Thursday, September 10, 2015

White Cardstock Comparision

Hello Everyone and Welcome to a long long post today!

Well, a few weeks ago Neha Gala (A-one craft) asked me if I could review some  white cardstock she had..and well that set the ball rolling. I already had a review of  Neenah white cardstock pending ( so Sorry for the delay Priya!)... so I combined all the white cardstock that I own.

Note- I am not including any watercolor paper in this review because, well those are completely different papers. And I am not trying any coloring with water because none of these papers are meant to hold water. They will all curl, wilt and lose shape if I use water with them.

So the papers I have with me are

 Neenah Solar White 230-250 gsm (not sure)
Brustro Sketching papers 200 gsm
Iris 170 gsm
Iris 270 gsm
Ivory Smooth 300 gsm


I will talk about individual papers at the end of the post. 

So whatever techniques I've tried, I've tried equally with all the papers. I have used the supplies which every beginner could have. I did not try Copics, Bic-it Markers, Prisma Pencils because not everyone has them. If you want I can do a separate comparison later on.

1. Distress Ink Blending

So far I used to use Brustro Papers for creating my inked backgrounds. But couple of people told me to try Iris paper for ink blending. So finally I gave it a go...And what amazing results. You can see for yourself.


The Iris paper 170 gsm was a little hard to hold down while blending, but 270 was just perfect. Out of the other 3, I think Neenah blended better than even Brustro.  Ivory was just okay.

So for ink blending, I will whole heartedly recommend to go for Iris Paper or Neenah Solar White.
One thing to remember though, Iris paper being a coated paper, will not absorb ink. So it takes a long while to dry. I suggest over night drying time, And it will go one shade lighter as it dries.

So if you want a dark background, go one shade darker than you want because overnight as the ink dries, it will go one shade lighter. As you can see the color difference between Brustro and Iris papers. Same colors, Same ink foams.

2. Stamping And Coloring.

Being a stamper, this was my foremost requirement. The Paper had to stamp well. So I tool 4 kinds of inks and went to town stamping with them. And here are the results.

I used Versafine Onyx black, Memento Black, Memento Ladybug red and Distress ink Abandoned Coral.

The top red ink is Lady Bug Memento and bottom is Distress ink. As you can see, most of the places it smeared and gave splotchy images. Distress ink is anyways not meant for stamping, You will always get a splotchy effect, unless you want that kind of a result or are trying a technique, avoid stamping with Distress ink.

The stack of books was with Tuxedo black. On the Iris paper, you have to be careful while stamping  else the image shifts while stamping. (see last paper) Since its a slick surface.
(Click to see image in detail)
Rest all inks stamp exceedingly well on every paper. Neenah Solar White had more crispness to it than others.

This is with Versafine Onyx Black on all the papers.  (Click to see image in detail)


Versafine did not dry quickly on Iris papers. Since its a coated paper, even after 24 hours, I could not get it to dry on Iris papers. I did not use a heat gun or heat emboss it. You can see the shine on the image below. This is after half an hour of stamping.

Coloring
I have used my favorite medium to color here... the Faber Castell Bi-Pencils. And I love blending with my blending tool and Odorless thinner. If you want to know how to use it, I do have a video showing how exactly I use these. These are fabulous colors and work exactly like Prisma Pencils. And easily available in every stationary store! :D Click here for the video



Neenah was the best in giving me an effortless blending. Followed by Brustro. But Ivory was a little tough to blend..but not impossible. It just took a little more time.
But But But, Iris didn't so well. Being a coated paper, the ink sat on top of the paper, and when I blended with the solvent, the ink itself smeared.
So Iris Paper + Versafine ink + Odorless thinner = smeared image.

However, if you stamp with Memento Tuxedo black on Iris paper and let it dry for a while and then used the same method to color it. No smearing!! So you can try that if you wish.

3. Flower Shaping

     Lastly I decided to see if I could die cut these papers and shape them into flowers. Die cutting is easy on every paper. Ivory takes a bit of extra pressure since its thick, but cut out well anyways. But when it came to shaping, it just fell apart. That's why you only see four samples below.


Aren't they just gorgeous???  Even in creating these flowers, I found Neenah and Brustro to be the best. Iris shaped well, but it wouldn't take on the darker shade. No matter how much ink I applied, after every half hour, it would turn a shade lighter. So I left it at that. That will be my go to paper when I need pastel flowers.

Phew!! So that's how I did it. Now to summarize in terms of the paper...

Right off the bat you can see that Neenah Solar White is the only true white among all the samples here.
Rest all are a pale cream.

IRIS PAPERS
  • They are the best for distress ink blending.
  • You can shape them well into flowers, but colors of inks may be subdued. You can try with non-distress inks and see how they do.
  • the 170 and 270 are excellent for die cutting as well. 
  • I wouldn't recommend them for exclusive coloring.
  • Few things to remember, it is a slightly coated sheet of paper. If you hold it to the light, you will see slight shining areas on it. That coating is what makes the distress inks move so well on it. But because of the coating, no ink will dry on it quickly. 

IVORY PAPER 300 GSM
  • Ivory paper doesn't blend ink well, nor does it shape well into flowers. 
  • It is a somewhat hard paper to color on. 
  • BUT BUT it is an excellent base for your  CARDS with multiple layers, SCRAPBOOKS and EXPLOSION BOXES. I scored it multiple times and absolute no cracking of the paper. They Ivory I used to buy, used to crack on every score line and eventually the paper used to tear. I am so glad this paper does not crack...And it is fabulous thickness!! 
NEENAH SOLAR WHITE
  •  Blends well with distress inks
  •  EXCELLENT FOR COLORING IMAGES
  • EXCELLENT for shaping the paper into flowers as well.
  • Perfect White to be used as a card base, (though a higher GSM would be better, say 280gsm)
       Quick peek of some earlier bookmarks. All coloring on Neenah Classic white



BRUSTRO SKETCHING PAPER 200 gsm
  • Good for blending distress inks but needs a bit of effort. 
  • EXCELLENT for coloring images. 
  • Die cuts superbly
  • EXCELLENT for shaping into flowers. 
  • Good for solid image stamping (sorry did not click any pictures, but all my ink swatch images on this post are stamped on Brustro paper)

So that's it. Hope this review helps you to make a choice when you are deciding papers for your next project.

One paper will never do everything. Know what you want to do in your project and select your paper accordingly.




16 comments:

  1. Superb !! Thanks for this helpful info, yet again :)

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  2. Thanks the review... Was so confused as to what paper to use for distressing which would retain the original colour...was using Iris paper and was not very happy with the color fading.

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  3. That's a lovely detailed post. Thanks for sharing dear. God bless you.

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  4. Thank you for an informative post...:)

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  5. What a fantastic post. Many people have asked me about what paper I use. I buy huge sheets of ivory card stock for die cutting as the die cuts are thick and can withstand quite a bit of handling. You are right about its problems with scoring and flower making--- its a fail for those purposes!
    Cheers
    Dr Sonia
    Cards Crafts Kids Projects

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  6. wowie! this is awesome review thanks for sharing

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  7. As always...your post is filled with all wonderful infos one could search for on a topic...Thank u so much Tejal :)
    P.S: Its ur post which helped me to get MS scoreboard, dist

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  8. As always...your post is filled with all wonderful infos one could search for on a topic...Thank u so much Tejal :)
    P.S: Its ur post which helped me to get MS scoreboard, distress inks sets...

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  9. Thanks for the comparison!! This is very helpful!!
    -Berina
    Moxie Craftie

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  10. Thanks for the informative post, Tejal! Very helpful!

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  11. Thanks tejal, u be done it again... Ur reviews are power packed with info and pics and a pleasure to read. God bless you.

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  12. Waaoooo!!!

    Explained with soo much detailing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Waaoooo!!!

    Explained with soo much detailing.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking time to appreciate my work!

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