Learn how to age paper in this quick and easy tutorial using tea or coffee.
Learning how to age paper with tea was something I learned when I was a kid.
And I remember it being very easy to do.
SourceSilent Night Vintage Music Sheet
In the tutorial below, youll learn how to age paper with simple tea and coffee.
It only takes 5 minutes, which works out well if youre coloring many sheets.
Youll also see how I used the gorgeous aged paper to make my DIY Christmas art.
you’re able to literally make beautiful artwork with coffee or tea alone!
Its another nifty way to color paper and canvas.
First lets go over some common questions around aging paper.
How do you make paper look old with tea?
The first method is steep your tea bags in hot water for 1 minutes.
Then use the tea bags directly on paper (tutorial below).
SourceSilent Night Vintage Music Sheet
Another tip is to add some extra tea on the edges/sides of your paper.
This will naturally make the paper look more vintage and aged.
Once youre happy with the look, leave laying flat to air dry.
Then take it out to air dry.
How Can You Age Paper Fast?
The longest part of this project is letting the paper dry once youre done staining it.
How do you color paper with coffee?
Another way to stain paper is to use coffee instead of tea.
To do this youll need to diute 2 tsp of instant coffee in 1/4 cup hot water.
Once dissolved, use a paint brush or paper towel to paint on the coffee liquid onto your paper.
Alternative you might pour the coffee in a cookie sheet, then soak the whole sheet for 2-3 minutes.
Take your paper out to air dry.
Is Tea Stained Paper Archival?
Short answer is no.
Your paper will no longer be archival quality because black tea contains a substance called tannic acid.
If you do want to preserve your aged paper for generations, one option is to seal it.
Ill show you how I sealed mine on canvas in the project below.
I wanted to make a DIY Christmas canvas art with my favorite holiday song Silent Night.
So Iprinted out the lyrics here.
So I first printed the lyrics music sheet above on a normal inkjet black and white printer.
It came out black & white so I wanted to age the paper for a vintage look.
Next I aged the paper (instructions in the tutorial below).
Once the paper was aged and dry, I cut it to the size of my canvas.
Next I used someMatte Mod Podge, and I applied it with asponge brushonto the entire canvas surface.
Once dried you have a beautiful DIY Christmas sheet music art piece!
It would make a gorgeous vintage addition to your Christmas holiday decor!
Below is another DIY I made by aging a printed book page from the Harry Potter book.
I made this for my sister in law who loves this series.
I ended up painting Hedwig the owl over top of the paper to make it extra special.
Which is another idea you could do with your aged paper.
The sky is the limit with this craft!
Did you make this project?
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