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Friday, May 1, 2009

May Day Baskets

I made these bonbon-filled baskets for the children for St. Valentine's Day and thought at the time that they would make a lovely May Day basket! But, with all due respect to Ms. Martha, I found the instructions on her website to be a little lacking. Probably just my visual nature. So I decided to do my own little tutorial in hopes that it will save someone hours of staring at the screen in vain and will also help me remember in the future.

I am using a 12x12 inch piece of heavy cardstock. The first steps were easy enough to understand. Fold and unfold an X and then fold horizontally and vertically. If you have some experience with origami, the next step isn't that hard but in case you don't, here is a picture by picture example:

Draw any opposite corners in until they touch.
Then, push those corners down and flatten into a diamond.


Trace a heart shape making sure that the open end of the diamond is up.
Cut out the shape of the heart.
Here is what it looks like from the top.

I wrote on the flaps that you are going to slide so that it is easier to see. This is the part that took forever to figure out from the other instructions.

You slide them, one behind the other, until the flat edge meets the folded corner.

Still pinching together and holding in place, punch a hole somewhere in the middle.

Tie a ribbon and add some tissue paper to make it pretty.


Happy Feast of St. Joseph and I hope this month of Mary dawns with sweet surprises and joyful celebrations for you and yours!

Updated to add: Double sided tape in the middle or clear tape on the outside will help keep the two halves of the heart stuck together! Otherwise, they tend to want to pull apart.

8 comments:

  1. I am visual to a fault!!

    These are much prettier than ours, I am going to have to try these!!

    Thanks and happy May day!

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  2. We did it!! Great instructions! I did find that I had to tape it though, closed, but I used thin ribbon.

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  3. Oh yay! I forgot to mention that I used some double sided sticky tape in the middle too for reinforcement because it still pulled open even with the thicker ribbon. I think we are going to fill it with some flowers and leave it for the widow across the street!

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  4. And thank you AGAIN! Just put one together lickety-split. Great instructions! I'll get some pictures up and link back here to your site for step by step.

    Oh, and we made a little girl's birthday so special with St. Gianna's coloring page. Your talent continues to bless so many...

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  5. Beautiful! Ours were just plain cones, although we did add heart shaped doilies to the outside this year to dress them up a little. I'll have to remember this one for next year!

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  6. Beautiful May basket!! We joined our neighbors in delivering some smaller baskets filled with freshly-picked wildflowers up and down our street. The kids loved ringing the bell and running, esp. knowing they wouldn't get in trouble! :)

    Happy May Day and feast of St. Joseph!

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  7. These are absolutely beautiful, Charlotte!

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts and yourself!