A cardstock experiment - I can't help it, it's how my brain works!!

Since i started getting collecting copics (shh... HB thinks they breed in the box) I've been having real trouble with what cardstock to use.

Some cardstocks bleed too much, some don't take the colour at all (that one was odd) and some is just too darned expensive!  Now I know its all personal choice, but personally I don't like cardstock that bleeds too much - it's all very well that your colours blend nicely, but when you've just spent an age colouring an image only for it to bleed over the edge its just plain annoying!

I managed to get hold of some samples of various cardstock to have a play with, and I'm afraid my maths/stats/science brain kicked in and before I knew it I had created a mini experiment... I'm going to blame the day job here, it's not something that a crafter should do!

I started with several types of Cardstock - Gina K Luxury Cardstock, Neenah Cardstock, Magna Art Board; plus a random cardstock from The Papermill. I noted which piece of card was which and stamped each piece of cardstock with my image twice using Momento Ink. I coloured one image of the two on each card type with the copics - I used the same colours for each and tried really hard to do each one the same!

And the results?

Quite astounding really - here's some pics

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Sample 4

So which was which?

Sample 1 was cheapy paper from the Papermill - it bled quite a bit and I got the impression that I was using loads of ink up, although I can refill the Copics it's not something I really want to be doing frequently! The uncoloured stamped image is OK but it's not a perfectly sharp image. At £4.99 a box though it's not a bad choice (and since doing this experiment I have got other card from them that doesn't bleed as much, it seems to depend on what they have in at the time).

Onto sample 2. This one was lovely - it's Gina K Luxury Cardstock - but at $6.95 for 25 sheets plus shipping from the US it wasn't cheap! The colours merged really well, but were really easy to control, and the stamped image was very crisp. I really liked that this is a really thick card - and was the only one of the 4 that the colour did not bleed through to the back - perfect if you want to colour straight onto your card

However I couldn't really see much difference between sample 1 and sample 3 - which was detailed as being Magna Art Board. I had really high hopes for this, but the image wasn't even as clear as the card from the Papermill and it bled loads too...

Sample 4 was Neenah Classic Solar White - not normally available in the UK but The Hobby House has some - £10.99 for 50 sheets, plus P&P. This gave a lovely crisp image and like the Gina K is a brilliant as opposed to off white. It blended well but again was controllable.

So it being my birthday the other day I asked for... the Neenah... yes the Gina K is slightly better, and if I can find anyone going over to the US anytime soon I'll probably ask them to get me some, but I didn't think it was worth the extra shipping costs.

I have heard that there are lots of other cardstocks that are pretty good too (Stampin Up seems to be a favourite) - I can feel another experiment coming on! I just need more samples!!

Thanks for looking

Sue xx