Bee My Valentine - Honey-Friendly Valentine {tutorial}

These DIY Valentines were designed especially for use with honey. I’m an ambassador for Nature Nate’s, and these are the perfect size — and theme — for Nature Nate’s honey packets. They would also be well-suited to honey candies, but you can fill them with any small treats or gifts you want. (Anything that fits inside a toilet paper tube.)

Side note on safety before we get started: Some people are pretty nervous about using toilet paper rolls for crafts — the logic being that aerosolized nasties from toilet flushing can contaminate bathroom surfaces, and that might include the toilet paper roll. Although I’m pretty obsessive about bathroom germs, this seems a minimal risk to me, since the toilet paper tube is almost entirely hidden inside the roll while you’re using it…and after that, it isn’t in the bathroom anymore. But if that freaks you out — or you’re concerned it might freak out the recipients of your handiwork — you can disinfect the cardboard rolls first by baking them.

Supplies You’ll Need for Bee My Valentines

cardboard rolls from toilet paper (1 per Valentine)
yellow tissue paper (see below)
black construction paper (see below)
black curling ribbon (see below; 6-inch lengths are perfect for tying.)
pipe cleaners, preferably black; browns will do (2 per Valentine)
googly eyes (2 per Valentine: I preferred the 3/4″ (?) size)
Nature Nate’s honey packet, candy, or other gift (per Valentine)
printed tags (1 per Valentine)
adhesives — I used Tacky Glue and a glue stick. You might also want tape.

You’ll also need scissors and, unless your tags are already prepared, a standard hole punch.

A couple of the items here are a little flexible, so you can make a few adjustments. In place of the curling ribbon, you can use 3-4″ lengths of pipe cleaner like twist ties. I preferred the curling ribbon, but you (or your kids) might prefer twisting over tying. If you are using the ribbon, you can use it for the stripes on your bee, too, and skip the black paper. (I preferred the wider stripes, but…use what you have.)

Many of our craft supplies are provided by CraftProjectIdeas.com, so we had googly eyes and several shades of brown pipe cleaners (“fuzzy sticks”) available. I think I would have preferred black, because it woul blend in with the stripes where it’s wrapped around the body, but…use what you have. 🙂

My yellow tissue paper pieces were about 8 inches wide by 16 inches long. Sixteen inches was the existing length of the paper I had on hand, so I just used it. I think 8×12 would be adequate. The black construction paper needs to be 6 inches long by whatever width you prefer, up to half an inch. If you do six by one-half, you’ll probably want three stripes per bee.

Bee My Valentine – Step 1

(Calling this “step 1” assumes that prepping your materials was a “step 0.” If you haven’t gathered your supplies, do that now and come back to this.)

The first step is to put your gift inside the tube.

A standard toilet paper tube is exactly the right size for a packet of Nature Nate’s honey — it’s not too long and not too short.

Bee My Valentine – Step 2

Roll the filled tube in a length of yellow tissue paper. The tissue paper should extend beyond the ends of the tube a little — enough to let you tie them shut without tearing.

When you get to the end, add just a little adhesive. A dot of glue or glue stick is sufficient, but could be a little messy. A small piece of tape is easiest — and will be covered by a half-inch strip of paper if you’re using that for stripes.

Bee My Valentine – Step 3

Using pieces of curling ribbon (about 6 inches each) or lengths of pipe cleaner (about 4 inches each), tie or “twist” the gathered ends of the tissue paper to “seal” the tube.

(I forgot to take a picture before moving on, but you’ll see it clearly in the next step.)

Bee My Valentine – Step 4

Wrap the strips of construction paper around the tube to create stripes (or use ribbon if you prefer — glue doesn’t seem to stick it quite as well). If you’re using strips approximately half an inch wide, you’ll probably get three and that will be just right. If you opt for narrower strips, you might need to fiddle with it a little to check for number and spacing.

By the way, we are not making an anatomically correct bee. This is not a science project. haha Consider it more a symbol of a bee.

Bee My Valentine – Steps 5-7 (?)

Now we’re going to attach the wings (and tag). I’m not sure how to count how many steps this is! This is the trickiest part. There might be an easier way to do this, but this is how I did it.

Line up the two pipe cleaners so they’re more-or-less centered on the tube, with one above and one below.

Now you want to wrap the bottom one around and up, so the two pipe cleaners meet almost, but not quite, in the middle.

Twist together the top and bottom pipe cleaners on the right to join them together, and do the same with the top and bottom on the left. You want to end up with something a lot like this:

At this point, take a brief detour from wing-making to slide a tag onto the long “arm” of one wing. Make sure it’s facing the direction you want it to be before you proceed!

Now finish the wings. You’re going to curve the wing pieces around to form an oval, with the ends overlapping a little, and then twist the overlapping ends together to join them. (It’s easier than it sounds. If you did the last bit where you finagle the two pipe cleaners to get them attached to each other around the body you already did the hard part.)

And when you’re done, it should look something like this:

Bee My Valentine – Step 8 (?)

Add the eyes. You can use whatever size you want, as long as they aren’t super-tiny. My kids and husband like the smaller (more “average”-size) ones; I prefer the oversized ones, myself. Put a good-sized drop of Tacky Glue on the back of each eye and press it firmly into place, sort of in between “on top” and “on the side.” (If you want to make a bunch of these with kids, you might want to invest in self-adhesive googly eyes.)

And that’s it!

Bee My Valentine Tags — Free Printable

I made two different sheets of tags. Each sheet contains 10 tags. One is a full sheet of “BEE my Valentine,” for those of you who prefer to stick with something basic. The other is an assortment of five phrases, for those who enjoy a bit of variety — and a good pun.