How to make paper look old? 4 methods to age paper

As a gift for the end of the year for my daughter’s wonderful teacher, we gave a treasure map with the most important events during the year. The map was personalized and printed on specially aged paper. In this post I will present some methods on how to make paper look old 📜🤩

Polska wersja: Jak postarzyć papier

1. Aging paper with coffee or tea

The first and most effective method is to dye the paper in coffee or tea.

Brew strong coffee or tea.
Pour into a large flat dish so that a sheet of paper can fit there.
Close the sheet thoroughly.
Remove and lay on a flat surface to dry.

After drying, you can print on such a card, although the paper sometimes jams in my printer🫠.

How to make paper look old - dying in the coffee

2. Burning the edges

For me, this is method number 2 right after dyeing. Burnt edges look awesome in combination with a dyed card. They can also be used on a white card as well as on greeting cards 😁.

Burning should be done in small pieces and quickly blow out the accelerating fire.

Tearing off the edges of the paper

Another method is to tear off the edges of the paper to make them irregular and jagged. This method is best combined with coffee/tea dyeing and then tear off the edges first and then dye.

Paper creasing

To age the paper, you can also crumple it or roll it up.