Greeting Card paper

[Stringbean]

I have Broderbund “Print Shop” and have made some greeting cards that I would like to use but I am having problems finding paper that will reproduce photo quality pictures for the front of the card. I thought that I had found some suitable paper when I purchased Avery 03265 that advertised “heavyweight card stock coated for sharp text and bright colours”. No such luck. Can anyone recommend some decent quality paper? It’s a little frustrating to design a card and not be able to print an acceptable product.

[Diana]

HP Photo Greeting Card stock has regular photo paper (I like the matte) for the front of the card. I have an HP printer and it looks great when printed. I don't know about the quality with other printers.

I also love the quality of Southworth greeting card stock but can't seem to find it anymore. Fortunately I stocked up and have a couple boxes of it. I don't know what I'll do when it runs out. It's beautifully heavy weight and textured.

I don't like Avery card stock, it's wimpy and cheap looking.

Diana

[Shari]

Hi - I found printing on photopaper for cards was pretty expensive. I print on 4 x 6 photo paper and stick the photo to the front of the card. I get card stock about 100 for $16.00. I use HP photo paper and have found very good. Oh - also I use my Print Shop note card template and print on the back of the card - sometimes I print what is on the front and as well photography and design by Shari. Hope you find a solution because it is fun to make cards.
Shari

[tomlaronge]

Stringbean,
I had this same question several months ago. A friend directed me to Red River Paper at: http://www.redriverpaper.com/. I suggest to you as he did to me to purchase the card sample pack and go from there. These people seem to me to be honest, helpful and supportive of customer needs.
Good luck and please share your cards,
Tom

[Diana]

Thanks for that referral, Tom. I ordered two sample packs. I hope theirs is as good as Southworth card stock because I'm looking for an equivalent.

Diana

[AngelicKim]

Diana, go to www.southworth.com. You can buy their paper from there and they have a retail locator to find their products. They show Office Depot has it in my area.

[tomlaronge]

Diana,
I do hope you like the sample package. I did the same thing you did several months back and I was very favorably impressed with the quality and with the available variety of stocks.
Tom

[Stringbean]

Stringbean,
I had this same question several months ago. A friend directed me to Red River Paper at: http://www.redriverpaper.com/. I suggest to you as he did to me to purchase the card sample pack and go from there. These people seem to me to be honest, helpful and supportive of customer needs.
Good luck and please share your cards,
Tom


Thank you everyone for responding.

Tom - I am wondering what kind of money is involved in making your own cards. I will follow up on your lead. Thank you all once again

[tomlaronge]

Stringbean,
Making your own cards is not cheap. In my opinion you are looking at between $0.50 and about $2,00 per card with an average cost of about $1.00 to about $1.25. This all depends on your ink/toner costs and yur card stock costs. I am including envelopes in the prices I gave you. I believe my numbers are very realistic when you make your cards on card stock.
Happy printing!
Regards,
Tom

[Ric Cisson]

Stringbean,

I echo Tom's recommendation, and take it one step further. Red River Paper has a quality card stock for note cards, and I have been using Aurora Natural for awhile and I must say that I have been satisified from the outset.:)

OBTW, if you are looking for a different, yet very classy look, for a reasonable price, you should check out www.notecard.info. These folks have something just fantastic that my clients love, the torn edge look card. It is worth checking out. I just discovered them while recently on vacation. (I was bored one night in Lee Vining and I went online looking for something unique in card designs and I found these folks, and I am not sorry I was bored that night to be able to discover them...) Anyway, worth investigating for something exciting in the way of note cards. I am considering images for these cards and selling them in my lab after the first of the new year.:cool:

[Stringbean]

Stringbean,
Making your own cards is not cheap. In my opinion you are looking at between $0.50 and about $2,00 per card with an average cost of about $1.00 to about $1.25. This all depends on your ink/toner costs and yur card stock costs. I am including envelopes in the prices I gave you. I believe my numbers are very realistic when you make your cards on card stock.
Happy printing!
Regards,
Tom

Those prices don’t sound unreasonable when you consider the cost of ready made cards in the store. I find it difficult to find a decent card especially when it comes to Christmas cards. Happy Xmas doesn't cut it for me!

[Diana]

Diana, go to www.southworth.com (http://www.southworth.com). You can buy their paper from there and they have a retail locator to find their products. They show Office Depot has it in my area.

Thanks Kim, I've been to the Southworth website but they don't have the box of paper I used to get (the Resources Collection). It had 50 scored half-fold cards with envelopes, 25 in white & 25 in natural, 54 lb premium cardstock, 25% cotton. It makes very nice professional-looking cards, as good-looking as the cards in stores.

I've also looked at the Southworth papers at Office Depot and Office Max but the ones in our locale don't carry the card stock. Luckily I bought two boxes when the Southworth website had them for about a third of the regular price earlier in the year. I thought perhaps they were selling them at closeout because they weren't going to carry that item any more.

Diana

[Diana]

Diana,
I do hope you like the sample package. I did the same thing you did several months back and I was very favorably impressed with the quality and with the available variety of stocks.
Tom

I was surprised, Tom, that the sample packs were postage free. All the better to try them out. Thanks again for the link.

Diana

[Cmcburnett]

Thanks Tom. I too have been looking for a nice paper to print cards on. I'd much rather have my own sentiments than someone elses printed on a card. I spend more money tossing the cards that I have printed because they don't print correctly, so in the long run I will probably save money by ordering. I have gotten the HP Matte finish to look pretty good. Office Depot usually has them on sale once a month buy 1 get one free. But I am going to give your suggestion a try.

[tomlaronge]

Charlotte,

As I stated, I am very favorably impressed with Red River Paper. I did not want to say too much as I am not selling any products and I am just trying to help our community of photographic devotees. I hope you like the stock.

Regards,
Tom

[Diana]

Well, I received my sample packs. Had I known the samples wouldn't be useable, I wouldn't have ordered two packs. There are a lot of notecard size samples of their different papers, but they are all stamped with the type and weight of the paper, so they are not useable for actually making cards. They have some nice heavyweight cards but none are the quality of the Southworth cards I am using. But when I get low on the stock I'm using I probably will order some of theirs.

Diana