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In this video I'm going to show you four different ways to age paper depending on what project you want to do and how much effort you want to put into ageing your paper
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So I'm Christine of Christinecrafts.com and this channel is dedicated to crafting on a budget
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So I'm going to show you using a five pieces of paper but you could use any size you like
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It's just because that works well for me. So the first thing I'm going to show you is just getting rid of those straight sides
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So simply tear down each edge. Now you'll see that didn't go very well
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Doesn't matter. Just keep tearing it until you're happy with that edge
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And then repeat that for all four edges. Now I'm not too worried about the size of my paper
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so I can be quite relaxed about this. If you need a certain size
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then you'll have to be a little bit careful not to rip too much off. But I'm sure you'll agree that by the time I've got those edges
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looking like that, the paper looks a lot older. And that's a great quick easy way to age your paper
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Another really quick easy way, great especially for children, is simply to crumple your paper up
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So squish it all up and roll it up into a ball. Open it out. You'll see there's lots of areas with no creases and just go again
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And just keep crumpling it up until you're happy with it. Now obviously you could do this having already torn the edges
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and then you'd sort of doubly age your paper. All four techniques can be used in any combination really You can take one of them two of them use three of them it up to you Depends how much you want to work on your paper So as you can see every time I open it up looks a little bit more aged
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And if you had the torn edges, it would look even older. So now let's move into dyeing your paper
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So the first type we're going to use here is a tea mix
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So what I've done here is I've mixed my water with three tea bags
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Now I've used a lot of tea bags to make it stronger in colour and I let it rest for a while before I took the tea bags out
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and now I'm putting the paper in. Now I'm just using a casserole dish that I had in the cupboard
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but ideally you want a nice big container that you can get your paper down flat in
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and just push it in and make sure your liquid comes over the top
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and you can see it's a nice rich brown. You want a nice strong brown to stain your paper
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So I'm using one piece of paper that's got the edges torn and I'm also going to do it on a piece of paper that I've literally just taken from the cupboard
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So you can see it ageing both. How long to leave it there
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That's entirely up to you. Now I left mine in for about 20 minutes, half an hour
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But of course it depends how strong your tea is and how brown you want your paper
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So just experiment a little. But once you've got it tucked in there, just leave it for as long as you're prepared to wait
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If you leave it a very long time, it'll probably go very dark brown
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Another way that you can dye your paper is to use a coffee mix So if you have coffee in your house all I done here is use an instant coffee with some water and you see made a very strong coffee mix It very dark brown You could use any sort of coffee I just had instant coffee because we don really drink it in our house So again let test out one with the edges torn and one without Again I left it for about 20 minutes half an hour I would say the coffee made a darker brown than the tea
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So once you've left it for as long as you like, it's time to take your paper out of your liquid
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Now be careful, your paper will be a lot more fragile once it's wet
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So just take care, taking it out. Let any excess drip off and then place it somewhere
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Now I'm placing mine on some kitchen rolls, some kitchen paper because it soaks up a lot of the water and it means that my paper will dry quicker
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because once they're out of your solution and you're happy with them
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Now obviously at this point if you think, do you know what they're not dark enough? Just pop them back in
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I want them to dry quite quickly. So in my experience placing them on some kitchen paper really does speed the suspects along
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Aster's dabbing the paper now with some more kitchen paper and getting rid of some of the moisture from the top
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And then it's the case of placing it somewhere warm. Obviously if you can you can place it in the sun and it'll be dried very quickly
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dry very quickly. junk. If not, perhaps over a radiator, just somewhere nice and warm and
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it'll dry. If you're wanting it quickly, put it somewhere warmer. Mine was ready the same
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day because I managed to get it in the sunshine on a window sill And then we just got one technique left which is strictly for adults only And you see the warning there is a fire risk with this obviously
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So what I've done is lit a candle and then I'm burning the edges of the paper
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So the idea is to just make them black. And you'll see that I keep lighting my paper, which isn't the plan, but that's what keeps happening
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but that's what keeps happening and the paper disappears while I blow it out. So I recommend that you have a bucket of water or a fire extinguisher available all the time you're doing this
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because you do not want to set a fire. Also of course there are some smoke from this so make sure your location is well ventilated
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If you're indoors make sure the windows are wide open and you've got an airflow
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If you're outdoors, all the better. And you can see I'm just working my way around the paper so that all the edges are blackened
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And that really does give a good effect. Now obviously you could do this to some paper that you've crumpled or that you've stained and combine those effects
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So you've now got all four techniques to age your paper. You should be able to age your paper whatever your product
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is for. So good luck with whatever your project is and I hope you've enjoyed
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aging your paper. Now whatever videos popping up on the screen at the moment is the one
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YouTube thinks you should be looking at next so good luck and enjoy your projects
