Antique Parchment
The unnecessary yet totally necessary recipe card for how to make antique parchment out of a regular white poster board.
Servings 1 parchment
Ingredients
- 1 each White Poster Board
- 2 cups Coffee Brewed and cooled
- .5 cup Instant Coffee
Additional Ingredients
- 1 set Vinyl Lettering of Choice
Instructions
- Cut poster board to size you are trying to make. Preferably not bigger than the pan you're going to be using. This can be a big size like I did for a sign, or smaller, regular sized papers.
- Crumble it to get the desired look. Personally, I rolled it up and squeezed it around a bit and then flattened it out again.
- Place the poster board into a rimmed sheet pan and pour the coffee into it. Enough so that it covers the poster board. Be sure to have some coffee left over in the cup. I'll explain in a later step.
- Let sit for about 2 hours, flipping halfway and making sure poster board remains covered with coffee.
- After 2 hours, turn your oven on to the lowest setting it can go.
- Drain the coffee. It doesn't have to be completely dry, just get most of the coffee out of the pan.
- Please, do NOT drink the coffee you're draining.
- INSTEAD, fix yourself the remaining coffee you have left over. You're welcome.
- With the sheet pan drained, take your instant coffee and sprinkle it around the edges of the poster board. After letting it sit for 2 minutes, take a napkin, and blot the excess of the instant coffee off. Do the same for the other side.
- Take the poster board out of the sheet pan and dry the pan with paper towels. I used those same paper towels to line the sheet pan.
- Place the poster board on the paper towels and put the pan in the oven to dry it out. Flip it every 3 or 4 minutes. You want to keep it in the oven till it's dry, roughly about 10 minutes, depending on numerous factors.
- Once it's out, congratulations, you just made your own parchment!
- When it feels like a normal temperature, go ahead and stick whatever vinyl lettering you have. Or you can also write on it if you have good handwriting unlike me.
Notes
- When cutting your poster board, be sure to not be perfect. Get those edges all rustic looking, as if you just unearthed a Dead Sea Scroll.
- OPTIONAL: When you're done with your project, take a lighter, and burn the edges for that classic parchment look! Because, you know, parchment isn't real parchment unless it's been burnt a few times. It's like the street cred of the stationary world. Kids, be sure to get an adults help for this one.
- Yes, I'm actually talking to you, adult. You know who you are. Don't use this as an excuse to set things on fire, you pyro.
- This is all pretty straight forward with not much room for mess up. It's a fun project for many occasion:
- Wedding invitations
- Birth announcements
- School projects
- Western style Wanted posters
- Royal proclamations
- Pirate treasure maps
- Philosophical scrolls
- Magical spell books
- Declarations of independence
- ...And many more fun uses!
- The shelf life of the parchment will be drastically shortened if you use creamer in the coffee.
- Any coffee can be used. Though Cold brew and Nitro brewed have better effects on parchment making as they are less acidic and less bitter but still deliver the potency and magical properties that regularly brewed coffee can give you.
- No, I'm not serious, you freaking hipster. Yeah, that's right, go cry to your Barista. Maybe they can collect your tears for your next cup of Americano.
