All About Cardstock Paper for Art and Crafts

What Is Cardstock?

Cardstock is a type of heavy, durable, flexible paper that is also known as “cover stock” or “pasteboard”.

Cover Stock

The type of cardstock known as “cover stock” has a coated finish on one or both sides:

• C1S = coated on one side
• C2S = coated on 2 sides

Uses for Cardstock

Cardstock has many uses. Crafters use it for making greeting cards, collages, scrapbook layouts and many other sorts of paper crafts. Businesspeople use it for making business cards, book covers, catalog covers, postcards and marketing materials.

Cardstock Colors, Patterns and Finishes

Cardstock comes in white and a broad variety of other solid colors. It can also be coated or printed with patterns. Standard cardstock is smooth, but there are also cardstock papers with metallic, textured or glossy finishes.

If you plan to incorporate torn or sanded cardstock into your art or craft projects, the core color of the cardstock is likely to be of interest to you. Craft cardstock can have a white core, or it can have a colored core.

Best Cardstock Brands for Card Making and Other Arts and Crafts

Neenah 110 lb Classic Crest Cover — Solar White

If you’re planning on making bunches of cards that require stamping, coloring with Copic Markers or other alcohol markers, or similar techniques, Neenah 110 lb.Classic Crest Cover Cardstock in the Solar White color is the best cardstock I have yet found for that purpose (although I also like Strathmore Bristol Board for mixed media techniques, which I don’t think is technically considered a cardstock.) This stuff is pricey but truly worth the cost; it is fantastic.

If this option is beyond your budget, the Neenah Paper Company also makes a 90 lb. recycled heavyweight index card stock that is lovely for stamping on and using to make card bases. It is far less expensive. The quality is noticeably different and not nearly as nice, but depending what you need it for, it might be good enough. This is the paper I use for stamping my planner stamps onto, and for that purpose, I think it’s great. I have had success coloring on it with alcohol markers, but I don’t do a lot of coloring on my stamped images; if beautifully colored, stamped images are the focal point of your paper craft projects, I recommend sticking with the 110 lb. Solar White cardstock instead of the cheaper 90 lb.

Click here to shop for Neenah Solar White 110 lb. Classic Crest Coverstock at Amazon.

Core’Dinations Cardstock

Core’Dinations’ cardstock is currently my favorite colored cardstock brand — because the cardstock itself is lovely to work with, their color line is outstanding, and because their cardstock has a slightly different, but coordinating, core color.

The core color of the cardstock would only be important to you if you distress or tear your cardstock in such a way that the core color would show through in your work. If you never do that, Core’Dinations cardstock is still nice to have — their color line is super appealing — but the cardstock’s core color isn’t going to make any difference to you unless you do something to the paper to expose the core.

I like sanding the edges of my papers, so the core color does make a big difference to me.

Want to learn more about Core’Dinations cardstock? I invite you to check out my detailed product review HERE.

• Click here to shop for Core’Dinations Cardstock at Scrapbook.com.

Bazzill Cardstock

The Bazzill brand name has been around since 1999 — and, up until 2010, their cardstock was one of my top all-time favorite brands.

In 2010, I temporarily stopped paper crafting because my husband Mike and I moved aboard a sailboat and sailed halfway around the world. That was quite an adventure! (Now I really have a journey worth scrapbooking…)

My scrapbooks and a few boxes of paper craft supplies stayed safely stored in a friend’s attic while we made the trip.

While we were gone, American Crafts bought out Bazzill in 2014. I came back to find other crafters had written reviews of the newer product saying that it isn’t the same.

So, I’ve taken down the old product review I wrote of Bazzill cardstock back in 2008. I still have some of the older Bazzill product in my craft supply stash to use up. I eventually plan to try, and review, the “new” Bazzill cardstock (I guess it’s not so new any more, but it will be new to me). I will look forward to updating and re-posting my product review of Bazzill cardstock when I get that far.

So there you have it: That’s what you need to know about cardstock for art and crafts. I hope you will find this information helpful as you plan future art and craft projects.

CLICK HERE to find my recommendations for more of the best art and craft supplies:

• Best papers for arts, crafts and card making
• Best adhesives for paper crafts

By Amy Solovay

About the Author: Amy Solovay is a freelance writer with a background in textile design. She holds a bachelor’s degree with a studio art minor; and she has also obtained another degree in textile design.

This page was last updated on 12-17-2023.