Make a Papel Picado banner for your next fiesta with a Cricut machine! Whether it’s Cinco de Mayo, Dia de los Muertos or any other occasion, this easy fiesta banner will make a statement!
Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo! I decided to make Papel Picado banner to make this year’s celebration even more colorful. Papel Picado is Spanish for ‘perforated paper’ and is a form of Mexican Folk Art. You might see Papel Picado used to decorate for lots of different holidays in Mexico!
Ever since I started taking Spanish classes in middle school, I have been enamored with the Spanish language and even more with Latin American cultures. I love Mexican food, music and dance. So, of course I love celebrating Cinco de Mayo! I celebrate it every year. We decorate the house, put on music and make Mexican food! Most of it is actually just Mexican-inspired. I can’t claim that Seven Layer Bean Dip is authentic, but it is delicious. Some of the other things we like to make are Elote, Cafe Rio Chicken Tacos or my fave Beef Enchiladas!
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I’ve tried a few different ways to make Papel Picado and this time I did it with my Cricut Maker. This banner was so easy to make. I’m really excited about it and it’s made with card stock sturdy enough that I know I will be able to use it for more than one fiesta! These Colorful Tissue Paper Fringe garlands or Ruffled Tissue Garlands also make beautiful fiesta decorations!
How to Make Papel Picado with a Cricut Machine
Materials Needed:
- Cricut Maker or Explore Air 2
- LightGrip Mat
- Scraping Tool
- Cardstock, bright colors
- Baker’s Twine or String
- Invisible Tape
Instructions:
- Open the Papel Picado design in Cricut Design Space
- If you want to design your own, search ‘Folk Art’ in images and there are a lot of great options available. A lot of the images are included with Cricut Access subscription!
- Customize the design if you want to, then prepare the card stock on a LightGrip mat. I used a long 12×24 mat so that I could cut two pieces of card stock at once.
I used a small piece of washi tape to keep the paper on the mat. You may not need to do this if your mat is new and pretty sticky, but mine has seen better days and needed a little help.
- Choose card stock (for intricate cuts) in materials.
- Cut!
- Cutting these banners does take a while. I can’t say exactly how long, each time I started the cut and walked away and do other things, then I would come back and get the next one ready and repeat.
- Remove the Papel Picado from the mat and scrape off the extra pieces. Repeat as many times as you want.
I absolutely love how these turned out! The Cricut did a great job of cutting these intricate designs!
How to Assemble the Fiesta Banner
- Some of the pieces that weren’t attached, like the middle part of the ‘O’ in Olé, I wanted to reattach.
- To do this, use some invisible clear tape. I used packing tape. If you look closely you can see where I put a thin strip of tape across the back of the O and then attached the center to it.
- String the banner together with baker’s twine, curling ribbon, whatever kind of string you have on hand.
- Attach to the wall or ceiling with wall-safe tape or masking tape.
I’m obsessed. The perfect fiesta banner for our Cinco de Mayo celebration! My girls love it too, we will be probably keeping this up for a week or so!
All the extra pieces of card stock that came out of the banner were so pretty too. When I took the extras off the mat, I decided to use the bigger ones to decorate the table with, and the little pieces can be used as confetti later on!
Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?
If you make this fiesta banner we’d love to see it! Tag us on instagram @prettyprovidenceblog and leave us a comment and positive review below!
Printable Instructions:
Papel Picado Fiesta Banner
Equipment
- Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore Air 2
- LightGrip Mat
- Pair of Scissors
- Invisible Tape
Materials
- Cardstock multiple colors
- String
Instructions
- Load the Papel Picado design into Cricut Design Space canvas. Choose 'Make It' to go to the next screen.
- Press cardstock onto the mat and secure it to the mat with a little piece of washi tape. (optional)
- Choose your mat size and make sure the correct blade is loaded. If using Cricut Maker, choose 'cardstock for intricate cuts' on the materials screen.
- Cut the papel picado. This takes a while to cut since it's so intricate.
- Remove papel picado from mat and use invisible tape to secure small pieces that aren't attached, if you want to! Scrape the little paper pieces off the mat and repeat until you have enough pieces for the length of banner you want to make.
- String banner with baker's twine or any kind of string you have on hand and hang.
Notes
This post was originally published in April 2014 and has been updated with new photos, text and a more detailed tutorial.
Hello! I am looking into buying a cricut machine in the near future. I was wondering if it is difficult to scrape off the little pieces of cardstock once the paper is cut? I want to make cards with this type of design, but I am worried that it might be strenuous to pick out every little piece from the card.
No, it really isn’t! More intricate designs can take more time but it isn’t strenuous, and Cricut has lots of tools that can aid you during the weeding process!
I love your instructions on making papel picado. However, your knowledge and stereotypes of mexican and Latin American cultures are very off-putting. I’m latina and I cringed reading through all of that.
I’m so sorry Eve. I definitely wasn’t trying to act like an expert on Latin American cultures, but I do honestly love what I know of them and would like to learn more.
This is so fun an festive! What a great craft for any festive party!
So many beautiful details! I just love them!
LOVE all the unique and intricate designs in this banner. It’s perfect for Cinco de Mayo!
I can’t seem to find this die anywhere and your link isn’t working. Do you know what it is called? And it’s by We R Memory Keepers, correct? I’d love to be able to make a banner for cinco de mayo.