Hi Trey,
Thanks for the compliment.
The text on the background was achieved mostly with “roughen edges”, but using 2 layers with different transfer modes. I began by looking for a font I liked, and colouring it dark brown. Then I used “Roughen Edges” with quite subtle settings (rusty colour), to erode the edges. I set the transfer mode to “soft light” and the opacity to roughly 50%. Then I duplicated the layer, and added 3 pixels of blur to the bottom layer and changed the transfer mode to classic color burn. I tweaked the opacity of the bottom layer so it gave a lightish halo to the top layer, hoping to look like ink had bled through the paper.
The exact opacity of each layer will have a different effect depending on what colour your font is. You may want to try colouring the top lay (soft light) a lighter colour than the bottom.
The “texturise” effect is also useful if you have a “real” greyscale paper texture (try google), or try using the paper bg as a displacement map for your text too – the key here is subtlety..
I don’t have the project in front of me now, so I can’t give you exact settings, but I hope this helps-
-Chris