Making Documents Look Old

Selling an antique phone? Need an old looking document or diagram? Want to fool the buyer? Read on...

To start with you will need a Lipton Tea Bag, for ordinary tea, not flavored! Why Lipton? well... cheap tea bags fall apart.

Make a copy of what you want to use, print it on a laser printer. Boil the tea bag in about 1/3 cup of water, easy to do in the microwave oven. Set the document to fake on several sheets of newspaper, you can start once the tea has cooled a bit. CAREFULLY rub the document with the tea bag and make sure you get lots of tea on the document. Try to get an even coat of the tea and let it soak into the paper. Do not rub too hard, the tea bag will come apart.

The document will get weak, from the water, so use care. Turn the document over and rub the other side, try to get even coats. If you do this right the first time it will work just fine, if not, you may need to dry it and repeat the process. Dry the now evenly tea stained document completely. Once it starts to dry set it on a baking tray or plastic tray and keep turning it. It will dry unevenly (exactly what you want). Letting it "age" in bright sunlight on a warm day for several days will improve the look and get rid of the tea odor.

Now you have an official looking old document that you faked. Try this several times and get your technique perfect.