Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Happy May Day!








     The first of May is an important holiday in France. It is celebrated with gathering sprigs of muguets (lily of the valley) and offering them to loved ones for good luck. Each year I receive beautiful cards (like the one above) from my relatives in France, and some have included a dried sprig or two. Porte bonheur means "a lucky charm". I actually receive more May Day cards than Easter cards from them.

     It's also time for me to upload my finished calendar spread for April and my calendar start up for May for The Kathryn Wheel challenge. You can read more about it and how I created my April pages on this post.


     Here is my finished April:




   And this is the background for May's pages:


   First I placed some Tim Holtz masks around the pages and then sprayed lilac and yellow spray inks. I still had my Higgins Black Magic ink on my table so I did some mark making with it.



   It is now  ready for recording my days. I used a scallop circle punch to represent flowers and sponged the edges with pastel ink pads.


   And now , my May Day wish for you:

                                            "Quelques brins de douceur,
                                              quelques brins de bonheur,
                                              pour apporter la chance
                                              et la joi
                                              tout au long de l'année."

   Some sprigs of sweetness, some sprigs for happiness, to bring luck and joy all year long.

   For more beautiful May Day inspiration visit my friend Patty's blog . You don't want to miss her gorgeous nature mandala and photos.

 



19 comments:

  1. Hi Linda, I have lots of lily of the valley they grow in a most inhospitable place but they are thriving. Love April and May's pages, love the colours you've used :-)
    Anne x

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  2. wouah! j'adore la patouille d'arrière plan sur ta page, les taches d'encre donnent vraiment vie au tout, superbe! je te souhaite un beau mois de mai :)

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  3. Love the colors you have chosen for May's calendar.

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  4. Wow ... super pages, fantastic background which was a shame to cover up with the daily circles, but that's the challenge. At least you photographed it before. Looking forward to your next creation :)

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  5. Happy May Day to you tooooo! Thanks for coming by my blog...lovely blog you have here.

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  6. I love the backgrounds you have created.
    Happy May Day x

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  7. Your calendar pages are so gorgeous, Linda! I can tell you are lovin' the sprays!

    Thanks for sharing the May Day traditions of France. I can remember celebrating May Day when I was in high school - 8 of us (girls) wore pastel colored skirts and wrapped coordinating colors of long and wide ribbons around the May Pole by weaving over and under each other as we danced around it! The entire school (small town!!) stood around the perimeter to watch. Good memories!

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  8. I like both your calendars very much. They are so soft with nice colors.

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  9. Great pages,love the background and the circles.

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  10. What a lovely colour combo for your May pages! The background looks great, nice and inky!

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  11. Wow Linda what a fabulous idea, love your pages.I need to google Higgins black magic ink to see what it is.

    I need to think abut doing a calendar like this x

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  12. Love your happy pages for May, the colours are beautiful! Have a good moth! Valerie

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  13. Lovely calendar pages, the yellow and lilac look great together! Love the verse for mayday!

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  14. I liked the greeting card and also ur pages. I got lots to learn from you. Thank you!

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  15. I love the way you've used the Tim Holtz mask in the backgroud.

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  16. love the soft colours of the may pages

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  17. Oh my dear Linda I so enjoyed reading about your May Day traditions... such a beautiful card and poem too

    Your calendar pages are very fresh and lovely almost too nice to cover up :)

    Thank you for the kind mention...you really are a dear one!

    Happy May Weekend to you and yours!
    oxo

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  18. Great calendar pages. Love the background for May - the black looks fab :-) Well done for keeping up with the calendar - only the hardcore calendar journalers are left in now LOL!

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Thank you so much for your comments; it's a pleasure to connect with you!