Thickish paper for cards

Jake'sGran

One of my friends has bought a laptop just to make greeting cards
She realises it was a daft thing to do. Anyway, she wants to buy thick paper
with a sheen for making her special cards. Does anyone know where she can buy different types of paper for printing?. I gave her an example of the stuff I use to use - it is folded into a quarter at the end of printing but she wants something of better quality.

espresso

Have seen it in Asda.

Marty999

Any photo/consumables shop (such as Jessops) should stock this type of thing. I would recommend using 250-300gsm card for a better quality feel. Remember you will need to score it before folding or else it will not look so good - you can easily do this using the back of a pair of scissors against a ruler for example.

totalsolutions

Paper merchants. 300gsm will not go through a normal printer either.

deejayen

Try svp.co.uk they sell paper of various grades but there KODAK paper is sold as soon as is comes in but they do get regular supplies -- there are other manufacturers who are in stock though and all seems to be of good quality -- Prices start from £3 per 50 A4 sheets upwards -- Dave

Reggie_Rebel

You can buy loads of different sorts of card, scored or otherwise in WH Sniths. They often have 3 for 2 on them as well.

isofa

A lot of thick card won't go through a printer at all. Those with a 180 degree paper path (like many HP DeskJets), state a max of 160gsm, but you may be ok with 200gsm at a push - but often not.

Straight paper path printers like some Epson and Canon inkjets can usually take 160 to 200gsm.

Nearly all laser printers can take 160gsm max.

Check your printers recommended "media weight" info in the manual / spec sheet. If you try and force a really thick piece through, it'll damage the printer.

Jesthar

The simplest (and cheapest) of all answers is don't try and put card through the printer at all! Just buy decent, normal photo paper (there are plenty of choices in that department), print the pictures, cut them out with a paper trimmer (under £15 for a good one from any decent craft shop), then mount the photo on a blank prescored card (again, you can get these from any good craft shop - I get packs of 50 for £6-£12 (or a lot less in a sale!), depending on size and quality).

For an even more professional result, double mount the photo - stick it on piece of card first, then stick this card on the card blank. If the mounting card is trimmed bigger than the photo and is a contrasting colour to the main card, it can look really good. You can also use those thick sticky pads to raise the mounting card off the card blank, or use a couple of different coulers of card and paper in increasing sizes to create 'frame' effects very easily. There are so many ways to be creative with this!

Oh, and if you have one of these shops (or similar) near you: http://www.thepapermillshop.co.uk/index.htm I'd definitely recommend a visit - you can buy a 'ream thickness' box of paper and card for (from memory) £3.99 for an A5 box, and £5.99 for an A4 box - all pick and mix from loads of colours, weights and fancy finishes. I bought a box full a while back, crammed as much in as possible, and it's still going strong!

And the best bit of all this is not only don't you have to worry about scoring and folding the cards, but you also won't be wasting very expensive photo-paper as the back of a card - twice as many cards for much less than twice money

Of course, of your friend has a different way of doing her cards, all this is probably moot, but hope it helps.

~Jes

nomoneytoday

Staples

bleepandbooster

The advice that Jesthar wrote is spot on. I have been letting some friends of ours use some of my photo's on cards they make in the same way. I print out 9 snaps to a sheet of A4 and they cut them up to size and double mount them on blank cards. They then sell them to make money for charity, I am now even looking for shots myself that will be useful to them.

David

Jake'sGran

Thank you everyone. She will be pleased that at least she can get paper she likes.
She has been making cards for a few years but by hand. It seems to be a popular hobby. I was going to cut and print all the relevant responses but will write them down instead. It's great to have you all here to give answers.