Lets Get Inky - Paper comparisons

Hi Friends,

A few days back, The Craft Studio launched 2 sets of paper: Floral Natura Collection (FNC) and Floral Super White Collection (FSWC). I received a pack of sample papers from Foram Shah & Dinesh Shah of The Craft Studio.

About these papers: 
Both FNC and FSWC are 270 gsm in weight. FSWC is pure white and is more whiter than Iris paper while FNC is one shade pale and has colour same as Iris paper. FNC and FSWC have good water retention ability with FSWC being able to absorb more water as compared to FNC.

Even thought these papers were launched as papers to make flower, with 270 gsm and good water absorbing properties, I decided to try them for my card backgrounds and inking techniques, heat embossing, water colouring etc. and compare it with Iris paper (as I use the same for background techniques regularly).

So, FNC, FSWC and Iris paper were cut to ATC size of 2.5" by 3.5" and put to test for various techniques

Test 1: Distress ink & misting.
Result: My experience in Mumbai city has been that when you use distress ink on Iris paper and let it sit for some time, the distress ink goes a shade lighter. Similar results were seen on FNC & FSWC. So compares with Iris paper exactly

Test 2: Distress Ink Blending

Result: Distress Ink Blending was good on both FNC & FSWC and comparable with Iris paper. FNC overall had slightly better outcome for ink blending as compared to FSWC

Test 3: Distress ink  smooshing with help of acrylic block

Result: Results were good for all 3 papers (The acrylic block I used had a grid and there were grid marks on the outcome. As you notice, grid marks are almost negligible on FSWC, which I assume are because of its high water soaking capacity. So I would choose FSWC for this technique)

Test 4: Distress ink smooshing with water mist from a craft mat

Result: Excellent for all 3 papers

Test 5: Water lifting technique

Result: Even though all 3 papers worked well for water lifting technique, FSWC performed much better than FNC for this technique. I love the outcome for water lifting on Iris and FSWC more than FNC

Test 6: Stamping with distress ink

Result: Similar effect on all 3

Test 7: Watercolour 

Result: With my limited knowledge in water colouring, I tried all 3 papers for water colouring a Peony. All 3 papers worked equally well for this technique. Amongst 3, FSWC with it high water absorbing capacity worked the best for water colouring.

Test 8: Stamping with Archival inks

Results: Fantastic for all 3 papers

Test 9: Heat Embossing & Resist distress inking

Result: Excellent for all 3 papers

Test 10: Pencil colour & blending with odourless thinner

Test 11: Gelatos for background & blending with baby white

Result: Good for all 3

Test 12: Cosmic Shimmer Spray & Itsy Bitsy Splash Spray for background & Scoring

Result: To test the strength of both FNC & FSWC, I scored both the papers & neither paper tore, i.e. they scored well. Also water based spray paints like Cosmic Shimmer Spray & Itsy Bitsy Splash Spray worked well on both papers 

To sum up, both papers were comparable to Iris paper for most techniques and give excellent results. 

Thank you Forum & Dinesh Shah for the free samples. I loved working with both of them. 

PS: I would be converting these into ATCs. So if anyone would like to swap/ trade one of these ATCs with me, please leave a comment. I am open to swapping internationally too. 

Hope you all enjoyed comparison review of FNC & FSWC with Iris paper. Do leave your feedback in comments below. 

Love,

Dr. Neha Sanwalka

Crafty Flirtations