Crafting a Colorful Bug Hotel In Celebration of Earth Day
Earth Day is coming up and what better way to celebrate it but by making a bug hotel, otherwise known as an insect hotel or bug barn, for our beautiful earth's creatures. My boys love bugs and bugs deserve a special place to hang out; don't you think? I found an awesome way to make a bug hotel worthy of being featured on Million Dollar Listing LA. The bug barn is simply for catching some beautiful bugs and earth's finest critters. But after viewing them and admiring them, we let them go back out to their real house, the earth!
Materials Needed for DIY Bug Hotel
- Oat meal or another round container with a lid
- Nylon screen/netting material
- Craft scissors
- Glue gun
- Bead connectors
- Twine
Cut out your windows & doors
This step requires an adult or adult supervision, using a razor knife. We added little windows as well as the door to be able to see in and make it look more like a home!
Paint Brushes
Make sure you have some paint brushes in all sizes. The
lil' Paint Brush Set works the best for us because it has 7 different sized brushes, plus the tips are varied on all of them. And they are fun to look at with the bright ombre colors!
Paints
Bust out the paints!
Lil' Poster Paint Pods are the best paint pods because they are water soluble and wash right out of fabric. A great set with 12 classic colors and they come in this handy travel case with a handle too! If your bug house maker is into
glitter or neons-there is a set of those paints as well.
Each child has different personalities and an individual creative style, so it was fun to see what they created while they painted their bug barn.
I loved using the
Dot-A-Lot Craft Paint to make the flowers for mine. The dot-a-lot dot painting sets come in 5 colors in each set;
neon or
pearlescent and are 3 dimensional craft paints that harden when dry. They are great for so many other craft projects too.
Markers
We waited until the paint dried and then we started drawing with the markers. The
Big Bright Brush Markers are sized just right for little hands and wash off easily too. And I used the dual-ended markers-for the fine point and pointed tips for more detail.
The Door Handles to the Bug Hotel
Next, we have to make the door close to keep those critters in until we let them back out!
First, you will need to find a bead spacer. You can find them at any bead shop or craft store. Then get some twine and glue sticks and get ready to make a bug hotel door handle.
Pull the twine through the hole in the spacer and tie a knot. Cut off the remaining thread from knot. Do the same with the 2nd spacer then glue one the door (with hot glue gun). And one on the house, just make sure the spacers are lined up like door handles would be. When it's dried, you can close the door and tie the twine in a bow. It's really cute!
Adding the Netting
For the top of the bug barn, you can use the craft knife to remove the middle part of the plastic lid. Next cut a square of the netting (I got this netting from the dollar store in the wedding party section) and place it on top of the bug barn and press the plastic top onto it so it's caught inside. Then you can cut around the edges of the netting, remove the lid-now the netting is ready to be attached with the hot glue gun.
The windows are tricky because you have to glue inside so I put spots of the glue inside and then carefully place the netting on it.
I had some extra pieces of stones in my beading pile, so I used these to put around a window
For the finishing touch, we add the
Bugs Life stickers to entice the little critters to stay with us for a short visit until they go free again.
Lucee Santini, Author of Letters to Mom and Dad and Chief Editor of
MomJunky.com, a lifestyle blog. On social find her on Instagram
@momjunky
