Wednesday, May 1, 2013

May Baskets and a Photo a Day


As a young child, May Day and the tradition of delivering and receiving May baskets held such delight for me. I loved the thrill of quietly placing a homemade basket filled with candy and violets from our garden on friends' porches, ringing the doorbell and running for dear life.

To this day, whenever I work with construction paper, pipe cleaners and paper doilies, I'm reminded of May Days past.

Since my children have long since left the nest, the basket tradition is a thing of the past for me. In fact, I'd venture to guess that the tradition has all but disappeared in many American neighborhoods.



Last year, I commemorated May Day by paint washing and embellishing the berry baskets above. Recently, I again got the itch to create a couple of pretties in the spirit of May baskets to fill a couple of gaps in my spring vignettes.

They started as peat pots I picked up at an estate sale. I painted them--one an icy blue, the other a mixture of a couple of earthy colors that resulted in a pale terra cotta that I then dry brushed in a creamy white.




I found a lovely French label graphic at The Graphics Fairy to add to the blue pot. I combined three of Karen's images--a sweet little bird, a beautiful crown and an elegant frame--to create the image in its crowning glory that now graces the terra cotta pot.


To give a slight aged look to the bird basket, I  distressed the image lightly using stamping ink. I Mod Podged the images onto the pots. As a finishing touch, I added wisps of vintage seam tape in complementary colors.




The pots by themselves looked a bit naked so, out of some raw materials I had laying around, I stitched up some little pouches to scrunch up inside the pots. Both pouches are made from wide  ribbon--one sparkly tulle, the other vintage net.  I simply folded the ribbon over on itself and stitched up each side to create the pouch.




No more stealth deliveries to friends on May Day, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy creating a grown-up version of the May basket.

NATIONAL PHOTO MONTH

May is National Photo Month. Today is Day 1 of my attempt at posting a photo a day.

Today's photo is a version of the French blue peat pot on a wonderful background texture called "Stay," created by Kim Klassen. Kim's creations are exquisite and worth a visit to her site.



Hope you'll come back each day and join the photo fun.


Make it a great day!
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9 comments:

  1. Happy May Day! I fear that you are correct in your assumption about May basket being placed on door knobs a thing of the past. It sure was fun to ring the door bell after leaving the May basket and run away like the wind.

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  2. Happy May Day! Can you believe it is snowing here!
    I love your grown up version of the May baskets. I have several of those berry baskets, I might have to decorate them.

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  3. Hi Ann,
    Lovely creations! I love the one with the bird image.
    I am a new follower.

    Wishing you a very creative day!
    Angela

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  4. How pretty! I love the photos with the texture, I am just attempting to learn to do this in Photoshop, I find it rather challenging you are obviously an expert! This is a lovely idea to celebrate May Day.

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  5. Very pretty, Ann! I have some peat pots I meant to paint while I had my can of Old White open the other day and totally forgot.

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  6. Your little pots are so cute. I love the aged look you gave them. I never delivered May baskets as a child but this May day I made a couple of little May cone baskets and hung one on each of my grown up daughters doors. They loved getting a tiny surprise bouquet. I say any day we can celebrate is a tradition worth keeping or starting. Have a great weekend. Blessings!

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  7. Love your work, very sweet!

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  8. Found your blog via Graphics Fairy featuring the little French bird on the peat pot... Love your designs and your blog.

    I've just become your latest follower and invite you to visit my blog.

    Judith

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  9. Love the graphics and the pots. You are a STAR over at I Gotta Create!

    http://igottacreate.blogspot.com/2013/05/sprucing-up-for-spring.html

    Thanks so much for linking up to the party,

    <3 Christina

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