Maybe it was the cooler weather last week, but I had this urge to do some Coffee-Staining.
I selected Caramel Pecan coffee beans offered by a New York State company. After grinding the beans at the grocery store, it seemed a shame to simmer them in hot water.
The papers I started with were a gray premium smooth surface, heavy weight Legacy stationery by Strathmore, and a beige smooth finish 32 pound Professional Series paper by Neenah.
Laying papers in rusty cookie sheets, I spooned hot coffee water and a few grounds over them until they were covered. After letting them sit a while,I pulled out and drained the wet papers on paper towels. Perhaps the color would have been darker had I baked the papers in the oven during the process.
The smooth papers took on almost a hardened skin feel. The papers I crumpled strongly first, then opened out, took on more 'texture.'
Finally, I added rubber stamp images with black ink. Cutting the papers into note-sized paper made them go further. (Would they feed well through a computer printer? I don't know if I'd try that!)
Note that the color intensity is not uniform from piece to piece. Some pieces soaked longer than others. And the finished results do not lie flat. They might if ironed out.
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