Honeycomb Backdrop

Do you love bee decor? Decorate with a bee theme for summer and learn how to make a honeycomb backdrop for your home decor!

Hi friends!! I am back again with the last of my bee themed decor. You actually already saw it in my last post, but today I am going to show you how to make this cute DIY honeycomb backdrop for your own decorating.

If you missed my other bee themed posts, here they are:

This honeycomb wall decor is super easy and inexpensive to make, but makes a big statement! This honeycomb background would not only look great in your home decor, you could also use it for wedding backdrops, birthday parties or any special occasion that focuses on bees.

Really, it doesn’t even have to be bee themed. You could make it in any color combination by using different colored scrapbook paper and use it as a cute hexagon backdrop for anything!

WATCH THE QUICK VIDEO

Don’t want to read all the instructions? I have included a video in this post showing you how to make a honeycomb backdrop. If you can’t see the video, turn off your ad blocker. Also, if you ever want to slow down the video, just click on the three dots in the lower right hand corner of the video and you can change the playback speed. If you want more detailed instructions, continue reading.

Supplies to make a honeycomb backdrop

*There are links to products in this post that I use or are similar to products I use. If you buy something from one of these links, I may make a small commission (with no additional cost to you) from the purchase. I will not recommend anything that I would not buy myself.

Craft sticks – similar to popsicle sticks only larger. I found mine at the Dollar Tree but I linked to some in case you don’t have one near you.
Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
Scrapbook Paper in colors of your choice – Mine were from Hobby Lobby in these colors and sizes:
- 1785286 Small Buffalo Plaid – White/Black – 12″x12″ (1)
- 1739242 Black Shiplap – 12″x12″ (1)
- 518464 Tina Polka – Yellow Tonal – 12″x12″ (1)
- 466532 Yellow w/ White Polka Dots – 12″x12″ (1)
- 524769 White Linen – 12″x12″ (1)
- 160812 Light Burlap – 8.5″x11″ (2)
- 1283886 Linen Texture – Gold/Cream – 8.5″x11″ (2)
Ruler
Pruning Shears
Speed Square (optional)
Hexagon Template (see below)

PRINT OUT THE Hexagon TEMPLATE

The first step is to print out the hexagon templates onto a piece of card stock. I included two sizes on the template as I was experimenting with this project. I used the bigger size for most except for tracing a smaller hexagon onto the 12″x12″ piece of cardstock but I did not even use that in the end. Really, they both work for the hexagons you will be making. The bigger hexagon is just under 4.75″ and the smaller one is just under 4.5″. You will only need to print one template sheet, as you can reuse the template to make all the hexagons.

Hexagon Template

When you are printing, make sure you print this pattern at 100% to make sure the size is correct. Every printer is different so just make sure your settings are not set to ‘fit to page‘ or that the box is not checked letting your printer make changes.

Trace and cut out the hexagons

Once you have printed your hexagon templates, cut them out.

Then you will trace some hexagons onto the back of the scrapbook paper.

I was able to fit two hexagons onto the 8.5″x11″ paper. I fit 5 hexagons onto the 12″x12″ paper, although I ended up only using about 3-4 hexagons per color/pattern of paper. If you make a bigger backdrop, you will use more. After you have traced them onto all the sheets of scrapbook paper, cut them out.

Cut the craft sticks

The craft sticks are about 6″ in length and gluing six of those together would make a huge hexagon! I have seen some hexagon backgrounds made with regular sized popsicle sticks and they do look pretty cool to use for a big area, but I wanted to make one on a smaller scale. So I had to cut the craft sticks in half to achieve this. I will show you two ways to cut the craft sticks. Since there are quite a few craft sticks to cut, I wanted a way to make it quicker and Mr. Wonderful came up with the idea to make a kind of jig with a speed square to take the measuring step out of the equation. The first way is if you don’t have a speed square. For this, you will only need a ruler and some pruning shears or some other cutting utensil to cut the craft sticks.

Measure the halfway point on the craft stick and make a mark. On that mark, make a straight line.

Using the pruning shears, cut on the line to cut the stick in half.

Use a speed square to speed up the cutting

You can see how that takes a little longer to measure each craft stick before cutting it. So we used a speed square and using the measurements on it, taped a small piece of wood to the square at the right measurement. This acted as a place to set the end of the craft stick against each time without actually measuring it out. Then I marked the line on the backside using the straight edge.

I was able to measure a bunch of sticks in a small amount of time using this method and then cut them out!

How to make a hexagon backdrop

Once you have all the hexagons and craft sticks cut, you are ready to start making your honeycomb.

Using the hexagon template as a guide, dry fit some craft sticks around the edges to get a feel of how they will be glued together. Then start gluing them down on top of each other by placing a dot of glue on the cut end. With the craft sticks being cut in half, you have to be aware of hiding the cut end at all times. So you will glue a rounded end on top of a cut end. Do this until you have a completed hexagon.

Take one of the scrapbook paper hexagons and hot glue it to the back of the stick hexagon, so the color/pattern is showing on the front of the hexagon.

Place another color hexagon next to one of the sides of the first hexagon to use as a guide for placement. Next, using the first hexagon as a starting point, place and glue craft sticks around the second hexagon. Make sure to pay attention to the direction of the rounded ends. I tried to make sure they were all going in the same direction if possible.

So now you will have a second hexagon coming off the first one.

Add some hot glue to the back of the second honeycomb staying closer to the inside edges.

Glue down the second paper hexagon onto the back of the stick hexagon so when you flip it over the color will show on the front.

Continue adding hexagons to the honeycomb background

Add a third hexagon to the two existing hexagons in the same way. When you are choosing the colors, try to space them out so you are not putting two colors together.

Continue building onto the honeycomb as you like. There is no rhyme or reason to the pattern, You can make it however you want. My main goal was to make sure the colors were spread out evenly.

How to make sure your hexagons are straight

You may have noticed that some of my hexagons are a little askew and not very straight. It is REALLY easy to get off on the shape, and I did not even notice it much as I was going along until I stepped back and looked at the honeycomb. Ugh!! Even the second hexagon that I placed was off! That is very frustrating to see when you put some time and effort into a project. You want it to turn out great. Well, luckily you can learn from my mistakes on this, so yours will turn out spectacular! 🙂

As you can see in the photo below, I marked some hexagons in red that are askew. When you are placing the craft sticks, you want to make sure the one directly across from it is parallel to the one you are placing. This will assure that your hexagon is straight. You can see by the red lines that they are not parallel. While some of them don’t look too bad, a little bit off makes a difference as you go along as one builds on the next.

So after I noticed this, I started to make sure of that. The other tip I have for you is to check your angles against the paper hexagon you are using as a guide. Slide the paper away from the sticks a little to see that the angles line up.

Doing both of these things should make your DIY honeycomb backdrop looks a lot better than mine. Ha! I really wish I could have a redo on it but it was a one shot deal. 🙂

Plan out your honeycomb background before gluing it

One other tip I have for you, is that it was helpful to plan out where the hexagons were going to go towards the end. This allows you to make sure the colors look good as well as the shape of the overall honeycomb. I like the look of having some hexagons jutting out along the edges. It makes it look more like honeycomb to me.

Here are a couple different shots of the end product. Since it was bigger, it was hard to get it all in one picture from my close vantage point.

Being made of craft sticks and paper, this honeycomb backdrop is very light in weight. Because of this, I was able to just hot glue a piece of twine onto the back to hang it from. I figured out where it needed to hang from to keep it centered on the shiplap backdrop on the mantel and glued it there.

Like I said, I hung mine above our mantel shelf, but you could easily just hang it on the wall too. Or attach it to some pallet boards for a more rustic look.

This was a super inexpensive and easy project to make, but I think it makes a big impact. What do you think? Definitely share it with those bee lovers in your lives! They may want to make one too!! Have a wonderful week!