Traditionally May Day baskets are made, flowers are placed inside, and they are then hung on the doors of neighbors and loved ones on the morning of May Day–May 1st! Some of these are tussie mussies, and some are little boxes made from paper. A beautiful and simple craft–perfect for springtime!
You can easily use plain paper for this project; just use something sturdy.
First, we made the tussie mussies. “So let me guess… I just shape this like I’m making a party hat?” asked Maddie. Yup! Just make a cone…
…then glue it into place. You can either hold it, or, like us, use a clothespin to hold it while we made more!
We also made boxes. Maddie chose her paper (we cut a 12″x12″ sheet in half), then we folded it to about 3/4 inch from the edge, to allow for a tab for gluing. The tab was folded in.
Next she folded both sides into the center fold, so it would be square.
She opened the folded paper up. To mark where the bottom of the box should be, and how much she should cut for folding tabs, we drew a line with a ruler across the bottom edge of the paper.
To cut the tabs, she just snipped up to the line, and then folded them in.
She placed glue on the tabs–first the one on the side of the box, then the bottom…
…set the box right-side up, and pushed the tabs down firmly.
When they were dry and firm, we punched holes in the sides of the baskets, and strung the ribbon. We have quite a collection!
