I found the perfect greeting card paper (for home printing!) 💌
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- Опубликовано: 11 июл 2024
- I've been on a quest to find my ideal greeting card paper for years and I think I've finally found it! My goal was to find paper that was glossy on one side, smooth matte inside for writing, worked with my inkjet printer, and wasn't super expensive per card. In this video I'll share with you my findings, the reasons I like this paper, tips on printing with it, and also advice on where to find it.
My printer is an Epson Ecotank ET-2400 but I recommend the newer version, the ET-2850: amzn.to/3vy6SgT (Amazon links are affiliates!)
💌 Kromekote Paper Links: 💌
USA Amazon: amzn.to/498Pf56
Canadian Amazon (not a great price/availability sorry): amzn.to/4a7P776
[Here are some other online shops you can buy it from; I'm Canadian so I haven't used these, just did the research for you as a starting point ☺️]
The Paper Mill Store: www.thepapermillstore.com/kro...
Cardstock Warehouse: www.cardstock-warehouse.com/p...
GoSpicers (Canadian commercial paper supply I mentioned; look for "C1S" paper): www.gospicers.ca/
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• My art studio shop: luckysproutstudio.com/
• My classes on Skillshare: www.skillshare.com/en/r/profi...
• My classes on Udemy: www.udemy.com/user/rebecca-wi...
• My book "Joseph Darby: A Man of Sable Island": amzn.to/42AnjFx
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Music by Epidemic Sound: share.epidemicsound.com/ev8owe
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Hi, I'm Rebecca and I run Lucky Sprout Studio! I am an artist and graphic designer and love making cute artwork and fun stationery products. On my channel you can find art/product tutorials, business advice, and studio vlogs! I hope you'll join me~~
🌸 connect with me: / luckysprout.studio
please subscribe if you love being a cute artist and doing cute artist things w me~ 
Хобби
PRINTING TIPS! ✨ I'm getting lots of questions so here are my print settings: Epson ET-2400, and I pick "Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy" and "High Quality" for my cards. They turn out great! If I print using regular paper settings the ink runs, but it does not when I use these settings. I test printed a few different cards right before writing this comment to make sure I was writing my exact method. No bleeding, smudging, blurring, or anything. :) Hope this helps!!
Rebecca , do you have an issue with smearing the black inks for this particular paper ? Never had luck with my 3850 not to jam the paper , just got the 8550, and the ink just smears. Sorry to ask that many questions 😊
@@lylacblossom no I haven't had any smearing using these settings! Sorry it's giving you trouble. If it's a new printer I suppose cleaning the print heads won't help or else id suggest that. I find the slowest print settings work best. I hope you can find a setting that works!!
The new Epson 2850 machine does not have good reviews on the Epson website so I am reluctant to purchase it. Ink is so expense though that having the ecotank would be great. As long as I can print on the glossy paper I think I'd take a chance but if the 8550 smears, I'm a bit concerned. Maybe I should simply try the one you have. So confused right now.
@@lylacblossom The ET-8550 has two blacks, one is pigment-based and as most inkjets are dyes, it's important to verify the paper is compatible even if it says "inkjet". Some settings may use less pigment ink and so you may have less of a problem with certain papers. The pigment ink really helps a lot with black & white printing as well as glossy photos, it helps to give a good contrast. And also helps with the legibility of text.
Regarding inkjets, most are dye inks and they look better on gloss because they're slightly transparent and so provide a nice contrast ratio. If you were on printing on matte, it wouldn't look as good generally because Inkjets require a coating to bring out the beauty of the dye inks, but there are matte papers (including card stock) as well as lustre that have the coating to take inkjet better than normal cardstock. Red river paper in the US specializes in inkjet printing, but they are only available through their website to keep economical. They provide color profiles also for many of the Ecotank printers, unfortunately, yours is not on the list, but the newer variants, including the 2850 are all on there.
I just thought I would put it out there for others searching for "their paper". I'm not sure if I will go gloss on card or not. I prefer the matte look personally, but with a very light coating. So maybe might lean more towards fine art papers. (nothing too fancy, just some texture)
If you buy the paper in 11x17, it’ll be cheaper in the long run. Take to a printer and have them cut it in half to give you twice as many 8.5x11 sheets. Just a thought! I used to work for a printer and it’s more cost efficient to print 2 to a page on 11x17 and cut them down to the proper size. I am in the US, but would think Canadian printers would be about the same.
Thank you so much, Rebecca!!! You are the best, I appreciate your content so much 🎉❤ I had been making great strides in getting my card business going after the holidays but I hit a wall with choosing paper and since I have adhd if it’s a tough thing to figure out.. I don’t like to do it! Hahahah 😂 procrastination station!!
I am so excited to try this paper, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. You are amazing, thank you for sharing. It really is collaboration over competition, working together to make each other better 🎉
Such a good video, I love it ☺☺
Just wanna say I just found your channel today! You’re so informative and I love all the diy stuff because I love making things instead of buying them. Appreciate all the knowledge you’re giving us! Can’t wait for the next video!
I have the exact printer as you so this is very helpful
Rebecca, thank you!! You are seriously the best I am so thankful for you!!
Happy to help! ☺️ Thanks for watching!!
Hi Rebecca,,fellow Nova Scotian here…I’ve literally binge watched your videos. So incredibly helpful. Thank you
Thanks so much! I love connecting with other maritimers here! ☺️
Thanks so much for being the person you are Rebecca! In just two weeks of finding your channel, I have already made tons of headway into starting my own card business! Just today the last thing I had left was the paper and here you go dropping gems! You don’t gatekeep, and you help with all your experience! Also, just bought the last pack in Amazon! lol. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart!
So happy that I've been able to help! I hope you like the paper; I know that everyone will have their own preference for their cards but I'm really happy with it for mine. Let me know what you think! And let's hope Amazon restocks it at some point ☺️
@@luckysprout will def let you know as soon as I get it. Thanks for all the help!!!
Got the paper and a trageddy occurred lol. So I kept trying to print it on my new Epson EcoTank 8550 and all I go were snugged prints and it looked awful. Turns out on the website that this paper isn’t for bubblejet printers :(
Oh no!! I print on it with my Epson and it turns out nice - did you try different paper settings/print qualities? I'm so sorry it's giving you trouble 😔
@@luckysprout I tried all the settings under glossy, all were giving the same outcome. Which ones do you use? I love the look and feel of the paper but for some reason the printer is not having it lol. When you did your card tutorial video, how did you do your 5x7 dotted line template on Canva? I have Pro but it’s giving me so much trouble and also when I go to print, the cards measurements are off. ☹️ Rescue me super artist!!!
Check out Red River Paper. They ship to Canada, but I don’t know if it's cost-effective for you.
Thanks so much for all of the hard work and research you are doing. The paper looks lovely. I wish they made a semi gloss because that’s more my style. I may bite the bullet and try this one out for fun, but holy cow Amazon wants $108 for the paper. Why this is the case I’ll never understand since we make paper here in Canada (Cornwall). I swear we’re making it for the US and they sell it back to us for double! 😝 Now that wouldn’t surprise me.
Hi Rebecca! You are a great help as im introducing Card- Desings into my brand! Thank you! 🤗 Though i did some digging and it seems that this paper has become discontinued. Not sure why. :/
Hi! Kromekote was discontinued several years ago until it was bought by CTI Paper USA, who still produces it as far as I can tell. It's still definitely in stock at The Paper Mill which I think is their main provider. But if you hear differently from them let me know! :) I'm sure there are also lots of other C1S papers out there, too.
Hi Rebecca, thank you for all your videos. So helpful. I’m searching for greeting card inkjet paper matte with watercolor paper texture. Sooooo hard te find within a budget. Do you have recommendations? Or any one else?
Well video is up for some month but my Idea or suggestion would be to coat by yourself if you dont find the right paper. This might not end up in the same way as the paper itself but could be an alternative. By that i mean like most sticker shops using some protective vinyl sheets on top of your printed cards. Then you could also use glittery effects and stuff to create more special ones. Yes its increase of working time and material costs but I would think this could be same with price for the liked paper in the end.
Hope this helps or give another idea to try 🙈
Dear Rebecca, thank you for sharing your experiences, I have a question about colours, I dont know how to choose colour to have a good combine and good result in print. do you know any resource for cmyk ?
Community over competition, especially in the art world. Thank you for sharing. I am in the states- if you need me to ship paper to you just let me know ;)
It’s probably not the cheapest, but Red River Paper makes some great card stock. You can buy the paper in sheets (and some in rolls) and they also make pre-scored cards in different sizes. I like a matte finish, so I use Polar Matte 60 lb - or Pecos River Gloss if I want the shine.
Great company - but they are US-based.
This is so helpful! Thank you for posting this ❤ I was wondering if you have posted anything regarding the settings for printing with the Epson? I have one of the newer eco tanks and I have been messing with it but my prints and cards come out so weird! The colors are muted or greyed out or different entirely. I don’t know photoshop and I’ve tried figuring out what’s going on but I feel clueless and now like I’ve wasted money on my printer. I’m wondering if it has to do with the grey ink. Did you have this issue when you got yours?
So sorry you're having those issues! I haven't had anything come out grey, but sometimes when things aren't as vibrant as they should be I just crank up the saturation of the files before printing and that helps. I don't use photoshop so I can't advise there, but maybe there's something under "Printer Settings" in the print window to mess around with? That's the only place I change settings such as print quality and colour profiles. 😕
Thank you so much. I just found it on Amazon, 200 sheets for 56.94. Question, besides it being 12 pt. what is the gsm on it? and when you fold it, does it crack or fold smooth? Thanks again for this. I'm a new follower :)
I think 12 pt translates to 250 gsm? At least that's what Google says! I find the fold smooth but I do use a bone folder to create a crease prior to folding (you can probably see me doing this in any of my videos where I'm making cards) and I haven't had any issues with fibers splitting in probably 95% of cards. ☺️
Thank you for this video! I'll take a look on the west coast here and see what I can find. I'll let you know if I find anything good.
Now for some weirdness. I have an Epson ET-8500, and I have NEVER been able to get a card to print with any sort of colour accuracy, no matter what I try. I reached out to several printing companies to ask their opinion, and really only got back a bunch of sales pitches with no real help. I am not looking for extreme accuracy here, I just want a greeting card that I can print at home that doesn't look like I printed it at home. In the end, I had to start using Canon matte photo paper, because it's the only one that will print colours that aren't faded.
When I print on the photo paper, everything is bright and beautiful. However, one water droplet can completely ruin it, which I don't love. All I wanted was a decent card stock to work, but I'm really hesitant to try a bunch of different ones, since, as you said, everything here in Canada is really expensive.
Anyway, the cardstock I tried was Neenah 110lb white cardstock, and then another 110lb cardstock from Staples. Oh, and a Neenah Exact Index 110lb cardstock. I wasted about 140 sheets just trying every colour profile. I am sure I'm doing something wrong.
I have an espon 8500 and had the same problem. I print in photoshop and there’s an option in the print settings to let photoshop handle colors. My cards are as vibrant as they are on the screen. Maybe there’s something similar like that in whatever program you use?
Thanks so much for this comment and for being on paper lookout with me! ☺️
In terms of the colour accuracy, that's something that I've heard from a few people. I have to say I haven't experienced it too much but when I do it's generally because of RGB vs CMYK conversions. For example, if I design something in Canva, they have terrible CMYK conversion so I export as RBG and let the printer do the conversion. But I usually crank up the saturation of my designs in these cases to help it out.
I suspect that it's like @AbbyFitz said and maybe letting another feature handle the colour conversions would help? I'm on a Mac and when I go into the print window, under Printer Options > Colour Settings, there is the option to let the computer or the Epson manage it. Maybe try playing around in this feature? You've probably already done this but worth mentioning in case you haven't.
I've used some 110lb cardstock that I got at Michaels which was pretty decent and a good price (especially since they often do 2 for 1 or coupon deals) and I've found that some of my cards look nice on it, but not the fully illustrated ones - mainly 'line art and text' style cards. I've also tried a ton of photo papers too, and the colours look soooo good magically... and sticker paper as well. I find this coated Kromekote paper holds the vibrancy in the same way, so long as it doesn't over-saturate the paper and cause some feathering.
I feel your pain on wasting paper testing (I have a huge recycling graveyard too)... hope a solution presents itself! 🤞
I have an Epson et-2850. I always print on matte + high quality setting. Whatever the paper I’m using. My print come out best when I import the jpg on a word format and print from word. The paper settings Olson in word on matte and high quality. Hope this helps.
Amazon raises the paper left and right. Tonight my desired matte paper is on sale. In a day or two I am buying up all I can in that one day. They piss me off.
Looking for matte greeting card inktjet print paper. Which is your favorite??
Does the gloss side crack a bit along the score and fold?
I was worried about this too! Generally, no. I think using a bone folder to make the creases really crisp helps a lot. I have sometimes scored the fold line with the bone folder beforehand too, and that really eliminates any cracking. Even at it's worst (if I'm being sloppy) it still looks better than other papers I've tried - some cardstocks are just so fibrous!
According to the information provided by The Paper Mill Store, this paper is designed specifically for offset printing, rather than inkjet printing. This could explain the ink smearing issues you're encountering.
Yes might be! It was really more like some edge feathering rather than smearing. But it only happened when using "ultra premium photo paper" setting, looks great with regular photo paper setting luckily 😊
What thickness is the paper (gsm)?
It's 12 pt which is around 100lb cover weight so I think 270-ish gsm?
Omg... i was so excited today when my paper arrived 😊. But then i try to print it . I absolutely hate my epson 3850. It just jams this paper 😭. Does anyone use same printer to print on this kind of paper ? Maybe any solutions??
I use my epson for this paper so here are my tips! First, I only feed 1 sheet in at a time, and I (very gently) push the paper down when it is feeding through right at the start. I have to do this for all cardstock/heavy paper for this printer which is annoying but the print quality is worth it in my opinion! And then for print settings, I use "Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy" and "High Quality" as the settings for this paper and my cards turn out perfectly. I really hope you're able to make your printer work for this!!
@@luckysprout thank you soooo much 🌷. I will try this right now
This is why I hate living in Australia... I feel like we never have anything here and shipping here costs you a kidney... Who thought paper would be so hard to find
There are some things you need to keep to yourself. You might not agree but what business do you know that gives their main grinds to the public. Not many.
Totally! I keep lots of business secrets don't worry 😁 just not worried about paper recs (and hoping someone can find a vendor for it in Canada to share w me!!)