DIY May Day Basket

Happy May Day! A DIY May Day Basket with Tulips is a pretty way to dress up your door for the month and I think we could all use a little bit of pretty right now.

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Create a May Day Basket for a lovely spring decor piece. May Day isn’t celebrated in the US as it once was. I’ll show my age and tell you that I remember having lots of fun May Day celebrations when I was in elementary school. Of course, that was back in the mid 1960s, so lots of celebrations have changed.

May Day has long rooted history in Roman mythology and the goddess of flowers, Flora. Festivals were held in her honor as flowers began to bloom. Those festivals evolved through history into May Day celebrations.

DIY May Day Basket

I’d love to see more May Day decor and celebrations. Traditionally, a May Day Basket was filled with not only flowers, but candy, cookies, and other small treats. Neighbors made them as gifts for each other as part of the festival of spring. The baskets were made and left on neighbors’ doorsteps after ringing a bell and dashing away.

When I was a child, we would often make paper cones to look like tussie mussies for May Day. We would fill the cones with construction paper flowers instead of small bouquets. I was sorting through some bins and found some round placemats that I haven’t used in a while. That’s when the idea for a May Day Basket hit.

Making a May Day Basket
from a Placemat

The texture is basket like, so it reminded me of May Day Baskets that I’ve seen.

Turning the round placemat into a cone is easy. Simply fold it over as shown below and add a few staples to hold it together.

For the bottom of the cone, I used hot glue to bring it to a point.

In two quick steps, I have a cone basket that is just the right size for some tulips that I purchased a couple of months ago at Michaels.

After the glue has dried, scrunch up a coupe of sheets of tissue paper and stuff the inside of the cone to help the bottom of the basket keep its shape.

Embellishing the basket can be as simple as attaching a bow to the front. I decided to add a rolled fabric flower with a beaded center. You can find a detailed tutorial for making rolled flowers in my Sweater Wreath with Flowers post.

Making Rolled Fabric Flowers

• Cut a fabric circle
• Cut the fabric into a spiral
• Fold the end of the spiral strip over and glue it together
• Starting with the glued end, roll the strip around itself, adding dots of glue along the way.
• Glue the end to the back.
• Glue a bead to the center.

Before adding the flower, I cut and glued a piece of wide cream ribbon and topped that with a thinner piece of green ribbon. The flower is then glued to the center point of the ribbons.

Hanging a cone basket can be a little tricky. You’ll want to secure a long strip of ribbon to the inside of the cone on each side. I use a combination of staples and glue to make sure the ribbon doesn’t come off.

Arrange the flowers into the cone. Make sure to push down through the tissue paper.

The orange tulips in the green basket is good color combination for spring. But it was missing something.

The middle of the basket in front was a little bare. I added sprigs of white flowers there.

Supply List for DIY May Day Basket with Tulips

• Round Placemat
• Ribbon
• Tulips
• Floral stems
• Tissue Paper
• Stapler
• Hot Glue
• Fabric
• Bead
• Scissors

Make a May Day Basket using a round placemat for an easy spring decor idea. #maydaybasket #mayday #spring Click To Tweet

Do you make May Day Baskets or do remember making them? It’s a fun tradition that needs to make a come back I think! What neighbor wouldn’t love to receive a basket of flowers and treats?

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May Day Basket with Tulips

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