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Friday, October 30, 2015

How to Age Paper - 6 easy technique to make paper look old

If you want to give a pristine white paper a browned, unevenly-colored aged appearance and parchment-like texture you need to use an aging technique. I love using my own aged paper for my vintage and steampunk projects. It's also very cost effective because you only need a few ingredients to create this effect instead of buying lots of expensive paper.


There are a few techniques to age paper:

Coffee

 I'm not a coffee drinker but this aroma filled powder can be much more than just a bevarage, it can be used to age paper and give it a brown antique look.There are two ways to acheive this effect:





Tea

Tea staining will give you a lighter color and more suttle result than coffee. You can use the tea bag itself to stain the paper directly or dip the paper in the tea. You can dry the stained paper in the oven or in a sunny place.



Spray and Ink

Use a blender and a combination of distress inks like wallnut and vintage photo and ink your paper to achieve an aged look. Another technique is to spray the paper with spray ink.



Paint

To achieve an aged effect with paint you would need a few shades of brown and to work in stages.



Here's a really cool technique with shoe polish.


So many fun techniques to try. I hope you'll try at least one, because the effectis worth it! Do you have other techniques or ideas to distressor age papers? Share in the comments!

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18 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 30, 2015 at 5:49 PM

    Great tutorial, Einat! I never thought of trying shoe polish.
    ~~julia~~

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    Replies
    1. Einat KesslerOctober 31, 2015 at 9:22 AM

      Now is your chance! Thanks for stopping by :)

      Delete
    2. Anna MaeJuly 31, 2017 at 1:54 PM

      Some very good ideas, I have heard of the shoe polish on something else, also. But I will try one of these. Thanks

      Delete
  2. Flo LangleyMarch 21, 2016 at 10:34 PM

    Hi, I am going to try the tea technique. TFS. Have you ever tried lemon juice for aging paper. Squeeze it or spritz it on the paper and then heat it up with the heat gun and watch it turn brown. I find the juice from fresh lemons works best. Particularly good on the edges of paper to get an old parchment effect. You do get different results on different paper. Sorry, this is quite long.
    Happy crafting :)

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  3. peppy vivekOctober 7, 2016 at 2:28 PM

    helpfull thank you

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  4. UnknownOctober 7, 2016 at 2:34 PM

    shoe polish technique is awsome

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  5. UnknownDecember 21, 2016 at 11:40 AM

    I use different types of tea to achieve various colors and boil the paper directly on the tea bags to vary the intensity along the grain. ALSO, YOU CAN put a stencil behind the paper above the tea bags to age a design into your paper. Happy antiquing!

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    Replies
    1. UnknownJune 21, 2018 at 8:35 AM

      Can you post the picture of a stencil work.

      Delete
  6. UnknownJanuary 6, 2017 at 11:39 PM

    Thank you for the information, I have only ever used coffee for the effect but I really like the idea of using paint and polish.

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  7. ddlJune 5, 2017 at 12:10 PM

    Thanks for this post. I have used both coffee and tea, and prefer the light look of tea. I'm wondering about your first photo--did you crinkle the paper first? It looks terrific.
    Best, Dolores

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  8. PatriciaDApril 28, 2018 at 8:14 AM

    I hear that putting baking soda in the coffee or tea helps to reduce the acidity for preserving photos.

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  9. heathermidoriyJune 11, 2018 at 11:08 PM

    How archival are these mostly food related stains?

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  10. UnknownJune 30, 2018 at 8:10 PM

    Thanks for your information it is really helpful :)

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  11. CoopOctober 17, 2018 at 3:04 PM

    I'v tried a few of these but not the shoe polish. I'm going to give that one a try

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  12. UnknownOctober 23, 2018 at 12:46 PM

    Just got back from Europe and bought a lovely painting from a street artist in Slovakia. He used watercolor paper, permanent ink for the drawing, and painted the outside edges (fading to the center) with coffee. Just marvelous!It made look like it was lit by golden light!

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  13. Cat - Country gal from WisconsinApril 26, 2019 at 11:00 PM

    Have done tea and coffee dying and also used shoe polish. I REALLY like the shoe polish technique because it instantly ages the edges, and there's no mess or drying time :-)

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  14. macjax205November 23, 2019 at 2:14 PM

    Great tip but quick question...can you use this technique after you have printed on the tags? I used my Cricut to print and cut tags and when I tried the coffee technique the printing ran and ruined the tag. The tag had been sitting a day or so before I tried the coffee. Any help and tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. UnknownJune 29, 2020 at 6:57 AM

      Don't quote me, but it might depend on the printer. I think laser printers will hold the ink better than ink jet.

      Delete

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