Making Magic Windows: Creating Cut Paper Projects With Carmen Lomas Garza

This book is a very good resource to begin understanding or beginning to work with papel picado. My students and my children loved the activities and enjoyed learning about papel picado. I strongly recommend this book for the classroom and for the home. The activities are best for older children age 8+, but you also could adapt for younger children. We made almost all the patterns in the book and had great fun doing these projects. I wish there were more patterns for specific holidays or special occasions.

The illustrations and instructions were clear, concise and very easy to understand. Projects started easy and worked into more complicated ones. The progression from easy to hard was just right so by the time I got to the more complex designs I was able to do them even as a beginner. The projects were intricate enough for adult interest, but were still easy enough for a beginner to do.

I am a teacher and used some of the examples from this book to teach a class of kindergartners the art of papel picado. The instructions are easy to follow, and the results are just beautiful. It's fun for the children and adults alike. It's good idea to show children examples of actual papel picado before you read Lomas Garza's other book called Magic Windows.

Absolutely one of the best how-to, interactive books I've ever had the pleasure of working through - and I'm not exactly artistically gifted. Carmen Lomas Garza has compiled a series of papel picado/cut-paper art projects with excellent instructions on folds and cuts, the elements of design, and the tools and materials needed to make successful papel picado banderitas/banners. Strong on helpful hints and technique, this book allows you to learn as you go through so that you can add real variety to any cut-paper project whether it be the simpliest or the most complex. My sister and I got together a small group - 3 adults & 2 youngsters - and totally enjoyed creating several papel picado projects. Hands down, The Fan, was the overwhelming favorite of our little group of novice banderita makers. Filled with 8 great scissor projects and several challenging X-acto knife picados, Making Magic Windows is creative, interactive fun for the whole family! Explore it for yourself.