Just Buzzin' By

This card makes me giddy.  I had so much fun bringing these little bees to life!  I saw a tutorial on Jennifer McGuire's blog for a faux laser cut card this morning and just had to try it.  Unfortunately, I don't have any large detailed dies like she used, so I pulled out my hexagon cover plate instead.  It looks like honeycomb, which set me on the path to this finished card.

So much fun!  I went looking through my inventory for bee-related images and stumbled across this old retired Stampin' Up set called Just Buzzin' By.  I bought it at a used stamp sale ages ago.  (My NBUS, or never-before-used, stash is a bit ridiculous.)  I love the darling bees and the large sentiment.  It just begged to be used with the faux honeycomb laser cut! 

I stamped my sentiment at the bottom of the white panel and then stamped the flying bee right next to it.  I stamped the same bee on white scrap and colored it with Copic markers, cutting out just the body for paper piecing.  I added shimmer to the wings with a Wink of Stella pen.

I bent the wings just slightly to add a little extra dimension.  I also shaded just a bit around the bee image with a Copic marker.  Then I decided that I needed to add a couple more bees around the honeycomb circle, so I stamped two more bees and cut them out after coloring.  Those tiny antennae and legs were a bit tricky!

Love!  The Wink of Stella wings are so shimmery in person.  I had considered using vellum, but I really like how these turned out instead.  I used foam tape to add the whole panel to a Harvest Gold card base.  To add just a bit more texture, I stamped behind the circle with a netting background stamp using VersaMark Dazzle ink.  It's subtle, but it really adds to the honeycomb look.

For the inside of my card, I cut the word "hello" out of black cardstock using a Lil' Inker die.  I stamped another bee standing on top of one of the letters.  I stamped it again out of white cardstock, colored it with Copic markers and Wink of Stella, and cut out just the body/wings for paper piecing.  Love how it looks!

It's a little unexpected surprise when you open the card.  Like I said before, it makes me giddy!  I had so much fun making this card.  Spending the afternoon being creative in my studio was a great way to send off the old year.  We have family friends coming over this evening to play games and ring in the new year.  I'm really looking forward to it.   I hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve!

Stamps:  Just Buzzin' By, Netting (Stampin' Up)

Ink:  Tuxedo Black (Memento); VersaMark Dazzle Frost

Paper:  White, Harvest Gold, True Black (Papertrey Ink)

Copic:  0, C1, E00, E30, T6, Y21, YR23, YR24

Misc:  Standard Circles Large die (Spellbinders); Hexagon Cover Plate die (Papertrey Ink); Hello Word die (Lil' Inker); clear Wink of Stella pen; foam tape