Inspired by IKEA!

It was a beautiful weekend here and on Sunday I sat in the garden watching the bees feast on our rhododendron flowers. I think the sun made me get out the bright colours out and I spent a happy day in the craft room yesterday and made this, featuring my fave all time stamp, Stampotique's Big Bee.

Inspiration sometimes comes from unexpected places and the inspiration behind this piece was some packaging material that came out of IKEA furniture..... My strange mind saw this and thought - honeycomb! So of course I squirreled it into that box of stuff marked 'too good to throw away!'

I sprayed the packaging with yellow and gold spray inks before tearing it off the backing and into pieces. Love the organic look! My bees have acetate wings covered with Stickles and White Fire Treasure Gold on the reverse so they really shimmer. I also added a domed body to give them some extra dimension. My original concept for this piece didn't include the sunflower - the SSS Challenge inspired me to add that detail and I think it finishes the piece really nicely.

I'm entering this into some challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - theme Botanical

That's Crafty Challenge - theme Krafty (kraft card, which I used for my banner plus the packaging card is kraft coloured too)

Country View Challenge 15 - Nature's Glories

Stamps/products used: IndigoBlu stamp (sunflower), Stampotique Big Bee stamp, Wendy Vecchi Studio490 stamps (hexagon and sentiment), Distress Inks - Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge, Gathered Twigs, Stickles- Platinum, Treasure Gold - White Fire.