So old-looking paper is oh-so-cute and vintage. Since, however, I don't have a couple years to wait around and let it naturally age, here is a way to create aged paper within a couple hours, ready for use for crafts, letters, and artsy projects of any kind.
What you need:
Boiling water. I'm not sure that you need it to be boiling or even hot, but this is what I do.
Instant coffee
A plain piece of white paper
A low-rimmed pan big enough to accommodate your soon-to-be-vintage paper.
Fill the pan with the boiling water. Fill it full enough to nicely cover the paper.
Pour in some instant coffee. The water needs to be pretty dark to darken the paper enough.
Put in the paper and allow to soak. I think mine was in for a little over an hour.
Put it on a drying rack to dry.
Here is the finished product!
I'm not sure what those black marks are from, and the edges did get a few small rips, but hey, it's supposed to be old, right? :) I ironed the paper after it dried, to try to flatten out the drying rack marks.
The reason I used coffee is because tea staining hasn't shown itself to be dark enough for me. This way of staining also doesn't make the paper really really dark.
For a tutorial for making the paper even darker and older looking, click here.
Also in this tutorial you will learn how to take out the coffee smell.
Of course, coffee smell is so yummy...
Have fun!
P.S. This is the type paper I used in my post about Writing and Folding a Regency Style Letter.
I love this technique!
ReplyDeleteI stain paper with coffee too, but a bit differently. I might as well call it the easy way out. ;)
I mix water with instant coffee until it turns the color I want, and then use a brush to stain my paper, which I have lying on a paper towel. Then I let it dry between fresh paper towel.
I'll have to try this way next time, I like the idea of totally covering the paper with the coffee!
Cool! That looks neat! i should try that sometime. yeah, i tried it with tea once, and let's just say it did not work out!
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