picture I could get in the light I had so it doesn't show them near as cute as they really are. The bees have sparkly wings and the flower lost it's depth of color.

The flower is so simple. It is made from a strip of polar fleece about four inches wide. Scallops are cut on one side of the fleece and the other side is gathered with thread. The thread is pulled tight and tied to form a circle and then the fleece pulls into this neat flower. I love working with the polar fleece because it never needs a hem. A pompom is glued on for the middle and to cover up the gathers.

The bees are foam eggs cut in half, this is the duck size. Paint them yellow, we used tempra paint, and when the paint dried use a Sharpie to draw on the bee stripes. The wings are Foamies Glitter Sheet, the feelers a black pipe cleaner and the eyes are large googly eyes. Glue the parts together, we used Elmers glue but it took overnight to dry on the porous egg so next time I will pull out the glue gun. The eyes were attached with glue dots.

I showed my age when I went to the craft store to find materials for these bees. I wanted this twisted paper for the wings. It came in a long rope of paper and when it was untwisted it made a strip of crinkled paper that was about three inches wide and then many feet long. It was used to weave on boxes, make paper bows or lots of other paper crafts. So after searching the store with no luck finding this product I go up to a sales person, who looks to be about 17 years old at the very most, and ask what aisle this paper is in. She gives me this blank look and says she has never heard of it but she will call and ask the manager. Calls the manager and reports back that the manager doesn't know what I could be talking about. I said, but it is really popular and what crafts were done with it and how it was all the rage blah blah blah. Still this blank stare. Finally I say, because I am feeling desperate to explain myself here that I didn't make this up, that it was, I am quickly doing the math in my head, about 20 years ago. Now she is looking at me, but has raised the eyebrows a little at me like you have got to be kidding lady. I just turned and left, time for the crazy old lady to move on. Twenty years ago wasn't really that long ago was it?