Making Paper Look Like Parchment (For Posters)

Hey guys! Today I want to tell you about a cool project I did to make these specific looking posters. It is making regular paper (I used a slightly thick paper, almost cardstock), look like a parchment-y type of paper. I was really happy with the results.

So, it uses coffee or coffee grounds to stain the paper with a yellow brown color. Because it gets the paper wet, it also makes it sort of bumpy. You can use a bunch of different things to dry your paper once it has the coffee, I used my mum's dehydrater, but you could also use a hair dryer, heat gun, oven etc.

I used two pieces of my drawing paper out of a sketch book to test the technique. I also tested a burning technique I found on one of them.

Step one. Pick out your paper. I ran my paper through the printer before I dyed it because I wasn't sure if it would need it up or not. However, if you are drawing on it, or writing on it I think it would be best to wait until after it has been stained.

Next get your coffee or coffee grounds. I used leftover coffee grounds that I put hot water in. Spraying or brushing straight coffee on them would work just as well.

You also need a tool to put your coffee on the paper, a cookie sheet, and a toothbrush if you are using grounds.

Lay your paper in the cookie sheet. It should fit easily. Then, cover your paper in coffee. It should be completely covered, but it doesn't have to be even because the blotchy parts add to the effect.

Next is to dry your paper. If using a hair dryer, flip the paper every so often. The research I did said that at about 350 in the oven, it takes the paper about 5 minutes give or take, to dry. Because I was doing multiple, I put the really wet ones in their pan on the bottom of the dehydrater for 20 minutes, and the ones that were mostly dry from that finished drying in the top shelf of the dehydrater. So, in two rotations, my paper was in the dehydrater about 40 minutes, at about 130°.

Then I take them out of the dehydrater. I scrape most of the grounds off with my hands, then use the toothbrush to get the dust, then I wiped them on my pants leg to get all of the coffee dust off of the paper.

The curl a little after coming out of the dehydrater/oven. I left mine like that but if you wanted to fix it you could give it a light iron or leave it under some books for a few days.

I did a lot of research on this project and I hope you guys like it as much as I did. As always, Hive On! Best wishes to all of you guys!