Core'dinations

I was lucky enough to be sent not one but four packs of core’dination cardstocks; ‘The Whitewash collection’, ‘core impressions’, ‘Gemstones’ and ‘Black Magic’.  These come in sizes from 6x6” to 12x12” and RRP is between £3.95 and £12.95 depending on the size and the range.  This is comparable with other cardstocks of this high quality.

If you’ve not come across Core’dinations cardstock before, rather than having a white core the cardstock has a core colour which coordinates with the surface color. Each sheet has a cut off tab that tells you what the core colour is.  The colour can be kept hidden or you can bring it through by sanding, tearing or embossing the cardstock. 

‘The Whitewash Collection’ contains 20 sheets of different colours, mainly pastels.  The cardstock has been given a white wash finish.  This can be sanded, torn or embossed to reveal the core colour and the effect is beautiful.  Core’dinations have a design team and you can see some of the lovely creations using this collection there.  This one stands out for me  http://www.coredinations.com/index.php/2010/12/01/whitewash-wednesday/.  Each piece of cardstock has a smooth coloured side and a textured, whitewash side.  The white wash side feels a bit like a canvas and has that lovely texture. 

The ‘core impressions’ I received is the result of a teaming up between Core’dinations and Cosmo Cricket.  They have also teamed up with other companies such as Jenni Bowlin and Jilly Bean Soup. The pack contains the same good quality 80lb cardstock as the other packs and has a canvas texture.  The cardstock is embossed with 4 different patterns (seedlings, sparkle, kitchen dot, crisscross) and comes in 5 colours (amazon, deco coral, French roast, katydid and Red pepper) so the pack contains 20 unique sheets.  I particularly like the ‘sparkle’ design.  These papers can also be sanded, torn or inked to add texture and interest to a LO and bring the core colour through. 

‘Gemstones’ is described as ‘The Crown Jewels of Cardstock’ and contains 20 sheets in 20 colours of premium cardstock.  It has one textured side and one smooth side.  The textured side has a pearlescent finish.  It’s a subtle finish and adds the right amount of sparkle and shine to a LO.  It’s not sandable because of the finish but you can tear and emboss of course.  The 20 colours are beautifully rich and there’s a good mix of brights, pastels and neutral colours included.

I think that my favourite has to be ‘Black Magic’ though.  There’s something about putting a colour next to black that makes it pop, don’t you think?  I used a piece of the Black Magic paper with the red core for a CJ entry and it somehow gave the page a dark and bloody feel to it, which was exactly what I was going for as it happens.  I think that this range would come in to it’s own around Halloween when you could emboss spider’s webs etc on to the black and have some great greens and oranges coming through.  This paper is also good for sanding and tearing to release the hidden colour. 

The great thing about Core’dinations is that whichever collection you buy (and there are various others than those describe above) you can be sure that you will be buying some great quality heavy duty cardstock (80lb) that can be used and abused without tearing where it shouldn’t or ending up looking tatty.  It’s all acid and lignin free too.  The innovative collections contain a good mix of colours and patterns within the theme and, in my opinion, do what they say on the tin in that you can tear, emboss and sand to release the core colour.  Because no two pages in these collection packs are the same, you wouldn’t tire of using them and no two projects would look the same making them good value for money.  The cardstock can be used for background, matting or as patterned paper once it’s altered making it versatile.

The core’dination products are available worldwide.  Prices do seem to vary quite a bit, particularly on older collections so it pays to shop around.  Once you have your collection there is a blog and gallery on the core’dination website where you can get tips and inspiration for using your cardstock. 

For someone like me that likes to add texture and colour to Los they are great and I think that they have great appeal to card makers too. 

Perfect. Couldn’t ask for more. Great item, fair price. Everyone should have one! You’d have no problem selling this to your grandmother.

Cosmo Cricket Matilda Range

Today we have a review of the Cosmo Cricket ‘Matilda’ collection. Available in this range is a 6x6 mini deck of patterned papers (MSRP £5.75 or $5.99 in the US), a 6x12 sheet of Ready Set Chip chipboard accents (MSRP £2.95 or $2.99) and a pack of 30 coordinating buttons (MSRP £2.95 or $2.99).

The first thing that appealed to me about the papers, is that although there are plenty of patterns that are most certainly Halloween themed, and the colour palette is what you would expect for the theme, there are a number of patterns that could be used in a variety of other projects after the holiday is over. I like the idea of being able to buy the collection in a 6x6 pad so you can benefit from all the patterns without having to spend a small fortune for a whole range of 12x12 papers. I’d never be able to use up a whole Halloween 12x12 paper collection! That said, I did miss having larger sheets of paper when creating layouts with it.

The chipboard is just plain cute, and is ideal for making pages about kids and their Halloween antics. The main thing to note about the chipboard pieces, in my opinion, was that they actually STICK to your layout, and stay stuck. I’m used to frequently having to add my own adhesive to chipboard embellishments that claim to already be adhesive. I did not need to add extra glue this time, despite some of the pieces being quite chunky. The pumpkin on the bottom left of my page was even repositioned 3 times and did not damage my paper when I peeled it off, or fall off when I stuck it back down! Thank you, Cosmo Cricket, for thinking about real-life scrapbooking!

I also think this collection would make a great kit for scrapbookers and card makers who like to share their crafts with their kids. The collection is versatile enough to be used in a ‘grown up’ way but, likewise, kids would love the cute patterns and characters in the chipboard set. Great for sitting down with your children and making some seasonal cards, creating some home decor items or scrapping and reminiscing about past trick-or-treating escapades! That is, if you can bear to let your kids near your stash ;)

The whole collection can be purchased relatively inexpensively, which makes it a sensible choice for a seasonal line. Cosmo Cricket have thought this through, and it shows.

When I created my sample layout I also used ‘Wackadoo’ Ready Set Chip letters for my title. They coordinate really well with the Matilda line! [layout based on an October sketch by Becky Fleck at Pagemaps.com]

So, overall, ’Matilda’ is a fun, great value product line. Would I change anything? Maybe make a few sheets of 12x12 paper available for larger projects. But then, if they did, I’d probably have a ton of the stuff left next year ;)

American Crafts Card stock

In a quick break from the kits we finally get to introduce our final reviewer Val. American Crafts kindly sent us some of their card stock and Zing! embossing powders. Here is Vals review of the card stock.

Our review today is focused on American Crafts, who kindly sent a package of its AC Cardstock (Primaries) for us to review.

AC Cardstock is a heavy weight 80lb paper, with a solid core (the color goes all the way through). The ingenious package, which becomes a vertical paper container at the tear of the perforated tab at the top, contains 60 sheets of 15 different colors (in this case Primary/bright colors).

The package retails for $20 (apx. .33 per sheet) and is readily available in both retail and online locations. It’s got a nice texture on one side and is fairly smooth on the reverse. The colors are rich and on-trend.

In my stamping and embossing endeavors, I learned that this cardstock stands up very well to the extreme heat of a heat gun, without warping, curling or buckling.  It also stands up well to wet mediums, like spray ink.

Another great feature of this paper is how it cuts. Not only does it go through a die cutting machine beautifully, it hand cuts very well, too. I used small scissors to cut out intricate shapes and the paper did not tear or fray in the tight corners and curves. This is a great feature if you tend to stamp and cut out your images, or if you plan to use the paper in a die cutting machine.

Overall I thought this paper was of great quality and the choice of over 70 colors impressive. Any papercrafter would find steady use for this in their stash.

Score: 5 Scissors