Simple Stamping with Honey Bee

How are you liking the Honey Bee bundle? For me, to bee or not to bee is no question because I love it. These were my Cuppa & Card projects for March. Sadly, I only managed to visit one venue before the lockdown so I’m glad I have the opportunity to share them here, too. 

For the above project, I stamped the bee in the centre of the panel, then stamped with Artisan Textures on top. A very quick way of colouring an image!

The second card features some die-cut stamped images, although for Cuppa & Card, where we keep things simple, they fussy-cut these instead. Such bright and cheery projects for worrying times.

However, I am determined to keep crafting through the crisis and hope you will, too.  My online store remains open for now, so please head on over to stockpile the real essentials... cardstock and adhesives!

Distance crafting - with Honey Bee and Golden Honey DSP

I am so proud of all the oldies and non-techies who are rapidly learning to use technology so they can keep up with their activities and families. This past week I’ve had several people who are not at all comfortable with technology join me on video conference calls so they can continue to enjoy craft classes.

This was my first demo by video. Only three people were able to join me (it was a rubbish day and time, to be fair) but it went swimmingly, with everyone able to chat to each other, too. I think this bit is extremely important – it’s great watching Facebook Lives but it is a bit one-way.

Kits to make these cards will soon be winging their way to customers – and best of all, they can still make it even if they don’t have the Honey Bee stamp set because everything but the greeting is made from Designer Series Paper. I will die-cut the beehive for them, and they can fussy-cut the rest from the DSP, using their own greeting stamp to finish off.

They can keep us apart but they can't keep us from crafting!

Pigment Sprinkles meet Friendly Silhouettes and Honey Bee

As much as I love Stampin’ Up!® product coordination, sometimes I also love to mix things up. It's a real pleasure to find that your older products work perfectly with your newer ones.

It’s no secret that I love the Honey Bee stamp set and also that I love the Pigment Sprinkles. But I've sadly neglected The Friendly Silhouettes dies, so I thought it was time to bring them all together and create crafting magic, although I say so myself...

With Pigment Sprinkles, it doesn’t do to have a fixed idea of what the results will look like before you start. Just let the magic happen!

For the rainbow card, I sprinkled some of each powder onto some watercolour paper and spritzed with water. For the green and yellow card, I wet the watercolour paper first, sprinkled green and yellow powders and then spritzed on top. 
 

Here’s how to create the look of runny honey with Pigment Sprinkles and Honey Bee

There are no mistakes in stamping... only happy accidents. How many times have you heard that? Read on to find out how a happy accident resulted in this card, which just happens to be one of my favourite Honey Bee projects so far. 

I absolutely love the “runny honey” effect in the background. I created this using Pigment Sprinkles which I dabbed onto the edge of the paper using a dry brush. Then I spritzed with water towards the centre so the colour ran into the card.

This project was the result of one of those happy accidents. It was supposed to be an aperture card but, somehow, things weren’t going well. Instead, I slotted the watercolour paper into the circular hole; ideal if you need to keep your card flat for posting. Just don't add the ribbon, like I did!

Simple stamping with Honey Bee

When you’ve been crafting for many years, it’s easy to forget that not everyone has a room full of supplies to draw on as required. I remember the early days of seeing amazing projects which I hadn’t a hope of emulating because I didn’t have a fraction of the products required.

So it’s good to scale things back now and again and prove that simple projects can be just as striking. Whether you’re new to crafting or just in a hurry, this project is a fun one to make – and it’s so satisfying to produce something in minutes which you know will have a big impact if you send it to a friend.

We don’t currently sell black rhinestones but you can make your own by colouring our basic rhinestones with a permanent black marker such as one of our Stampin’ Blends alcohol marker or a black Sharpie. 

Leave the rhinestone on its backing and colour very gently if using a Stampin’ Blend, to avoid smashing the brush tip. Allow to dry for a few seconds and then use as normal. 

A taste of honey with Pigment Sprinkles

I’m mad for the Honey Bees at the moment, and have recently rattled out about a dozen projects using this fab bundle. But I don’t have time to show you them all, so here are the two we made at last week’s Crafty Friday session.

If you, too, love these products, I advise you to plan your purchases wisely. While the Honey Bee bundle is available throughout the current Mini catalogue (January-June), the Designer Series Paper is a FREE Sale-a-Bration item, so only available while supplies last, or until the end of March, whichever is the sooner.

The honey effect in the top card was achieved with the Pigment Sprinkles by sprinkling them onto dry Designer Series Paper and then spritzing with water. You get a more blended look by wetting the paper first, as you can see in the sample on the right...

Honey Bee bundle meets Pigment Sprinkles

Another outing for the Honey Bee bundle... this time a project CASEd from Sandra Budde, a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator based in Germany.

For my version, I added an extra bee and, to ring the changes a little, I created my background using Pigment Sprinkles. These are extremely fun and ideal if you like playing around with techniques – but not if you don’t like messy projects!

Cover your work surface and beyond when using pigment sprinkles as this stuff gets everywhere!

Honey Bee bundle: How to attach the honeycomb die to your projects

 
When it came to pre-ordering from this Spring/Summer catalogue, I went a bit mad. Not in a “buy everything” way, but in a “buy a load of stuff I don’t really like and ignore the sets I love” kind of a way.

Consequently, I ignored the beautiful Honey Bee bundle until recently when, really, it should have been at the top of my list. I've always been drawn to bee stamps and had them in my collection almost from day one. As I don't keep anything that isn’t current, I was bee-less, so I'm more than happy to have this on my shelf.

And it seems I'm not alone, as I presented this card at my Stampy Buffet, where it proved to be the most popular project of the day by far, with some of the ladies making three of them. I hope you think it’s the bee’s knees, too.

To attach the very fine honeycomb die-cut, you can either use wet glue, gently applied to the back with a sponge, or carefully tape it behind the aperture. Both ways are quite fiddly as it's only just big enough - but it's worth the effort.