How to Age Paper
Aging paper gives a nice feel to paper. It works especially for projects, or for room decoration. If your room is a rustic vintage look and have a paper that you use around or even a calendar, this project is perfect to go with the look.
Materials
- Coffee Powder
- Water
- Cookie Tray
- Paper
- Brush (Optional)
- Oven or Hair Dryer
- Paper Towels/ Towels
1. We are going to start off with the cookie tray. I prefer hot water, but it is truly up to your liking. So you will fill the cookie tray less than halfway with water. Then you will add about a half to a full tablespoon of coffee powder. (The more the coffee, the darker the paper.) When I did it, I put about 1 tablespoon of coffee. After, you will want to mix the coffee into the water well so that there is not a lot of clumps.
2. Before you start dipping you paper in, you would want to preset your oven to 200 degrees. Now, you are going to get the paper that you wish to age, and slowly, try to put the paper under the water. You do not want to put it flat on the top because from my experience, I find that there is more color when it is deeper in than when it is at the top.
3. Now with the brush or with your hand, you can brush/massage it to the bottom and let it soak for no more than 5 minutes. If you leave it in there too long, it will get too soggy. *OPTIONAL* If you would like to give it a little more of an antique, what I like to do it to get some more coffee powder and randomly throw it around on top and let it sink to the paper so that the paper how some brown spots.
4. After the five minutes, you would like to place it on the towel and get another towel and lightly press the paper in between. Don't do this for too long, or then the color will come off. Now from here you can start blow drying it with the hair dryer, but this can be a long time for it to get dry, rather with the oven, it gets done pretty fast.
5. If you are blow drying it, you would gradually do the front and back and make sure that there are no damp spots or else the color will not be there.
If you are doing the oven, place it on another cookie tray, and put it in the oven. You can wait about 2-3 minutes and you would want to check on it because it gets done pretty fast.
6. After the paper is dry, (you will know because then it will start rising a pit and getting a little wrinkly), you will take it out and wait a minute and it is all done! *OPTIONAL* If you want more of the old look, turn on the gas burners, and you can burn the edges if you would like. This makes the edges become burned and chipped off and dark on the edges. Gives it a nice feel and look to the paper as if it is really old.
Hope this helps!
