Remember when I posted about my anatomy flashcards last week and said that they were kind of a rough draft? I knew I wanted them to look more vintage-y (or, for this set, since they’re supposed to be Halloweeny, more old and spooky). I thought this would probably mean buying some sort of specialized card stock, so yesterday I googled stuff like “vintage look cardstock.” I found some expensive things that looked…sort of like what I wanted. But my googling turned up something even more interesting:

Did you know that crafty people use their crafty powers to make things look old all by themselves?! I think those crafty people might be on to something after all! And even though I don’t have a craft room or even a craft closet (or even a craft drawer), I already had everything I needed to accomplish the old and spooky look for myself.

Here is my supply list:

1. a cup of tea
2.small paintbrush

And if I hadn’t had a paintbrush, I could have used a rag or a sponge or a paper towel or, like, an old sock.

I used this tutorial from Missparty.net as my guide, but then I just kind of winged it. Looking back through it, I see that I didn’t follow instructions very carefully at all, actually. But it still worked how I wanted it to! That’s my kind of craft–the unscrewupable kind!

I made a cup of tea with two tea bags (regular old Publix-brand tea) and let it steep for 10 minutes. Then I got out the little brush we keep in the kitchen for kitchen-type brushing needs, laid out all the flashcards on my counter (if I had white laminate or something, I probably would have put something down first as a precaution against staining, but since my counters are granite and sort of tea-colored to start with, I didn’t worry about it). Then I brushed them all over with tea. I went back around the edges with another coat (and this is where I wish I’d taken a little more time, since you can see the edge of the darker stain on some of them….I wish I’d made it look a little more organic, but oh well).

Much happier with them now. I still want to work on the original document and get them more centered, and then make a template for cutting them out so they’re more regular in size, but I’m happy enough with these that I can wait on the next set to worry about that.

Here, for comparison purposes, is how they looked before:

Linked with:

Chic on a Shoestring’s Flaunt it Friday