Cardstock Review, Comparison, and Giveaway

Good morning! I have been excited for this post for a few weeks! I had seen THIS post over at KandRdesigns, and realized how neat it was to be able to see several different colors of cardstock from different companies lined up for comparison. So...I decided to do the same thing, only with all the colors available from each company! 

I went with 4 different companies that I already owned some cardstock from and knew I loved - Papertrey Ink, Avery Elle, My Favorite Things, and Bazzill Card Shoppe. Then at the last minute, I decided to include the new Simon Says Stamp solid cardstock that I kept hearing great reviews on. Several of these companies were kind enough to provide me with a pack of cardstock for my review (thank you!) - and I have put together a pack with some paper from each company to giveaway! Make sure and read all the way to the bottom to leave a comment for your chance to win and play with some cardstock of your own! Every single opinion below is my own) 

First question - quality. Truth is - I think every single one of these five brands is fabulous quality! You simply can't go wrong with any of them! 

Papertrey Ink is 110 lb - which makes it all a great heavyweight solid cardstock that will hold up to pretty much anything you want to do with it. Available in 39 different colors - plenty of variety to work with. They have a multi pack with 2 each of 37 colors for $15 (HERE), which is a great way to try out the many different options available. The two that are not included in that pack are Rustic White and Rustic Cream that are in my photos below.

Avery Elle is 100 lb - although their white is 110 lb. I have been buying their white in bulk for quite a while now - it is a nice pure and true white, smooth, and heavy enough to hold up to anything I want to do with it. Avery Elle's cardstock is available in 25 different colors - and they offer a build your own sample pack of 25 sheets for $8 (HERE) - again, my favorite way to try colors out, and this way you can choose only the colors you are interested in.

My Favorite Things, like Avery Elle is 100 lb, with the exception of their white which is a heavier 110 lb. MFT has the widest variety of colors, currently 43. They also offer a sample pack - 1 each of all 43 colors for $13.99 (HERE). They recently updated the sample pack so that it includes all of the newest colors released - since before it had not caught up with all the new colors they had released each month.

Bazzill Card Shoppe cardstock was all a nice solid 100 lb weight, and available in 28 colors. I found that this cardstock had some of the most unique colors - a great one to fill in with some colors that didn't seem to overlap at all into any of the other companies options. They offer a variety pack of 1 of each color for $12.99 (available HERE on the Simon Says Stamp website)

And finally, the Simon Says Stamp cardstock. This cardstock is also 100 lbs and available in 14 colors currently - although I believe there are more coming out very soon. I loved the unique texture it had! It wasn't quite as smooth as the other brands, but almost had a very slight canvas texture - similar to watercolor paper, only much more subtle. It also had several colors that were unique to it's line, without a similar counterpart from any of the other companies. It also had some of the brightest and truest colors. They offer a sample pack as well, 2 each of all 14 colors for $13.99 (HERE).

And, now I have photos comparing all the colors to the best of my ability. It was very difficult to get a true color on each of them - and computer monitors vary too, so they might look slightly different on your own computer screens! But hopefully it gives you at least a good side by side of each different one, so that you can see the differences and similarities in each brand. For simplifying purposes, I abbreviated each brand, then the name of the color follows that abbreviation. I grouped them as best as I could in color families.

PTI = Papertrey Ink

AE = Avery Elle

MFT = My Favorite Things

BB = Bazzil Basics Card Shoppe

SSS = Simon Says Stamp

First up - the Pale Pinks (very good variety, in all different shades): 

The Bright Pinks (the three raspberry shades you can tell are very similar):

The Deep Pinks/Burgundies (the 3 darkest are very similar, with just slight differences in shades):

The True Reds (this was the first picture, and I lined it up by brand, instead of grouping similar colors together - sorry about that!):

The Oranges (you can see several colors that are very similar, and several that are very unique):

The Yellows (again, several similar, and a few unique colors):

The Yellow-Greens/Olives (one of the hardest to group and photograph - definitely a wide range of hues):

The Greens (some slight differences in some colors, but several that are a pretty close match to other brands):

The Mints (I just couldn't decide where to add these, so I did them in their own group!):

The Blue-Greens (as you can see, several very similar colors in this bunch):

The Blues (Berrylicious made it into this group, but it really was somewhere in between this group and the Blue-Green group above. Kind of unique in its own way. Also, you will notice the 2 SSS colors - don't really fit anywhere in these two either - very unique and pretty colors):

The Purples (I didn't realize there would be so many shades of purple!):

The Blacks (I always though PTI had the truest black, but SSS was definitely darker! BB was very similar to PTI's black - and AE and MFT were almost more of a really deep dark gray to me):

The Grays (the light grays were very similar - PTI's Ocean Tides was a bit blue for this group - but it seemed to gray to go in with the blues, so I added it here):

The Browns (always love a good brown!):

The Krafts (I was very surprised by the krafts - they were all far more similar than I expected, and I loved them all. SSS's Khaki was like a smooth kraft - no flecks of texture like the traditional. Of note - MFT's Natural is a lighter 80 lb weight):

The Rustic/Speckled Whites/Creams (PTI's Rustic white stood out for sure as the whitest of the rustics, and PTI's cream was definitely the darkest of the rustics. The rest all fell in the center with slight variations in tone):

The Whites/Creams (the HARDEST ones to photograph! There was really a very slight difference in these colors - the photo makes it look like their are more. But each one was heavyweight and nice. I really like the smoothness of the AE, and the MFT was very similar in that area. Sweet tooth has a super faint cream/gray tint. AE's Whip Cream seemed to be the most true cream color, although very similar to BB's Butter Mints) :

I hope this was helpful to you! I know I will be referring back to these often! 

Now the giveaway - I have a sample pack of Bazzill Card Shoppe paper (2 each of each color) and an assortment of papers from each of the other companies to give away! (I am happy to ship international - as long as you are willing to chip in for shipping if it goes over $20 US, since this is a pretty heavy bundle of paper!) Here is how to enter (you can do one or all!):

1. Leave a comment - let me know if this was helpful, and what your favorite brand of cardstock is.

2. Share this post on Facebook, Pin on Pinterest, or blog about it, and leave a separate comment letting me know you did so.

3. Be a follower, or become a new follower (by email or Google Friend Connect) and leave a separate comment letting me know you did so.

4. Follow me on Facebook, and leave a separate comment here letting me know you did. 

So that means you have up to FOUR chance to win! I will leave comments open until midnight on February 25th, and then pick a winner and post it here the next day. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful week!!!