Lisa E Design Blog: TIPsy Tuesday - Indispensable Cheap Paper

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

TIPsy Tuesday - Indispensable Cheap Paper

There was a thread over at Splitcoast a few days ago asking what you would differently in papercrafting if you had the benefit of hindsight. Many, many of us said we would not purchase "cheap cardstock" - the kind that is flimsy and won't stand up when you use it on a card or just looks, well, cheap on a scrapbook page. I've also bought some white-core cardstock that I didn't realize was that way. Then when I scored it for a card, ick!

There is though one 'cheap' cardstock I continue to buy. I love it so much; I buy it by the ream - a 250 sheet pack. 110 lb white cardstock from an office supply store is a must-have in my craft space. The weight is a little deceptive as it isn't as sturdy as Stampin' Up!'s 80 lb or nearly as much as Papertrey Ink's 110 lb. but it still pulls its own weight. (pun intended)

I use office supply store white cardstock for:

journaling on scrapbook pages as shown above - this is how I got started using this type of paper for crafting and just kept going and going.
liners for dark colored cards
test printing before I print journaling on my best cardstocks or vellums
testing cuts on the Cricut (usually use a blade depth of 4)
creating masks using the Cricut or punches
testing paper punch images for size
white matting for photos or card designs - Often my white mats are in between the photo and the next color of matting so it never looks flimsy.
some light watercoloring - Doesn't work quite as well as true watercolor paper but it is so much cheaper and much easier when cutting out a design
stamping when planning to heavily color and distress the paper as in these notecards. The "C" and the paper beneath it both started out as plain white office supply store cardstock.
a base for sewing papers together. I cut and glue my papers to the white carstock and then stitch through all layers.
anywhere I need another layer or paper to add weight or hold everything together.
as a money saver for larger quantities of items. For example, I used this type of paper for my stepdaughter's wedding programs. I backed the programs with a thick designer paper but the bulk of the content was printed on this white paper. Inexpensive and much easier to punch through for threading the ribbon.