Monday, May 05, 2008

Papel Picado

I bought some tissue the other day with some hopes of creating some papel picado. I kept procrastinating and procrastinating until Sunday when I thought, "I know! I'll have a cinco de mayo party and put up some papel picado!" So I send out an invite and now I was committed.


Papel picado is the Mexican form of papercutting. You layer a bunch of tissue together and by whatever means possible, you cut through all of it and have a remarkable decoration. I used an exacto blade and one of those grommet hole cutters. I wish I had some carving tools.


This took me probably about 4 hours to make, I sat through two NPR shows and a LOST podcast to create it. I think it was worth it though. My porch looked the prettiest, I think, with all the sparky lights. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

8 comments:

Snippety Gibbet said...

You wrote on my blog that you can't figure out your dvr. hehehehe.......
My daughter had to explain how to work mine.

Is the tissue paper in this "papel picado" just the regular gift wrap tissue paper or something more sturdy?

daysease said...

what is a "grommet hole cutter" and how would carving tools have been helpful? very sweet idea, though, do you plan on reusing them again for all the 4 hours you put into them? wow, cute design. come up with it yourself?

Veeda said...

these are so pretty.

Melody said...

The Cinquo de Mayo party you had a couple of years ago was so fun! I miss your parties. Such cool paper cuts!

Unknown said...

Ohhhh what delightful papercutting you do!!!! I love them. I hope you will have time to do more despite your job.
Happy weekend from Emily in Norway

Tim Budden said...

You've inspired me to try my own papel picado but Chinese style! Of course I'll be using silk. Also seeing your pics of the papel around your home gave me some ideas for exhibiting my work. THANK YOU!

Cindy Bean said...

Ooo, you guys, I'm such a jerk! Sorry for not responding yet to any of these comments.

Snippety, it's just the regular gift tissue.

Peri., a grommet hole cutter is something you can get at any craft or sewing store. It's just a little round tool that you use a hammer to bang the hole with. Carving tools I would have liked to have used because I could have hammered the cuts in instead of cutting them.

V. thanks!

Melody, my parties miss you! Thanks!

Ravenhill, thanks! I think I will be able to do more when things settle down.

Tim, excellent! Good luck with all that. Be sure to post it on your blog!

mila said...

papel picado doesn't mean papercutting, it means shredded paper
the closest thing to papercutting could be papel calado