Aged paper is used to decorate various crafts: postcards, albums, etc. The aging process itself is called distressing, its goal is to give a sheet of paper a characteristic color and texture. Let's take a look at a few stressors that you can use at home.

1. Sunbeams

A sheet of paper should be placed so that direct sunlight falls on it. This is the simplest and surest way of distressing: the paper will age evenly, while eliminating the possibility of accidental damage to the sheet. The only drawback is the length of the process.

2. Brown pencil

A small piece of paper is densely colored with a soft dark brown pencil, with the same pencil an uneven contour is applied along the edges of the workpiece. Then they rub the sheet with a painted piece of paper, achieving the effect of aging.

3. Coffee

For half a glass of boiling water, you need to take 2-3 tablespoons of coffee (preferably natural ground). After cooling, the paper is placed in any flat container with a side (for example, a baking sheet) and coffee is poured. The liquid is evenly distributed over the entire surface with a brush or sponge. The effect of "variegated old spots" can be achieved by sprinkling instant coffee granules on top of the leaf. The paper is left for 10 minutes, then excess moisture is removed with a paper towel and dried in the oven or microwave.

4. Tea

First you need to brew tea (2 bags per glass of water) and leave for 45 minutes. After that, tea is applied to the leaf using a bag, in some places the paper can be slightly rubbed, this will enhance the effect of "old age". Excess liquid is removed with a towel, the sheet is dried in the oven or microwave.

5. Milk

Using a brush, milk is applied to the sheet, allowed to dry, and then ironed. The higher the fat content of the milk, the darker the paper will turn out.

6. Craquelure varnish

Lacquer cover the entire surface of the sheet. During the drying process, the lacquered surface cracks, giving the paper an aged tint. When choosing this method, it must be borne in mind that the inscription must be made in advance.

7. Potassium permanganate

Several granules of potassium permanganate are dissolved in water, the color of the solution should be dark pink. The sheet is placed in the solution and left for 3-5 minutes, depending on the density of the paper and the desired effect, and then dried. Work must be done with gloves.

We process the edges

Antique sheets have an uneven edge, so the edges of a sheet of artificially aged paper also need to be processed. To do this, use sandpaper, a grater, a hard cloth or a sponge. The edges of the sheet can be wetted and rubbed or torn with your hands, and then carefully singe over an open fire. Using a candle flame, you can make a few dark spots in the middle of the sheet, but be careful when doing this, as the paper can catch fire.

If a sheet of paper is crumpled and then smoothed and distressed, the effect of aging can be greatly enhanced.

During the processing of the sheet with tea or coffee, blades of grass or cereals can be added to the painting solution, thanks to which a special pattern will appear on the paper.

An interesting effect is obtained if the leaf is rubbed with a wax candle and dripped with wax in several places.

You can use several methods to age paper at the same time.

When I was about to age the paper, my family bombarded me with questions.

Here are some of them: why? Why manually, if you can in Photoshop? And what are you going to do with her now?

If you still decide to start aging paper, then you don’t have such questions, because there is scrapbooking, framing and photographs, and just a lot of decorative work that is unthinkable without such paper.

So, there are many ways to age paper. Now I will talk about four of the simplest and, from my point of view, the most effective.

Tea aging.

We will need:

1. Black leaf tea - 5 - 10 tsp (the stronger the tea leaves, the older the leaf, I took 5 spoons, for a slight yellowness).
2. Boiling water - 250 ml.
3. surface for drying.

Paper preparation.

I wrinkled the paper, it was possible to make only a few creases, it was possible not to wrinkle at all.

Welding.

Brew tea with boiling water and leave for 10 minutes under a closed lid. We filter. Pour into the bath.

Aging.

We lower the leaf into the tea leaves, while still young. We leave for a minute or two.

Drying.

We take out the paper from the bath and lay it out on a flat surface.

After drying, I ironed the sheet with an iron.

A few drops of tea on top of the finished sheet will give the paper an even more realistic look.

The edges can be burned with a lighter/candle. You can hold an electric stove over a hot burner, and dark spots will appear - “traces from fires” that the paper has “survived”.

REMEMBER FIRE SAFETY!

Aging with coffee solution.(my favorite way)

We will need:

1. Natural ground coffee - 5 tsp with top.
2. Boiling water - 200 ml.
3. Tray, for soaking the sheet.
4. A sheet of white paper for the printer.
5. surface for drying.

Paper preparation.

Made the paper very wrinkled.

Welding.

Brew coffee with boiling water and leave for 10 minutes under a closed lid. We filter very carefully, we defend for several minutes so that the sediment settles. Pour into the bath.

Aging.

We lower the paper into the composition. We leave for five minutes. If soaking for too long, the paper will “fall into insanity” and “refuse to get out” of the bath in one piece.

Drying.

We take out the paper and lay it out on a flat surface.

After drying, I, again, ironed the sheet with an iron.

Now you can sit down for three hours for fortune-telling on coffee grounds.

Aging with milk.

We will need:

1. Milk - 150 ml. (milk should be full fat, homemade is best).
2. Tassel.
3. A sheet of white paper for the printer.
4. surface for drying.
5. Iron.

Paper preparation.

I rounded the corners of the sheet with nail scissors. So that the edges do not look too neat, I “walked” along them with sandpaper, and all over the sheet, for one thing, too. We crumple or not crumple the paper. I rumpled.

Aging (1 part).

We lay out the sheet and “paint” it with milk on both sides. We give time to soak.

Drying.

Lay the sheet out on a flat surface. Luckily, the cutting board I was drying the sheets on turned out to be carved. Still wet sheet, I gently pressed the paper into the thread. After drying, the ornament will remain on the sheet.

Aging (part 2).

Now we connect a hot iron to the process. We iron until brown spots appear on the sheet, as well as perspiration on your forehead.

Aging by the sun.(The most economical way).

We will need:

1. Sheet of white paper.
2. A couple of sunny summer days.

Paper preparation.

We crumple or not crumple the paper. I didn't hesitate.

Aging.

We hang the paper so that light falls on it all the time.

We dance ritual dances and make sacrifices to the gods so that the rain does not drizzle.

The next method is also referred to as aging, although I would call it coloring.

Green coloring.

We will need:

1. A sheet of white paper.

2. Brilliant green, 1% alcohol solution, simply brilliant green - 5-10 drops (depending on the required initial color).

3. Cold water - 200 ml.

4. Tray, for soaking paper.

5. Surface for drying (may remain green forever).

Aged paper is popular with lovers of various types of needlework: scrapbooking, decoupage, as well as those who like to create original things. A vintage-style wedding invitation on aged paper will match the overall mood of the celebration. A handmade greeting card is best made on aged paper. Use 19th-century fonts that give the letters swirls like pen and ink. Place on the postcard poems of your own composition, glorifying the beauty of the one to whom it will be addressed. And this will impress a girl much more than a huge bouquet of flowers or a teddy bear on half a sofa.

In what style direction is aged paper used

Paper is different from paper, this also applies to aged paper. Depending on the style in which the craft will be made, the method of aging paper is selected. To date, the most popular and used styles are the following:

1. Vintage style (vintage). It consists in giving things a false antiquity. The style is characterized by heavy tones of beige and brown colors. It should give the impression that the paper, under the influence of sunlight and time, has darkened, scuffed, frayed edges and burned in some places (it is assumed that a lit candle fell on the paper). The optimal method of “aging” paper is distressing, for which strongly brewed coffee, ink, sandpaper, and an ink pad are used.
2. Heritage (legacy). In fact, this is an analogue of the vintage style, only used for decorating family albums and portrait and thematic photographs. And it is not the paper that grows old, but the photographs themselves. For example, when the younger generation, surprisingly similar to the great-grandmother, is placed in the photo next to their ancestor. For less contrast, photos are made older by the heritage method.
3. Shabby Chic style. It is characterized by pastel shades (pale pink, blue, pale green, beige), wrinkling of paper, the effect of cracks, applying primer to paper, and curled edges.

What are the techniques for giving the effect of antiquity to paper

There are special techniques that can recreate a particular effect.

1. Craquelure is the effect of creating a crack in a lacquered or primed finish. Recreate the illusion of cracks in paintings. In ancient times, craquelure (cracks) appeared in paintings due to a violation of technology. For example, due to insufficient primer, the lower layers of paint absorbed moisture from subsequent new layers, as a result of which they quickly dried out and cracked. There are special craquelure paints and varnishes that, when applied to paper, give the effect of cracks.
2. Distressing is the artificial aging of paper with organic products such as coffee, tea or milk. The ruler and scissors loosen the structure of the edges of the paper so that they look shabby from time to time. In stationery stores you can find special distressed inks. After uniform application to a sheet of paper and complete drying, traces of uneven drying, scuffs and burnout remain.
3. Embossing or embossing on paper. It is obtained using stencils or stamps. Food foil, glitter powder, etc. are also suitable. The embossing method creates convex initial words that are outlined in golden or silver paint. Against the background of aged paper, all this looks very impressive and unusual.
4. Journaling. This method helps to recreate the text typed on an old pre-war typewriter. Journaling is used to describe the events displayed in the photographs. It looks much more appropriate than the usual handwriting.

What improvised materials are used for aging paper

Regular black tea
Take a sheet of white A4 office paper. Brew 5 to 10 tablespoons of regular unflavoured black tea in a mug (the older you want the end result to look, the more teaspoons you add).

After 10 minutes, strain the tea leaves through a strainer into a bowl. Hold the leaf in the tea leaves for 5 minutes. Take out the sheet, put it on the table and dry it with a hair dryer.

When the moisture has evaporated, go over the sheet with an iron through a piece of cotton fabric. Then make a few drops on top in a chaotic manner. To give the "soot effect" hold the finished sheet over a hot burner.

Natural ground coffee:

• remember the paper well with your hands
• brew 5 tablespoons of ground coffee in a glass of boiling water
• pour the tea leaves into a tub or bowl
• hold the sheet there for 5 minutes
• remove and dry with an iron or hair dryer

Milk
Pour half a glass of milk of the highest % fat content. Finish the edges of an A4 sheet with sandpaper and nail scissors. Using a brush, apply milk all over the sheet. Take a hot iron and with quick movements “stamp” the surface of the paper with it.

It's easy to make paper old. However, do not overdo it, because over time the sheets will fade on their own. Excessive aging can lead to the fact that a family album, albeit very stylish and colorful, will have to be moved to a modern, but more reliable one.

Video: how to quickly age paper

Old paper will serve as an excellent basis for creativity. It can be used to design albums and photographs in retro style, making various ancient scrolls, maps and old...

Old paper will serve as an excellent basis for creativity. It can be used to design albums and photographs in retro style, making various ancient scrolls, maps and old documents. In order to artificially age paper on your own, you will not need much effort, and there are several ways to implement your plan at home.

Tea or coffee

The most famous way of aging paper is to soak it in ordinary tea leaves. To do this, pour a glass of boiling water 5 tablespoons of black tea (leaf) and leave to infuse. If there is no tea, then it can be replaced with coffee: 10 teaspoons of coffee for a glass of boiled water. The stronger the solution will be, the darker the paper will turn out.

The paper must be lowered into the bath with the resulting filtered liquid. To make the paper look older and dilapidated, you can crumple it beforehand. The sheet is aged for five minutes, after which it is removed from the container and dried on a flat surface. If for some reason the process needs to be accelerated, it is recommended to iron the wet sheet with an iron.

Milk

You can also age the paper with milk, which should be applied to both sides of the sheet with a cotton swab. When the sheet dries slightly, it must be ironed. If the resulting paper is held over a hot stove, then quite picturesque tan marks are obtained, giving historical authenticity.

Sun rays

There is another, longer way to make ancient paper. The sheets are placed in direct sunlight, as a result of which, after a few days, the paper will naturally turn yellow.

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Finishing touch

After acquiring the old paper, you can work with it a little more to give it a more believable look. To make the paint on the sheet uneven, grind coffee granules in several places. After that, you can very carefully burn the edges with matches or a lighter.

Any of these options can age a whole book. To do this, it will be necessary to lower each of the pages into the solution and iron it. But you can proceed to the next sheet only after the previous one has completely dried. Of course, such manipulations will take quite a lot of time, however, the result will be a rare original book edition.

How to make old paper with your own hands?

For those involved in design, it is sometimes necessary to know how to make old paper. Yellowed letters with frayed edges, pages of ancient manuscripts or maps, photographs from the beginning of the last century have an extraordinary charm. Such elements can be included in crafts using the scrapbooking technique, and used when decoupage items in a vintage style. Anything that can be made out of timestamped paper will look perfect when using imitation.

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What do you need to prepare before work?

Aging is one of the varieties of colored paper manufacturing. The essence of the process is to color the sheet in shades of material that has yellowed over time. One of the options for aging can be considered tinting in greenish, blue or pink.

This operation can be done in Photoshop by printing the resulting drawing. But for the manufacture of high-quality material for scrapbooking or other purposes, you will have to do the coloring yourself. Since the work involves the use of dyes, measures must be taken to protect clothes, hands and the surface of the table from stains.

Paper dyes can be found in every kitchen, so no special chemicals are needed. Need to cook:

• natural ground coffee (you can also take instant);
• tea leaves;
• milk;
• sandpaper;
• iron;
• lighter or candle;
• photocell or other wide flat dish.

In addition to the above, cutting tools may come in handy. For the manufacture of aged colored paper, you will need: pharmacy brilliant green, blue for linen or methylene blue from a pet store, a solution of potassium permanganate. For rapid aging, you can also use a pharmacy solution of iodine: depending on the composition of the material, it sometimes gives unexpected and unpredictable color effects.

How to prepare paper for decorating

Depending on what effect needs to be obtained for the further use of colored paper, different methods of preparing the source material are used. Plain paper for a printer, a notebook sheet in a cage or an oblique ruler, and book pages, photographs from old newspapers or maps from a geographical atlas are suitable for work. Different types of paper have different weights, so they must be pre-treated to facilitate the penetration of dyes into the material.

To imitate old letters and documents, a sheet of paper of any size must be folded the way business correspondence is usually folded: three times, four times or in half. If the paper is thick, it is best to do this several times, folding and straightening the folds again. For naturalism, you can break the corner of the sheet, cut off the sharp part, twist it a little and smooth it with your fingers. All this will subsequently give the leaflet a greater resemblance to real old material.

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Book pages are most often worn and frayed around the perimeter. The paper in the middle usually remains flat and relatively clean. Therefore, when imitating the pages of an old book, special attention should be paid to the corners and edges of the future colored paper: they can be torn, broken, singed over an open fire. If a real book is taken for aging, then the corners can be processed with a file or knife before painting, making them slightly rounded.

All preparatory measures are aimed at changing the structure of the material, making it looser. After staining, in places of folds and creases, a characteristic darkening is formed, which occurs during long-term storage of paper documents. Edges that are torn or scratched by a file also change density, allowing the dye to penetrate in a limited area, as happens when exposed to natural environmental factors during paper storage.

If you want to print a printed drawing on a sheet, then you should use only laser printers. When printing on inkjet models, you should purchase high-quality original pigment ink cartridges. But even this does not always help to preserve the print during coloring. It is best to apply the design after decorating by selecting the sepia color for printing in the printer settings.

Paper sheet aging

A drawing of an old shabby and darkened document printed in Photoshop has a number of drawbacks: it remains white on the reverse side, its surface is too sensitive to moisture and glue, which looks realistic only from a distance. Making old paper can be just as easy with your own hands, but it will be dyed over the entire thickness of the structure, which makes it immune to accidental drops of water. When decoupage, such sheet material is generally indispensable, because it must withstand mechanical stress and not lose color when glued.

For coloring, you need a strong infusion of tea or coffee: for 1 cup of boiling water, you need to take 5 tsp. tea leaves or ground grains. In extreme cases, natural coffee can be replaced with instant coffee. It takes 10 minutes to infuse. For coloring in a green, blue or pink tint, you need to prepare a dye solution of the corresponding color.

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Pour the dye into a photocell or other flat container. Lay a paper sheet there, soak it in the solution for 1-5 minutes. The process of coloring thick book pages or maps can take up to 45 minutes. In any case, the moment of readiness is determined by the designer. It all depends on whether you need to give a slight yellowness or make the paper older. During soaking, additional tears, holes and frayed edges can be made.

Preheat oven to 80-900C. Place wet sheets of colored paper on a baking sheet and put them in the oven to dry. If it is not possible to use an electric oven, dry the sheets on a radiator, in the sun or at room conditions. This will take a little longer.

Another way to color

There is another way to make the effect of old paper. To speed up the process, especially on dense material, you need to process the surface of the sheet with emery cloth, destroying its top layer. After that, dip the future old document into fat milk and leave until wet.

Carefully remove the sheet and dry it at room temperature. Warm the paper over the fire or in the oven, achieving the appearance of yellowness and streaks.

Inscriptions are also applied with milk. After heating, they will look like old ones.

Next, you should evaluate the finished result. If you need to add spots, then the surface of the paper should be moistened over the entire area and sprinkle a little dry tea brewing in the right places. As it gets wet, the tea will leave random blurry spots. To get dark edges, you need to make a very thick solution of coffee or tea leaves and process the edges by immersing them in liquid. Burn marks can be made over the fire - the paper should only be charred.

When the result satisfies the needs of the master, the aged material must be smoothed out with a hot iron. You can additionally decorate paper with vignettes using ready-made stamps. An interesting embossing effect can appear if sheets are dried on a relief surface with the desired pattern.

The effect of aging paper (distressing) is one of the brightest and most stylish effects used in scrapbooking, scrapbooking and many other types of arts and crafts and creativity.

The purpose of artificial aging of paper is to obtain a characteristic color and texture, sometimes to enhance the effect, the edges of the paper are deliberately additionally torn, frayed or burned.

There are three ways to obtain aged paper: wait until the sheet ages naturally, buy ready-made sheets of old or aged paper, or make such paper at home. In this article, we will tell you how to artificially age paper (with tea or coffee).

How to age paper with coffee?

First of all, prepare the paper you plan to age. If you want the text to be printed on paper, print it out in advance - it is not always possible to print the text on an already aged sheet (printer ink does not stick well to aged paper). In addition to paper, we need coffee (instant or a mixture of instant and ground), paper towels, a sponge (or soft brush) and hot water.

Dissolve two to three tablespoons of coffee powder in half a glass of boiling water. Stir thoroughly and cool the liquid. Put the paper in a container (a baking sheet with a rim will do) and fill it with a solution. Spread the coffee over the surface of the paper with a brush or sponge. If desired, you can sprinkle paper with dry coffee granules and leave them for a short time (this will create the effect of colorful spots, uneven coloring of the sheet). Leave the paper in the water for 5-15 minutes (depending on the weight of the paper), and then remove excess moisture with a paper towel. After that, dry the paper in an oven preheated to 200 ° C for several minutes.

How to age paper with tea?

To age paper with tea, we will need several bags of black tea, hot water, a sponge (or paper towel) and, of course, the paper itself, which we will age.

Tea should first be brewed in boiling water (at a concentration of about 3-4 bags per 0.5 l of water - the stronger the tea is brewed, the richer the color on paper) and insist for one hour. Then we take out the bags from the cooled infusion and begin to apply tea on paper with their help. Tea can be applied in spots, stripes, in some places you can rub the leaf with a bag (this will enhance the effect of wear). When the paper is completely saturated with tea, remove excess liquid with a paper towel (or sponge). After that, the paper should be dried in a preheated oven (a few minutes at 180-200°C are enough).

How to age the edges of the paper?

Naturally aged paper often has jagged edges. To recreate this effect artificially, you can pat them with your hands, rub them with sandpaper or a hard sponge, tear them in several places or singe them over the fire. However, in this case, a measure should be observed so that the edges look worn, but neat.

To enhance the effect of paper aging (regardless of the method of aging), you can crumple the sheet into a ball before painting, and then straighten it. If rice (or other cereals), leaves, pieces of grass or other small objects of this kind are added to the solution during staining, an interesting uneven pattern forms on the sheet. The paper can also be rubbed with a wax candle or dripped with wax (paraffin) on its surface in several places.