First I designed it, with the double happiness symbol (the traditional Chinese character for a lucky marriage) as the focus. In Chinese culture, magpies are harbingers of happiness and cherry blossoms are symbols of love. So I tried to intergrate those images into the design as well:
(the design is halved as the paper will be folded when it is cut out-- like a paper heart. By the way, feel free to use my design if you ever feel crazy enough to make your own Asian papel picado.)Designing was the easy part, however. Cutting it was far, far from easy. I gave myself a blister.
But it was soooo satisfying when I finished and unfolded the paper:
And I think it added a lovely, subtly Asian touch to the whole room:
