In these instructions, you will learn how to make an aged map prop. You can age just about any piece of paper using these techniques, but I just used regular printer paper since that was probably the most available type of paper.

Step 1: Gathering Materials

You will need the following:

cooking pan (you will need to put this pan in the oven)
Scissors (if you fill the page with your map, you may not need these scissors.)
a cup of water
coffee grounds
A Map (simply print out any map off of the internet. I am using a map of Skyrim.)

Step 2: Mixing the Water and the Coffee.

Drop a spoonful or more of coffee grounds in your cup of water. I used a spoonful, but the more you use, the more yellow the paper will be. Mix the coffee in the water with your spoon.

Step 3: Preparing the Paper.

Cut your map out of the printer paper after you have printed it out. Crumple the paper into a ball.

Step 4: Preparing the Paper (continued)

Place the paper in the cooking pan. Pour the coffee grounds in the pan and completely submerge the paper. The coffee grounds won't be completely mixed with the water, but that is okay. Let the paper sit in the water for about five minutes.

Step 5: Preheat the Oven

Dump out your coffee water from the pan and put your wet paper in the oven at 300 degrees for 5-10 minutes.

Step 6: Dried Map

Pull the dried/semi dry map out of the oven. If the map is not fully dried, use a hair dryer to dry it the rest of the way. The picture above should be the comparison between the original map and the aged map.

Step 7: Extra Aging.

To age the map even further, use a barbecue lighter to burn the edges, quickly blowing the flames out. With some skill and care, you can use a barbecue lighter to brown the front face of the map by quickly moving it to make contact with the flame and moving it away. Depending on the popularity of this tutorial, another set of instructions will be made to show these processes.