The Downside of InCoWriMo Cards

[fncll]

I decided to dip into my stock of folded and note cards for InCoWriMo--for the first 28 letters anyway--and am now remembering why I use so few of them: many have wonderful designs, pictures, etc., but many of them, including the most expensive and/or classic, have *terrible* paper for fountain pens. Even my XF Pelikan with a well-behaved Diamine ink can be problematic.

Back to paper after this!

Somehow, I will persevere

[DrChumley]

I tried ordering some custom cards from Vista Print for InCoWriMo, but I haven't tried using any of them yet. I suppose I will find out if their paper is any good tomorrow...especially since I sprung for the "premium" paper.

If not, then I guess I'm back to writing on a piece of Tomoe River and slipping it into the card instead. Kind of defeats the whole point, I suppose.

[Tracy Lee]

I tried ordering some custom cards from Vista Print for InCoWriMo, but I haven't tried using any of them yet. I suppose I will find out if their paper is any good tomorrow...especially since I sprung for the "premium" paper.

If not, then I guess I'm back to writing on a piece of Tomoe River and slipping it into the card instead. Kind of defeats the whole point, I suppose.

Actually, I do that a lot. I figure folks could reuse the card, or use it for some other purpose with no writing all over it. Either way, the gift is in the letter no matter how it is sent so do not despair!!

[chaimann]

Yeah, some of my note cards aren't even good for a rollerball. For those, I find my ballpoint and send them to the uninitiated.

[fncll]

Yes, that is what I should be doing! It would also allow me to indulge in some Letterfolding, which is right up my alley.

But there is a very small obsessive part of me that won't allow me to stop midstream and start doing it differently!

[Morgaine]

My main concern about notecards (even Christmas Cards) is about their weight, especially for international mail.... I say I am lucky if I can get them under 20g (that means 88p to Europe and if over 10g, £1.28 to the rest of the world).

[mrcharlie]

I guess I've been lucky; I've purchased six or eight boxes of notecards in the past few years and only one won't deal well with fountain pen ink.

[mtnbiker62]

I purchased a really awesome set of Bonsai themed cards, envelopes, and stamps from the USPS for InCoWriMo...they were terrible with liquid ink. It was like writing on a paper towel. I ended up using a *gasp* rollerball.

[scrivelry]

I have cards made by a friend of ours - they are wonderful with cheap, cheap ballpoints, but after they made a near-needlepoint fine look like a medium broad last night I just started a letter on Walgreen's Ology paper and threw it in with the card itself. On the other hand, some really cheap writing paper I got as a closeout at my Supermarket is working fine - there is no telling with these things!

[Miss Thundercat]

Yes, I had that same idea myself (too many notecards I don't use) and the same problems as well... a good saturated ink and a wet writing pen will help for most notecards, but saturated inks have a longer dry time, so smudges can occur. I usually end up with a lot more to say so I stick in a folded letter paper as well.
I find that postcards however do accept FP inks more generously, but then again the ink might bleed out during this period of rain :/

[mrcharlie]

A couple years ago a did a test with a postcard book from the same publisher that makes some of the notecards I have. I wrote on one of the cards with many different inks including both FPs and non-FPs and then tried to smudge them with a dry finger rubbing really hard, and again with a finger I'd licked first.

Some FP inks worked really well and were hard to smudge on dense coated cardstock even with the wetted finger, and some were almost totally wiped off with just a dry finger. Noodler's Black was the worst of many inks I tried for this application; this is not a knock on Noodler's, that is just an ink that did not penetrate the cardstock at all. Other Noodler's inks such as Liberty's Elysium were great on the same cardstock. Skrip (Sheaffer) Black worked great; it was the best Black I tried. Pelikan worked well enough.

So don't just try one FP ink on some cardstock and assume all will not work. Especially if you were trying Noodler's Black, try something else.

FWIW, While I mostly use a fountain pen when I can, I like a lot of different writing stick technologies; if you have something that works on your cards and it isn't a fountain pen, that isn't the end of the world. Appropriate tools for the job and all that.

[sherrylu]

I made some cards out of watercolour paper and I find that the letters are a bit thicker (vs. Rhodia paper), but there's no bleeding or feathering! Oh ya!