paper or cardstock--how do you know?

[Daniel]

After a few years of hanging out with folks like my fellow Poshies, I've actually been making a few purchases of paper & cardstock--B&M & onliine.

When I do shopping @ a 'B&M' it's easy to determine what's paper & what's cardstock. Not nearly so simple when I shop online!

How 'bout you? Any tips & suggestions for deciding when it's 'paper' or 'card' when you can't hold it in your hand?

[winsrella]

I go by the weight of the paper or cs. I like 28lb. paper when I don't want heavy stuff. I do not make the card from the 28 lb. paper, but just some of the stamped stuff I am going to attach to the cs. The card stock I generally use is 110 lb. But when I want really classy cs. I get it from the printer down the street. I don't know its weight, but it is heavier than 110. I bet this is clear as mud isn't it? I finally figured out what B&M is. Bricks and mortar, or however you spell it. Most of my 110 comes from Walmart. It is a nice quality and doesn't soak up the ink, as some cheaper brands do. I have also ordered card stock especially made for Copic markers and it is great. Heavy too. Don't know its weight either, but being it said it was made to use with Copics, I ordered a few pcs. to try. Good stuff. Well, that's about all I know for today. Ha! Oh yes, I get the 28 lb paper from the printers too. Being just down the street, it's easy to zip down there.

[JulieB.T.]

Also, a good company will send you samples to look at as Marco's Paper did for me.. Greg is a super friendly and very nice man to deal with.

[Diana Jones]

I may be wrong but I think of anything 65 pounds in weight as cardstock. How about the rest of you?

[Daniel]

Great answers & tips! Tanx, all!

Sorry about the 'B&M', Ann. Lucky you having a print shop you can buy from!

I figured that 'weight' would be one 'test' for 'paper or cardstock'. Appreciate the responses for that.

Let me ask another question... Does how you're using it help you decide which material you want?

I've made cards from copy paper & been happy with the results. When I make embellies, I tend to want thicker.

[JulieB.T.]

I always use a heavier wt.when sending a card to someone.This is because, it hold ink/paint better and embellishments also. I just think a heavier cardstock looks and feels better to me.I want it to stand on its own along with the embellies I have put on it.

[Kathy N.]

Unless a mail order company lists the weight or you know for a fact that the brand you're ordering is card stock, I wouldn't order it. Once I ordered what I thought was printed card stock and it was paper. It didn't go to waste as I used it for background layers, but I couldn't use it for the base card. I like some body to my base cards. If you're just making a card for a sample or it's being scanned then copy paper weight would be fine. Like Julie, I like my cards to be able to stand up on their own.

[winsrella]

I always use cs for the card base. I sometimes use a heavy weight paper for layering a stamped back grounds. if I'm doing alot of layering, I use both cs and paper.

[glittery night owl]

Daniel, I always seem to favor CS as i like the feel of it in my hands

besides the fact it needs to be heavy for my glittering

Trudy