Papel cortado means "cut paper," and is a colorful decoration that originated from the Mexican culture. You can see these beautiful decorations at a Cinco de Mayo celebration. Papel cortado involves cutting out various figures using a process similar to that of making snowflakes out of tissue paper. There are a variety of designs that you can make for papel cortado, including flowers, people, animals and abstract shapes.
Instructions
1. Choose bright, festive paper colors appropriate for Cinco de Mayo, such as red, green, yellow, pink and purple.
2. Gather your supplies for the project: scissors, tissue paper, clear tape and enough string to stretch across the walls of the room you want to decorate.
3. Cut the tissue paper into rectangular pieces that are slightly larger than you want the finished pieces to be. Your papel cortado decorations can be as large or as small as you wish. In fact, you might consider making a variety of sizes for a more interesting effect.
4. Fold a sheet of paper in half lengthwise, then fold it in half three to five more times. Be sure to fold the paper from edge to edge.
5. Cut out shapes from the paper. If you want to make specific shapes rather than random designs, sketch outlines onto your tissue paper first, using stencils if necessary. Make sure that you do not cut all the way to the sides of the folded paper, and do not cut off any of the corners. Create further interest by cutting scallops, zig-zags or fringes around the edges.
6. Unfold the tissue paper slowly to display the designs. Be careful not to tear or rip the paper.
7. Attach each papel cortado to the string. To do so, fold the top edge of the paper (about 1/4 inch from the top) over the string and tape it down in back with your clear tape.
8. Make a long streamer or banner by adding additional papel cortado to your length of string. Be sure to leave at least one 1 inch between each decoration so the streamer has room to curve when you hang it. Leave 6 inches of free string at the ends.
9. Display your Cinco de Mayo artwork by hanging the strings of papel cortado on walls, on doors, from the ceiling or even from tree branches.
Tags: tissue paper, Cinco Mayo, clear tape, papel cortado, papel cortado
