Antiquing postcards

This instructable was borne of the intersection between tea and the need to embellish the bedroom. After a solid think and some hasty purchases an image was selected. The problem was that it simply looked too new. After yet another cup of tea and a ponder over the fate of our newly purchased postcards from Paris, an idea was stumbled upon.

This instructable will show you hew to make a paper based poster or board look at least a good 50 years older than it ought; through the magic art of antiquing, a bit of tea and some good 'ol rough housing.

Step 1 Preparation of the Postcard

The first process is obviously the selection of print of which to antique. The postcard that was chosen was already of the antiqued ilk, however there was still more that could be done especially to the surface. Below is what you will need to make new stuff look awesomely old:

A freshly brewed cup of tea - the longer the tea bag is left in the cup the better
A suitably sized tub in which to bathe your poster/postcard
Some baking paper
Something heavy to press the wet product
Fine 120 grit sand paper
Paper towels
2mm grey card or similar
Craft knife
Pencil graphite

The first step may sound crazy but if you want to fast track the age of something you will need to make some holes in it first. The first step is to get some fine sand paper and sand the image of the postcard to ensure the tea will weep into all the marks you make. If you want to create heavier areas of staining simply rub harder. Basically any paper that is not printed on will soak up the tea faster than other areas. Try to rub in lengths that match the image, e.g if the image is more vertical rub horizontal to make the main image stand out. For the image of the Eiffel tower the sides that were sky were sanded horizontally and other areas sanded vertically. There is no need to be perfect about this as antiquing is all about being a bit rough.

Comments

[justjonty]

Fantastic!

[ChrysN]

That looks great.