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Paper products are integral to rubber stamping and scrapbooking; they keep everything together as the bones of your projects. Key points to look at when choosing your card stock are: weight, dyeing, and archival capabilities.
The "weight" of card stock refers to its quality and how many pounds 500 sheets of it weighs when stacked. The higher the weight, the better the card stock.
Dyeing refers to the color on the card stock. Always look for card stock that is dyed all the way through the card stock. Otherwise, when you tear or cut your card stock, the inside of it will show white. Also, the use of quality dyes in colored paper, colored cardstock, and patterned paper is essential to inhibit fading. It is difficult to see with the naked eye whether quality dyes were used. It's a good idea to buy from a reputable company that states its papers are suitable for scrapbooks.
Finally, when scrapbooking the archival qualities (how well it will hold up over time) of a card stock is vital for preserving your memories and hard work that you put into creating the pages. Acid, or a high pH, in card stock is bad. It increases the chances of fading and altering the quality of your photos. Lignin is a naturally occurring stiffening agent found in all trees and left in some paper products. It causes yellowing and brittleness over time. Therefore, you should always look for card stock that is acid and linglin free.
Stampin' Up!'s card stock is a sturdy 80-lb card stock, dyed completely through, and is acid and linglin free. Stampin’ Up! employs a quality specialist who has set up quality standards with the mills that make our card stock, so you can be assured that you will always receive the best.
(Please note, when paper is made, it is dyed in batches. While every precaution is made to keep the dyes the same color, sometimes the different dye lots produce a small discrepancy in color.)
Do you have any thoughts on different card stocks you've used? Post a comment in this thread to share your secrets of finding great card stock with other readers.
Sara, I connected to your blog through the Business Stampers post I was looking at today. Great post! Do you mind if I use it in a newsletter to my customers in the next couple of weeks? Thanks so much! Jeanne Nielsen
Posted by: jeanne nielsen | March 14, 2009 at 10:52 PM