The look, feel and smell of an old paper can make you think of the olden days papers like the Celtic parchment, the Papyrus of Egypt and the ancient Rice Paper of China. The act of making your normal paper appear old is one easy way you can add some more fun to new creative projects and avoid the high cost of getting the real thing. While there are several tips on how to make paper look old, here are the simplest way to achieve this feat using everyday items you can find in your kitchen.
How to Make Paper Look Old: 4 Easiest Steps to Give You Paper from Ancient Time
Making a new paper appear old for the sake of making some historic parchment manuscripts is quite easy. The simple steps outlined below will enable you learn how best to achieve this.
1
Select your paper with care
Different paper gives you different results. It is discovered that the usual printer paper has some waterproof abilities and fails to soak up the coffee or tea stains easily. This often leads to a pale result. Water paint or blotting paper will give you a more satisfactory result. We made use of a multipurpose textured paper for art works, obtained from a drawing pad. This worked perfectly for aging the paper because it was able to absorb the stain quite well.
2
Crumble up the paper
Crumbling up the paper helps it acquire a better texture when it absorbs the coffee or tea stains. You don't have to do this if all you desire a just a more even look.
3
Soak the paper in a cup of coffee or tea
It is a normal practice to add about 2 Tsp of coffee in about 2 cups of hot water. You must give it time to dissolve. You can also equally soak 3-4 bags of green tea in the same 2 cups of water at one time. Both techniques seem to work perfectly well. Flatten the crumbled sheet of paper and spread it in a roasting dish or any such container. Then pour it over your coffee/tea stained water. It doesn't take a long time before it gets soaked in.
4
Dry it out
You could easily lift the parchment out and place it on a newspaper to dry out, but you can always place it on a baking pan over the oven and leave it there for some minutes at a low temperature.
Now, your paper is ready to be used. It is now perfect for making any scroll manuscript you desire. You can also use it to make aged parchments on which you can make your fonts.
You can then put your parchment through a filter, if need be. You can also print on the paper before trying to age it, but the dye often runs during soaking.
