How To Make A Toga: Toga Party Invitations

I am always thinking up different ways to make my toga party invites stand out – my friends have started to expect this from me now and I would hate to disappoint!

I have to be honest and say not all my ideas work but this one, for creating a toga party invite, seems to work a treat!

I am going to show you step by step how you can create an aged, antique effect to your paper invite.

Step 1
Using normal A4 white printer paper, write out your invite either by hand or print out from your computer. Using your computer gives you the option to play with various fonts.

Step 2
Pre-heat your oven using the lowest setting. Make half a cup of coffee. I used 1 teaspoon of instant coffee into a ½ cup of boiling water but you can use less or more depending on what depth of color you are trying to obtain.

Step 3
Crumple the paper into a ball then smooth out again.

Step 4
Place the paper onto a baking tray and pour the coffee over; ensuring the coffee covers all of the paper. Use a sponge if necessary to create a full and even coverage.

Step 5
Sprinkle instant coffee granules onto the paper. I used 1 teaspoon here but I did not get a very even spread - try lightly tapping the spoon as you move around the paper to ensure a more even distribution. Leave the granules to dissolve for 2 to 3 minutes.

Step 6
Dab the paper using paper towels so that all excess water and coffee granules are removed.

Step 7
Put the baking sheet and paper into the oven to dry. Mine took about 10 minutes using the ovens lowest setting. This will vary oven to oven, just make sure you keep your eye on the paper at all times as you do not want it to burn. Remove from oven when dry.

Step 7
This is optional and you may prefer to leave your invite as is. However I went one step further and burnt the edges of my invite, using matches, to really create a worn effect. Please be very careful if you decide to do this as the paper burns very easily.