Cinco de Mayo Garland from Coffee Filters

If you’ve never used coffee filters for crafts before, now would be the time to start! These colorful and super festive “Papel Picado” garlands for Cinco de Mayo were made by 8 & 9-year olds and would be the perfect craft for teens. And of course, grown-ups. I loved making them! It felt like a Spring version of paper snowflakes.

I first saw this idea on the blog Lovely Indeed. They have a really good tutorial (better than mine) so go over there and check it out if you want more details.

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Supplies for Cinco de Mayo Garland:

~ Coffee filters

~ Liquid watercolors

~ Scissors

~ Glue stick

~ Baker’s twine or string

Step by Step Instructions for Cinco de Mayo Garland:

Step 1 ~ Give each child a stack of newspaper that is cut or torn down into smaller sheets. The coffee filters are very thin and the paint goes right through, so each time they paint one they can transfer it onto the floor or another table to dry, and then the next piece of newspaper will be fresh.

Step 2: Let the kids paint, I suggested to them to paint at least five, but they could paint up to eight. They really can paint as many as they would like, but I set a number just because they take time to cut and we wanted to finish in one camp day (3 hours).

Step 3: You can dry the coffee filters on the floor, or hang them to dry on a clothesline. They don’t take that long to dry, maybe about half and hour. If you are in a hurry, take out the hair dryer! We do this sometimes.

Step 4: Not pictured is me cutting the circles down to squares. I did this with the paper cutter. Save the scraps to use later in collage projects.

Step 5: Fold the squares in half, then in half again, and again.

Step 6: There are many ways you can cut these. One way is to make diagonal snips down the side and then cut out every other one. Another way is to cut little half diamonds. Make sure to leave some space on one end so that you can fold it over the string.

Step 7: Unfold the squares! This is the best part.

Step 7: Line up the cut squares in the order you want. Cut a piece of string that is about a foot longer on each side.

Step 8: Apply a little bit of glue at the top, lay down the string, then fold over to seal.

I’m loving some of the tie-die ones! You can do this project with your little one, too. Let them paint and you can cut and paste. These garlands always turn out fabulous no matter what – they are very forgiving.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

xo Bar

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Did you like this post? Here are some more garland ideas for you: