Tea Stained Paper

We have been experimenting with book making lately. Books are a big deal in my house and the girls love making them. The thing I love the most about book making is that the girls are so excited to write in them.


We were tired of the stale white paper we were using so we decided to "age" the paper.

For tea staining you need:

* 81/2" x 11" cardstock (we used cardstock because the girls wanted a thicker paper, you can do this activity with any kind of paper)

* 3 black tea bags

* water

* clothespins

* yarn

* a pan

To set up the activity:

1. Boil the water.

2. Add black tea bags and let steep for about 5-10 minutes.

3. Put up a line for the paper to dry.

4. Fold cardstock in half, this will make the tearing step easier.

We did the smearing and blotting method. We simply took the tea bags and smeared and blotted them directly onto the cardstock. Fauna LOVED this, anytime she can get messy for art, she is right there! She loved to smear!

Araina loved to blot!

Once the cardstock was good and wet we carefully tore the cardstock in half because we wanted a worn edge look. Then we clipped them on a line to dry.

When we were done staining the stack of paper we tried a drizzle effect on the paper by squeezing the tea bags over the paper hanging on the line. This left cool lines and patterns on the paper. We left specks of tea on the pages as well.

The Little Ladies had tea-covered hands in the end.

Once the papers were dry we took them off the line, stacked them and placed a concrete block on top of them to press them flat.

The hotter the water, the deeper and darker the color on the white cardstock. If you are not satisfied with the color after the first staining, do another tea stain to the cardstock. Coffee is a good stain for really dark pages. Keep experimenting until you get your pages just right.

*I will be posting more about what we are doing with these pages in future posts.