Content

• To step
• Method 1 of 4: Crumple and spray
• Tips
• Warnings
• Necessities

Maybe you want to give your craft project an appropriate look, or you want to write a poem on something nicer than regular printer paper. In either case, you will need to make a sheet of paper look older. You can find many aging methods on the internet, but the best method is to crumple the paper and spray liquid on it. If this doesn't give your paper the proper aged look, try discoloring and baking, using fire and heat, or burying the paper to give it an age-old, weathered look.

To step

Method 1 of 4: Crumple and spray

1. Crumple the paper. Take a piece of paper in your hand and crumple it into a ball. The more compact the plug is, the more wrinkles there will be in the paper.
2. Choose a liquid and prepare it. To make paper look older, you can choose to use coffee to give the paper a darker color or use tea if you want a lighter color. You can also influence the color of the paper by the way you prepare the tea or coffee.
   • If you are using coffee, you can darken or lighten the color by using more or less ground coffee.
   • With tea, the final color of the paper depends on how long you let the tea steep. If you let the tea steep longer you will get a darker color and if you let the tea steep you will get a lighter color.
   • Let the liquid cool down before starting the next step.
3. Preheat the oven to 90 ºC. By preheating the oven now, it will have the desired temperature when the paper is ready to be baked.
4. Place the baking tray in the oven for four to seven minutes. Ideally, you put the baking tray on the middle rack in the oven. Keep an eye on the paper while baking. You'll know when the paper is ready because that's when the edges start to curl. How long it takes for this to happen depends on the oven you are using.
5. Hold a sheet of paper over the sink. This is important in case you accidentally set the paper on fire. You can then just drop it in the sink and run water on it. In this method, you do not write on the paper until after you have given it an older look, so that your work is not wasted by burning the paper.
6. Find a candle or lighter. It doesn't matter which one you use, because both work equally well. Just use what you have at home. Do not use a lighter with butane gas, because the flame that comes out there is too strong for this job.
7. Remove the paper from the hole after three to fourteen days. How long you wait depends on how old you want the paper to look.

Tips

• The paper will look older and more refined if you burn it while it is still damp from discoloration.
• Practice using a candle or lighter on a different sheet of paper before trying to age your good sheet of paper.
• Make sure you don't use too much liquid or the paper can tear.
• If you want to make dark folds in the paper, crumple it before putting it in liquid or spraying moisture on it.
• If you are using coffee to age the paper, add a few glasses of red wine to the coffee. Because they are different substances, the coffee will end up on the larger surfaces and the wine in the small creases. This creates a very old effect.
• Spray clear lacquer on the paper when it is completely dry for extra protection.
• Feel free to combine the above methods. For example, you can discolor a sheet of paper, bake it and then bury it for a few days.

Warnings

• Do not try to soak multiple sheets in liquid at the same time. The sheets will stick together. Let the sheets soak separately and use the same tea.
• Don't let the paper soak for too long or it will start to fall apart.
• Don't hold the paper too close to the fire, or it will catch fire.
• If you have written on the paper, do not soak the paper in liquid if you have written with ink. The ink will then run and the text will become unreadable. Use a ballpoint pen or pencil.
• If you are under 18, have an adult with you when using fire.

Necessities

• Sheet of paper
• Tea bag or coffee
• Atomizer
• Sponge brush
• Baking tray
• Paper towels
• Oven
• Candle or lighter
• Hairdryer