Polish Easter Craft: Palma-Wycinanka

In Poland, palms for Palm Sunday are made from pussy willows, and increasingly, colorfully painted straw flowers. These beautiful arrangements can be purchased from street vendors as well as in grocery stores. You can also dye and weave your own.

This colorful craft was adapted from a Polish Easter craft book* and uses another Polish tradition of cutting paper into intricate designs. Luckily my six-year-old was here to help me with the paper cutting, a skill she learned from her teachers at school. This Palma-Wycinanka or cut paper palm can be as simple or elaborate as you want and is a fun alternative to the usual egg-related Easter crafts.

Materials:
Paper towel tube
Construction paper
Tape or glue
Scissors
Sequins, stickers, tissue paper (optional)

Instructions:
1. Choose two complimentary colors of construction paper for the top of your palm. Fold these in half and cut from the fold to about an inch from the open end.  Do not unfold the paper.
2. Wrap your first color around the top of the paper towel tube and secure with tape or glue. Overlap this with the second color.
3. Wrap the rest of the tube with construction paper. You can use one color or alternate smaller strips of paper in various colors.  We used alternating colors for ours.
4. Cut paper strips into 7 inch long 1.5 inch wide strips. Fold these in half the long way (I call this a hot dog fold because it looks like a hot dog bun).
5. Carefully cut designs into the folded side of the paper, starting a little away from the end. You can make another fold and do the same kind of cut. When you open up the paper you should have a design inside. For a better explanation of this process check out this website on the art of Polish paper cutting.
6. Tape or glue your cut paper strips around your tube.
7. At this point you can be finished or add other decorations. We made tissue paper flowers for our palm, but spring stickers or sequins would also be pretty.
*The title of the book I adapted this craft from is Ozdoby Wielkanocne by Marcelina Grabowska-Piatek.