The other thing I think of is the fun we used to have as children leaving May Baskets at your friends doors, ringing the bell and dashing away! Visions of Maypole dancing, (although something I've never done) comes to mind as well. Anyway, it led me to see what the history of May Day was all about. There was a lot of info on this page- http://www.theholidayspot.com/mayday/history.htm but the section I've added below highlights the things I recall most.
Roots of May Day celebration in America:
The Puritans frowned on May Day, so the day has never been celebrated with as much enthusiasm in the United States as in Great Britain. But the tradition of celebrating May Day by dancing and singing around a maypole, tied with colorful streamers or ribbons, survived as a part of the English tradition. The kids celebrating the day by moving back and forth around the pole with the the streamers, choosing of May queen, and hanging of May baskets on the doorknobs of folks -- are all the leftovers of the old European traditions.
Anyway all of that led me to what I wanted to share today- I don't have anything new, but I remembered this gift basket and stamped T-shirt I did - so thought it would be fun for a May Day memory!
Anyway... I made this gift for a friend on her birthday a few years back, and it I ended up giving her the finished gift in this cute basket. I wanted to make her a stamped t-shirt, we were both stampers, so I knew it was appropriate however I had not done this before... even so I was really pleased how it turned out. The pics don't do it justice but I'll share it anyway.
This first picture is of the basket and the matching card I made.
So here's my t-shirt displayed with it's matching card and basket where the basket became my gift bag.
I taped off the edges, so I could do some sponging and define the outline of the stamped area, in a soft way. It also helped ground the flowers a bit before I did that, so I think it really made a difference in the end result.
Since this was a whole new adventure for me, (and a gift) I didn't have too much room for error, so I looked for and found this great tutorial by Lisa Johnson on the Inspired blog for PaperTrey Ink http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2008/06/introducing-flo.html. You'll see Lisa shows how to block your t-shirt with the tape, like I did which really helped and became my inspirational springboard.
Here's a closeup shot. I used Pigment Memento tear-drop inks. I heat set them, but to be honest have not tested this to see how well it works in the wash. I know lots of people have done this on 'Onesies' for babies, so I believe it should be fairly color fast as those do get a lot of washing but you do need to watch your inks.
Well that's it, have a great May Day!!
Hope you're seeing some signs of Spring where you are living it's
raining here in sunny Southern California today!
1 comment:
Very nice! Love the colors. Very spring on this gloomy day!
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