Torn Edge Parchment Tutorial and Textures
As I had a need for some old style parchment backgrounds with a realistic torn edge and worn look, I decided to create some myself. Here's how I did it, and the resulting images. These textures are all released to the public domain (consider it a CC0 license) so feel free to do with them what you wish. All said, figuring out how to do this and creating all of the textures below took me less than an hour.
<b><u>Steps to Create</b></u>
1) Find a paper grocery bag, open it up by tearing or cutting it along the seems. (These bags are made of out unbleached recycled paper and are thick like construction/craft paper.)
2) Determine the size you want your finished "parchment" (For me this is about 8x10" because letter size is the largest my scanner will do).
3) Rough cut your pieces. Oversize this by at least 1/2 inch (25mm) on each side.
4) Wet your paper. The wetter it is, the more regular it will tear, but the more fiber fray you will get along the edge.
5) Use a non sharp edge and tear your rough sized sheet down to your final side. I used the non-metal edge of a ruler, but a board or other non-sharp edge (counter, book, etc) will work too.
6) Scan, photograph or image your "parchment". No need to let it dry first. The wetness gives it a darker look and scanning again as it dries will give you other appearances as well.
7) Fold, crinkle, distress or otherwise age your "parchment". Including;
a) crumble one up into a ball and then flatten it back out
b) folded one like a letter and sat on it for awhile
c) stain with tea or other liquids
d) "brush" with wet sponge to highlight the wrinkles
Scan, photograph, or image your distressed "parchment"
<b><u>The Results</b></u>
There are 8 of them, from 3 different actual pieces. Here is the zip of all of them. I will follow this post with some pictures I took while doing this as well as one or two of the textures themselves.
Parchment.zip
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