For whatever reason, you may want to have some old looking paper handy. There’s something so exciting about looking at a large stack of crumpled, weathered paper, just ready to be used in all manner of projects. This blog post will give a simple explanation about how I go about having regular printer paper and turning it into something that has infinitely more character.
I tried a couple different ways to gain the old parchment look.
I started out using coffee which works the fastest as it is a darker liquid. After ripping the edges and crumpling the paper, I pressed it into a pan of coffee. An alternative to ripping the edges is to burn them. Have a wet rag handy should you choose to do things that way. You shouldn’t have too much coffee that the paper is submerged, but enough that it’s lightly resting in it.
They should only sit in the pan until it’s nice and damp. Resting in liquid for too long will take out the wrinkles. I let mine sit for less than a minute before removing them. If you’re on a tight schedule, you can drain out the access coffee out and bake for 1 minute at 200 degrees. But if you don’t want to mess with the oven, you can set it out on the counter or floor with a towel beneath them. They should be dry within a few hours, give or take.
The second technique is to use tea instead of coffee to stain the paper. Unlike with the coffee, letting the paper sit in the tea will give a more desirable stain. However, like the coffee, let it sit for too long and the wrinkles will leave. You’ll need to find a happy middle. I let my paper sit for 30 minutes – 1 hour and it turned out nicely. To add even more distress, after the paper had dried the first go around, I took the tea bags and squeezed out the excess liquid onto the paper, giving old looking water stains.
After letting it dry completely, you now have a lovely looking stack of old parchment to use in any manner desired.