A Walk Through Cardstocks

Hello everyone, Tejal here with a review of cardstocks that are available at Itsy Bitsy. This is actually less of a review and more of experimenting. I have put the papers through almost everything I can think of..i.e, which I normally use in my crafting. There are many unexplored ways to use these papers, and I haven’t gotten around to all of them… mixed media, scrapbook layouts, quilling etc. just to name a few. As a stamper, most of my needs revolve around inking, distressing, water-coloring, using Copics etc..and so those are the things that I have tried with these papers. I have mostly worked with white for this post.

Bright White
This paper had my attention the most because it was beautiful, white, smooth and looked perfect for all the techniques…. here are some of my cards with the paper that worked out great and some just that did not work out.

With Copic Markers

 

 

 

 

 

 

With copics the blending was good, but the ink did not get absorbed into the paper. The ink just sat on top of the paper. With multiple layers of ink, this left lot of shiny patches on the card. So for Copics, I would not recommend this, especially heavy blending.

However if you are just doing a single layer blending of color, it works well. Here the elephant (Jumbo Wishes stamp from IB)  is colored with Alcohol markers, the other images (balloons, cupcake) with Zig Clean Color Markers. The background is also blended using Distress inks on Bright White Cardstock,

 

With Distress inks
With Distress ink, it had its pros and cons. The trouble was due to the blending foams. Newer foams tend to lay down less color and give scratchy edges. Here is a look with with new and older foams. Same ink color on both papers.

 

Brand new blending foam will not give a smooth finish, which is when a friend suggested I wash the foams 2-3 times to soften them. And voila…they blended well. Check the blending of the elephant card above. I used older blending foams and it blended so well. The Floral card with blue background below is also distressed on same paper with distress oxide.

Watercolor
Now Zigs blended beautifully on this paper. Compared to Zigs with water, the blend was way smoother if I used a Zig marker to blend another Zig marker. I used a water-brush to blend as well. The color moves decently, but since this is not a watercolor paper, I suggest keeping the blending with water to minimal. Using the least amount of water to blend, the pilling is minimal (i.e. your paper will not warp)

The  blue background is on Bright White, blended with Distress oxide ink.The flowers and leaves are again stamped on Bright White and colored with Zig markers and very little water.

Classic White Cardstock

This is a 200gsm, white cardstock. I took a while to go through this, because I wanted my experiments to be good enough. I am  happy with the results of this cardstock.  Do keep in mind that this is a cotton based cardstock, so its absorption is high with Copics, Distress inks and also Zig markers. Below are how
this cardstock worked for me. 

With Copics:
This cardstock was able to take in good amount of layers but since the ink was soaked up fast, it was a bit hard to blend. If you work quickly you can get a decent result. Quick coloring will work the best for this, maximum 2-3 layers of colors. 

 With Watercolors

With Watercolors, I have tried both methods, with Zig clean color real brush markers and with Distress inks (I smooshed distress ink pad on a plastic sheet or acrylic block and then pick up the color with my paint brush) Please ignore the rushed coloring, I did not want to sit and color perfectly, rather just try out medium after medium. Here you can see, the results of that. It is pretty good for small images. Blending Zig with Zig marker had better results than blending Zig out with water.
Not as good as what you would get on watercolor paper. But in a fix, this would work.

I also tried with larger images. The color does not move much, if you apply concentrated color straight on the cardstock. But pick up the diluted color and then build the layers up. Below, the flowers have about 3 layers of watercolor. By the 3rd layer, the paper did start to pill….so I stopped adding more water.

Distress ink Blending
Here I got a beautiful smooth blend with the blue, but a splotchy blend with my green. (reason being blue was an older blending sponge and green was brand new. Wash you new foams 2-3 times and then use for a smoother look) I will have to keep practicing for a smoother blend, but the blue sky…Oh I love it!

 Texture white

This paper has a texture similar to a lightweight watercolor paper.  Which is why I wanted to try some water coloring on it. It isn’t meant to hold heavy watercolor but a light wash works good. Use minimal water and you will get a lovely watercolor effect. More water and the paper will warp.

 

Instead of traditional watercolor, I opted to try distress inks and stencils. I dabbed a few distress inks on the stencil directly and sprayed with water, wet enough that the inks blended. Then put down my sheet of paper on top of it. Let it stay for a few seconds and lift it off, and let it dry. And the above is the result….. Muted but beautiful.

COPICS
I also tried my hand with copics on this Textured white. This is
definitely not a copic paper by any means, but I had to try. Again, the ink sits on top and can only take single layer color..not more blending.I did do 3 layers and the ink took 2 days to dry. so I would definitely recommend just one layer on copics if at all you use it.

 

Fleece white

This is a textured paper and as such wouldn’t stand up to water color or copics or stamping.Yet I did try some stamping on it, for a fun textured feel to it. I have over stamped it 3 times for the ink to soak in between the texture lines. I would say this paper absorbs ink well but as such it isn’t smooth so stamping is only to be done if you want a textured effect.

If you zoom in, you can see the textured lines in all the petals.All my card bases, Every card that I have shown today, the base is of Fleece White. I liked the texture and the weight for the base of my cards.

Handmade paper

This is thin paper with a lot of fibrous feel to it. Perfect for making your handmade flowers. With this paper, you always want to remember to use a shim when die cutting. The fibrous nature of the paper makes cutting through all the fibers at one pass a little difficult. But with a shim, its easy peasy.

For this card, I used Color Sprays to color the flowers and shape them into petals while they were slightly damp. The embossed panel is Texture white, and base is Fleece white. (and yes, I know the sentiment is wonky! After everything was done, I realized it!)

Black cardstock

I only used one of the black Cardstocks to try the black soot. It is
fantastic weight for a base and even good enough for scrapbook base. For now, only die cut through it with my Dream cut machine
(The pale rejected distress ink panel became the rainbow peeking behind this!)

Phew!! That was a long post. And I have barely managed to scratch the surface in experimenting. There are still more cardstocks to explore and more mediums to try. I would love to see your take on these papers.You can try Mixed Media, Pencil shading (especially with Texture white paper) and much much more!

Thank you for sticking by me for such a long post..I will try to post more details of each card on my blog, or else this post will never end!

Here is short recap

Bright White 270gsm
Texture White
270 gsm
Fleece White
270 gsm
Handmade paper
White, 200gsm
Classic
White
200gsm
Copics
Single layer color.
Single layer color
Two
layers or more
Watercolor
Marker to marker blending.
Less water
Marker to marker blending.
Less water
Marker to marker blending, Less water
Stamping
Crisp Impression
Textured impression
Textured impression
Crisp impression
Distress Ink Blending
Great blending
Blends but not very smooth
_
Good blending
Flower Making
Needs bit effort
Best for it
Needs effort
As Card Base
Sturdy
Sturdy
Can use for one layer card.

I will leave you with all the links to papers, so you don’t have to hunt for them.

Card Stock – Bright White

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

Color Sprays

 

 

 

 

 

5 comments

  1. Hi Tejpal Shah,
    Thanks for this lovely informative post, I am new to stamping, so this is something I was looking for. I liked the idea of recall chart. ?

  2. Wow such a awesome post thank you so much for your ur experience with these different Card stocks so helpful n well explained ❤

  3. Thank for experimenting with our various cardstocks & sharing your experiences with them. Thanks for all the hard work & awesome detailing Tejal!

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