Blossoms and putting Paperbox products through their paces

Morning Peeps, time for our new Allsorts challenge and this week I am your host with a two week challenge to carry us over the Easter holiday and the theme I have chosen is Blossoms, Butterflies and Bugs and we have a new sponsor this week The Paperbox.

Recently the Paperbox offered to send me a package of their products and invited me to write a review of them, we chatted and agreed that it would be nice if they were to sponsor Allsorts this challenge and I would use some of their products to create my artwork.

Their web site offers a wide range of card, paper, vellum, envelopes, embellishments, weddings stationery and more and card and paper can be purchased in packs of just ten right up to bumper bundles of 250.

So being the inky crafter I am I was keen to know how their card stock stood up to different treatments and for my first creation decided to stamp directly onto one of the Paperbox's A6 Bright White Card Blank and Envelope's. Placing the card blank into my stamp platform I used a Penny Black stamp called Blossom Branch, inked with Distress Markers and yes..........spritzed with water just as I would if I were creating a piece to be be matted onto a card blank. After stamping my first impression I then re-inked and stamped a couple more times to get more colour definition and now the telling time, removed the card from the stamp platform and here you can see the reverse.....no bleed through.

I'll be honest and say I was sceptical because the weight of the base card does not feel as heavy as I would usually go for, I tend to use 300gsm minimum and I would guess this is 280gsm max, but it took the ink and water remarkably well and as you can see there is no evidence of any colour stain on the reverse. As those who know me are aware I'm not a colourist so not able to say how the card would react to different types colouring pens. 

I masked the envelope with a post it note, inked the edges with distress ink and followed the same process for stamping as with the card, although only added a very light spritz of water as obviously the envelope is paper as opposed to card, but it stood up to the treatment I gave it very well.

The Butterfly on the card is made from the A4 White Iridescent Vellum sheet that was in the pack sent to me, it's a nice weight of vellum and held up well when I stamped with the Chocolate Baroque Butterfly using Versafine Black and heat embossed with details clear EP. At £3.41 (offer price and normally £4.01) for a pack of 10 it represents good value compared with what I usually pay for stamping use. I coloured in with with Distress Markers to coordinate with the flowers, cut out and added to the card along with wire antenna. The sentiment is also from CB.

For my next card I really put the card stock through it's paces deciding what I had in mind would either work or it wouldn't and I was amazed with the outcome. The soft shades of the A4 Matt Card stock (300gsm) are such pretty colours so I went through my Distress Oxides to do some colour matching and found Cracked Pistachio and Squeezed Lemonade matched the Mint Green and Pale Yellow perfectly. I took half of the sheet of Matte White (also 300gsm) from the same collection and gave it the normal Distress Oxide treatment, ink, water, heat, more ink and water and more heat and it took it all in it's stride, the ink distributed nicely without any 'persuasion' and was still pretty flat at the end of the process and no untoward buckling. 

Next I stamped the inky panel with a Chocolate Baroque stamp and coloured in with sparkle pens, then die cut a frame using the two coloured sheets, ran the yellow one through an embossing folder  with no cracking and mounted with foam pads onto an A6 Bright White Card Blank. I have tried an awful lot of different card stock over the years for inking and many have failed dismally, but I would happily buy the Matt White specifically for this purpose.

I also tried the Matte White with with Brushos which requires the use of ample water and was more than happy with the results. At £9.83 for 50 sheets it compares well with the card that I currently buy for my inky activities and the 150 pack at £19.83 even more so.

One final share using a sheet of A4 Dusky Pink Paper which is a lovely colour and has a nice textured finish to it along with a matching envelope. I decided to see how it took a juicy ink so decided on Versafine Clair and a Heartfelt stamp and it drank up the ink really well without any bleed sidewards, it comes in a range of colours so would certainly use it again for stamping. I cut the flowers with the matching die and layered, stamped an Inkylicious sentiment and created a fairly quick and simple card, adding some Tattered Lace Ivy. I also added some of the flowers to the envelope.

I still have a few sheets to try out and will share those at a later date, I am very impressed with a sheet of Silver Glitter Card also yet untested but it is the smoothest I have ever seen, they say it's non shed and having given it a good rub it certainly shows no sign of any loss as many makes tend to, so if you are in need of some take a look on their web site as it comes in a range of colours.  One thing I would love to see added to their range is black cardstock, I use black a great deal and probably 50% of the cards I make uses black as the base card as well as lighter weights for matting and layering.

I am grateful to the Paperbox for allowing me to try their products and give you my thoughts on them, whenever I am asked to do this I always endeavour to offer an impartial viewpoint which is what I have done today.

 

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