How to Tea-stain paper

I have always wanted to tea stain paper.  Just thought it would be fun.  So I thought I would try it for some invitations that I was making for a small party Trey and I are hosting. 


Here's what you need:
- plain paper (I just used my regular printer paper)
- a large rectangular shaped pan (I used a 13 x 9 pyrex pan)
- something to heat up water with
- 2 tea bags (I used Bigelow "Constant Comment" tea...orange and sweet spice flavored)
- lots of paper towels
- tongs (if you want)


So first, I heated up a bunch of water in my super awesome green tea kettle. It took about 20 minutes.  And I got my tea bags ready to dip in the hot water.

Then I poured my super hot water in my large dish (don't worry...I did all this before I burned myself), and dipped my tea bags in. I let the tea bags sit in there for about 5 minutes to really "circulate", which I helped by swirling them around in the water...more for amusement then anything else :-)

Next, I laid a piece of paper in the water. I let the one side soak up some water first, then very gently pushed it down into the water with my tongs (and I mean very gently. The first one I tried, I wasn't gentle enough and ripped the paper...oops). 

 

 

Now, if you want, you can just leave one piece in at a time...I decided to be impatient, and stuck one more piece of paper in (another time I did three pieces of paper at a time). Just go through the same process as above.  
Depending on how dark you want the paper, leave it in for 30 minutes to 2 hours. (My first ones I left in for about 40 minutes, and they turned out perfect! But the later ones didn't come out as dark, I'm assuming because the water wasn't as hot). While you are waiting, lay out a bunch of paper towels for the paper to dry on later.

After your allotted time, remove the paper very carefully (again, it's easy to rip) and lay down on your paper towels (ignore all of the unfinished kitchen stuff in the background).  Make sure to turn the paper over about every hour or so, that way both sides are evenly exposed to the air and sunlight. If you want, you can hang them vertically...but I didn't have anything that would allow me to do that without crinkling the paper. 

And voila! Your tea-stained paper! If you want to make it slightly darker, you can stick it in again. I did that with a couple of my sheets. I laid them in for about another hour or so. It made them slightly darker. Trey couldn't tell the difference, but I could :-)  And you should always enjoy a nice cup of hot cocoa!

Well, there you have it! Tea stained paper! How's that for a easy tutorial :-)


Kristin