How to Make Tea Dyed Paper

PSST! Pin this image for later!

DIY Project: How to make printer-friendly tea dyed paper

If you love the vintage look or just love paper ephemera for scrapbooking and crafts, then you’re going to want to save this tutorial before you get pulled away from the page and into the tutorial. Making tea dyed paper is as easy as you might expect. Below you will find drying tips so your vintage inspired paper can go right in your printer. You’ll also find a color chart of my test results for dying paper at different lengths and my recommendations for ratio.

Ready to create a gorgeous stack of paper with an old world feel? Keep reading for everything you need to know.

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Here's what you'll need:

• Assorted Paper (I used regular, old printer paper)

• 2 cups water

• 4 Tea Bags

• Ketel or pot

• High-walled container for soaking (I usually use a glass baking dish or a metal roasting pan)

• Heavy books for pressing

• Towels

Here's how:

Instructions

Boil 2 cups of water in a kettle or pot. Steep 4 black tea bags in the water. I have found steeping for 15 minutes allows the water to soak up all of the tannins (color) from the tea. While I prefer using black tea for the rich color, you can experiment with other tea varieties to achieve slightly different colors. Avoid light teas like green and chamomile. Discard the tea bags and pour the tea into your high-walled container. Be careful to wait until the tea is cool enough to handle. The dying process works regardless of the temperature fo the tea.

Dying Results

Here are the dying results of soaking each piece of paper in a bath made of 2 cups of water and 4 black tea bags. Each page is marked with the number of minutes it soaked.

Drying Results

Place the wet, tea dyed paper on one side of an old towel. Fold the other end of the towel back onto the paper, sandwiching it. Gently press down on the towel, smoothing it with your hands to remove the excess water. Leave the paper to air dry for a slightly rumpled effect. For flatter paper, place a heavy book on top of a stack of dyed paper. I fold the towel back on itself several times so I’m left with a stack that alternates between paper and the towel. Allow to dry completely over the next few hours for air drying or leave overnight for the pressed stack. Once completely dry you can crumple the paper for an even more aged look.

Printer Friendly

If you want to print on your tea dyed paper, you’ll want to use the pressed flat drying method. You can always crinkle the paper once it’s printed, but avoid putting less-than-perfectly-flat paper in your printer to prevent paper jams.

PSST! Make sure you scroll to the bottom of the post for the FREE printable love letter. It will look sooooo amazing on the tea dyed paper you’re making.

Cut, Craft or Write

There are so many projects you can create using your tea dyed paper. Here are a few ideas:

- Bullet Journaling/Scrapbooking

- Bookbinding/Journal Making

- Love Letters/Letter Writing

- Paper signs/banners

- Paper flowers

- Name cards/gift tags

- Stationery/cards

- Paper Scrolls/treasure maps (Our tooth fairy must really like this craft. The slips of paper she leaves under the pillows look so old… as if they were tea dyed with burnt edges - that crafty fairy!)

Free Printable Love Letter

Love letters on tea dyed paper make for really special gifts. So whether it’s Valentines Day, an upcoming anniversary or another special occasion - a love letter is an easy and thoughtful way to share how much your person means to you.

You can write one yourself, of course. But you don’t have to be Shakespeare to make this work. One of my favorite anniversary gifts was a stack of tea dyed love letters and poems from a dozen great authors. The last one in the stack was an original, much simpler and only a few lines and it was by far the icing on the cake.

If you’re feeling stuck, you can recreate some of the great love letters of the past. Oooor you could download and print this little love letter I made for your personal. Check it out right here. Don’t forget to sign YOUR name at the bottom!