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Coffee Stained Backgrounds 

By Brenda Harmless
Rubber Roadsters
Advanced Stamping Team Designer  

Don’t you just love the look of aged cardstock? This month I decided to try aging cardstock by staining it with coffee.  I discovered that staining cardstock with liquid coffee and instant coffee crystals gives it a beautifully aged look as well as a wonderful coffee aroma! You can stain cardstock with just liquid coffee for a uniform color or you can sprinkle on some instant coffee crystals to give it a splotchy look.  I, also, discovered that you can tear pieces of coffee soaked cardstock and layer the torn pieces on top of a larger stained piece while drying.  The bottom piece will pick up the pattern created by those on top!  I hope you give these a try and have fun with them! 

Supplies:

•  Out of Africa Stamp Set (Close To My Heart)
•  Toadstools Stamp Set (Close To My Heart)
•  Brown Bag & Black Ink Pads (Close To My Heart)
•  Bleach (Clorox)
•  Desert Sand & White Daisy Cardstock (Close To My Heart)
•  Black Cardstock (Stampin’ Up!)
•  Stapler & Silver Staples
•  Hemp (Unknown)
•  Coffee Crystals (Store Brand)
•  Liquid Glass (Close To My Heart)
•  Mono-Adhesive (Tombow)
•  Rotary Paper Cutter (Fiskars 12”)
•  Disposable Tin cake pan
•  Paper Towels (Store Brand)
•  Plastic Coffee Stirrers

 Instructions

1.    To stain your cardstock:  Place two sheets of White Daisy cardstock in the disposable tin cake pan.  Prepare instant coffee by using 2-3 tablespoons of coffee with 1 cup of hot water and, while still hot, pour over your cardstock.  Using a spoon, press cardstock into the liquid coffee until completely covered.  Carefully remove one piece of cardstock and place on paper towels.  Immediately sprinkle with dry instant coffee crystals.  Remove the 2^nd piece of stained cardstock and place over the 1^st piece that is sprinkled with coffee crystals.  Let set for about 10-15 minutes, and remove the top piece of cardstock.  Lay flat on another paper towel and let both pieces dry.  When cardstock is completely dry, brush off any loose coffee crystals.

2.    Cut the Desert Sand cardstock to 8 ½” x 5 ½.”  Fold in half to create a 4 ¼” x 5 ½” size card.

3.    Cut your remaining cardstock to the following sizes:
    a.    Black cardstock 4 1/8” x 5 3/8”
    b.    Black cardstock 2 ¾” x 3”
    c.     Black cardstock cut into 4 strips 3/8” wide x 3 ¼” long
    d.    Coffee stained cardstock 3” x 5 ¼”
    e.    Coffee stained cardstock 2 ¼” x 2 ¾”

4.    Stamp giraffes on the 4 1/8” x 5 3/8” piece of black cardstock with bleach.  To do this, fold a few pieces of paper towels to a small square and place in a glass plate. Pour enough bleach onto the paper towels to absorb them in bleach.  Press your stamp into the bleach soaked paper towels then randomly stamp onto your cardstock.

5.    Stamp the zebra on each of the 4 3/8” wide black cardstock strips with bleach.  You will not stamp the entire zebra, just the center of him to get his stripe pattern on the black cardstock.  Let these pieces dry; it just takes a minute or two.

6.    Using the stamped cardstock strips, make 4 paper beads.  To do this you will start at one edge and roll and glue the paper strip around the plastic coffee stirrer. You can use a glue stick, but I find liquid glass has a quicker and stronger bond.  You just need to squeeze a very tiny line down the center of the black cardstock as you are rolling.  The pressure as your roll your cardstock will force out any excess liquid glass.  When you get to the end, wipe off any excess liquid glass and hold your bead for a few seconds to ensure it bonds.  Once dry, slide off the coffee stirrer.

7.    Hand tear the 5 ¼” edge of your 3” x 5 ¼” piece of coffee stained cardstock.

8.    Place 3 of your paper beads on a piece of hemp cut to about 3 ½” long.  Position this to the bottom edge of your torn coffee stained piece and tape ends of hemp to back.  Position paper beads on front and bond to cardstock front using a tiny amount of liquid glass.  See photo for placement.

9.    Adhere the torn piece of coffee stained cardstock to the left side of the black cardstock piece that you stamped earlier.  See photo for placement.

10.           Using Brown Bag ink, stamp the giraffes on the remaining 2 ¼” x 2 ¾” coffee stained cardstock.  Stamp “thinking of you” below the giraffes in black ink.

11.           Layer and adhere the giraffe image onto the 2 ¾” x 3” piece of black cardstock. 

12.           Place remaining paper bead strung on hemp in top left corner of giraffe image and tape hemp ends to back of cardstock.

13.           Position giraffe image to front of your 4 1/8” x 5 3/8” layer and double staple the top right and bottom left edges.  See photo for placement.

14.           Attach the completed layer to the front of your folded card using the mono-adhesive.

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