I mentioned in a previous post that we are experimenting with different colored card stock. We tried a beige color card stock on our Panda card which seemed to be a success. However, we can only find it in 65 lb. cover, which seems to be too light.

We searched some more and ordered a metallic card stock by Petallics called "Autumn Hay". Our order was delivered a few days ago, and it looks really nice. It has a nice, almost iridescent shine to it, and the card stock is very stiff. It is rated at 98 lb. cover, but it has the metallic coating on both sides which makes it much stiffer. Scoring it with our Scor-it tool creates a pretty professional-looking score on the inside of the card.

Despite these positives, we had a couple of problems printing on it with our Phaser 8560DN solid ink printer. The first problem was, because the paper was so stiff, it got jammed when running through the duplexer. However, this is just an inconvenience because it just means we'll have to make two passes for each print. (It ran single-sided prints with no problem).

The second problem is more serious and we still haven't found a solution for this yet. Though the print comes out very nicely, the ink easily scrapes off due to the smooth metallic coating. From art class, I remember there was a kind of spray for charcoal and pastel drawings to hold it in place once the drawing was finished. So we headed to Michaels and got a pastel/charcoal/pencil fixative by Prismacolor. The bad news is, it didn't work. The ink ran, cracked, and generally got all muddled up.

So it's back to the drawing board. At least now I can use the fixative on my 3-foot heigh charcoal hand drawing from college.

Update:I sought the counsel of another Michaels sales associate and learned that I needed an acid-free spray. So I got some Krylon "Preserve It!" Digital Photo & Paper Protectant. It does not ruin the print like the charcoal fixtative did, and, after a few coats, it prevents the ink from scratching off. I'm still not sure if this will be a practical solution from a business standpoint, but at least we're making progress. Maybe we will find an even better solution down the road.