Paper For Card Making

The selection of paper for card making increases every year as the popularity for card making crafts increases. This creates even more choice for us, but it gets even more bewildering trying to choose a paper that's suitable for your design!

Here I deal with the standard types of paper that are suitable making invitations and cards.

Once you have your basic card in place, you can start to think the papers you're going to use on the outside and inside of your card.

There are several different types of paper for card making available. Below I only deal with standard papers – there’s a whole article about specialty papers as well!

Textured paper

Textured paper is great for adding depth to your wedding invitations and can be used as insert paper too. This is often referred to as hammered paper as it looks as though someone has taken a hammer to it to give it a dimpled effect. Textured paper also comes in various paper stocks, so you can often find hammered card stock as well. It's the perfect paper for card making.

Scrapbooking paper

Scrapbooking is huge in the US and it's becoming more and more popular here. Scrapbooking paper usually has a decorative pattern on one side and a slightly plainer pattern on the back. Both sides of the paper can be used.

Papermania and American Crafts create lots of different types of scrapbooking paper that is suitable as a backing paper for card making – and it's also great for wedding invitations. Both these brands are widely available in arts and crafts stores.

Shiny and sparkly papers

For a bit of added sparkle, you can get pearlescent, metallic and sparkly (glitter) papers. They add a bit of dazzle to any wedding invitation. You can also get these types of papers as card stock too. They also come in a variety of colours so you'll easily be able to match your wedding colours.

Fancy papers

Vellum on it's own and the same pattern on black paper

There are other types of paper which I cover off in an article about specialty paper for card making. These include vellums, angel hair and handmade paper.

Other papers

There are of course other papers that can you can use on your wedding invitations that you don’t have to buy from the arts and crafts store. You can use gift wrapping paper, cut outs from magazines and newspapers and tissue paper too.

All of these types of paper have wonderful designs and can be especially useful for backing paper or as part of the main design. Wedding wrapping paper is especially good.

Card stock and card blanks suitable for wedding invitations

The basis of your greeting card or wedding invitation will be made from card. You can buy pre-made cards or cut the card sheets to size and score the cards yourself. Card can be bought in the standard paper sizes and in a range of weights (or stock).

If you’re making your own cards from scratch, then buy a 220gsm - 250gsm card stock as a minimum weight. This will give you a sturdy base on which to create your design. You can buy the card in sheets of A1 or A2 – I’d recommend getting these cut professionally by your local copy shop as the finish will be much better. (Your local arts and craft store may cut these for you as well.)

For me, a better alternative is pre-made card blanks. These come in a range of different colours and sizes. You can buy them as individual cards or in packs. The packs come with envelopes, so you don’t have to worry about finding the correct envelope size.

If you go to your arts and craft store, you’re likely to find packs of cards. Fancy sizes such as DL or cards with aperture windows (cut out sections on the front) come in packs of 10 and are about £3-£4 ($5-$8).

You can also get bumper size packs of 50 blank cards and envelopes for about £5 ($9) – making this much more cost effective. You can pick these packs up in most arts and crafts shops or online. They're perfect for your wedding invitations or greetings cards.

I'd strongly recommend using pre-folded cards or card blanks as they'll make your life a lot easier. However, some of these cards don't come in standard sizes (i.e. A6), so if you're using insert or invitation templates - check the size!

Card finishes

Whether you make your cards from scratch or buy ready made cards, you’ll need to think about the finish. Choose a smooth finish to the paper if you want a smooth, flat paper surface to work on. This is good if you plan to include illustrations, drawings, writing, stickers and certain embellishments.

An alternative finish for paper for card making is a textured paper, such as hammered (see picture). This provides good surface for card toppers and most embellishments.

Related articles:

Specialty Paper For Wedding Invitations
Card Making Card Stock