The Best Cardstock for Cricut Paper Crafts

These are my picks for the best cardstock for Cricut paper crafts! I compare all the important features and share my test results. See which brand is right for you!

Making paper crafts with my Cricut machine has become one of my favorite hobbies lately. From designing to cutting to assembling, I just find it so satisfying. I love making cards, paper box favors, party decorations, and more.

I’ve been a longtime fan of Cricut brand cardstock, but I thought it would be fun to officially put it to the test against other popular brands of cardstock. I also wanted to compare the new Cricut cardstock to the old Cricut cardstock.

If you’re wondering what is the best cardstock for Cricut and paper crafts, this post will give you all the information you need on four popular brands and guide you to the one that is right for you and your crafting needs.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

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The brands of cardstock I’m comparing

In this post, I’m comparing four brands of cardstock:

• The Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby
• Recollections from Michaels
• American Crafts Precision Cardstock and
• Cricut cardstock (both old* and new versions)

The new Cricut cardstock is actually identical in texture and performance to the American Crafts Precision Cardstock, so I have a suspicion they are the same (partly why I wanted to include American Crafts in this comparison). The colors are just slightly different between the two brands, however.

*I say “old” just to distinguish this from the newer version of Cricut cardstock that came out in December 2023.

My Cricut machines and cut settings

I used both my Explore 3 and Maker 3 machines for cutting these test projects. I initially used a new StandardGrip cutting mat, but then later switched to a used/less sticky LightGrip after having too many issues with my cardstock tearing (more on that in a second).

I cut all brands of cardstock on the “Medium Cardstock – 80 lb.” setting, except when doing the intricate cuts which I cut on the “Cardstock for intricate cuts” setting.

What’s the best cardstock overall?

If you’re short on time and want to quickly know what the best cardstock is, I recommend either the original Cricut cardstock for textured cardstock or Recollections cardstock for smooth cardstock…but there’s more to it than that.

I have always had fantastic cut results using the original Cricut brand cardstock. Unfortunately, Cricut seems to be discontinuing the original cardstock except in neutral colors (and I’m not sure how much longer these will be available, either). The new cardstock has a more pronounced texture (though still subtle). I like the new cardstock for a lot of paper crafts…but not all. I love the new colors, however.

While I was doing these test cuts and test projects, I feel like Cricut did a software update that started affecting my cuts and even the original Cricut cardstock wasn’t cutting as well as it is usually does. I asked around in the Cricut Facebook group and others were having the same issues, with the same cardstock they’ve been using for 5+ years. Others weren’t convinced an update could possibly affect the cut quality.

I also started to wonder if my StandardGrip cutting mat may be bad or if using a brand new mat wasn’t the best choice, because the mat adhesive seemed to be causing issues for all brands: Recollections and The Paper Studio adhered too well, causing curling and “shedding” of the paper when removing it, and the back layer of the other papers (Paper Crafts and old/new Cricut) separated and stuck to the mat in places when removing it. Eventually I went back to using a used LightGrip mat and I was able to eliminate some of these shedding/separating problems (phew!).

Because of some of these factors, I’m actually torn (no pun intended) on the best cardstock for Cricut paper crafts. Which paper works best for you is going to depend a lot on the type of paper craft you’re doing. I encourage you to read through all the points in this post so you can make the best decision for you, because each cardstock has its own pros and cons.* That being said, I do not recommend The Paper Studio for almost any paper craft with a Cricut machine.

*Keep in mind that I’m being very nitpicky in an effort to be as transparent as possible, but you will still get quality results by using these cardstock brands in your paper crafts (I still think they’re some of the best!). The Paper Studio might be the only exception, but it depends on what you’re making.

Details about these cardstock brands

The Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby

The Paper Studio cardstock I tested is non-textured, solid core, and 65-lb. weight.

Various sizes available: 12×12, 8.5×11, assorted note card sizes

Regular price $17.99 for 100 12×12 sheets, $10.79 at 40% off = $0.11 per 12×12 sheet

Colors: The assorted pack I purchased actually came with a decent amount of colors. However, this was one of the only solid core packs I could find (Hobby Lobby carries a lot more white core cardstock packs). I’m not a huge fan of the bright primary colors so some of those colors in this pack won’t get used as often.

Recollections from Michaels

Recollections cardstock is non-textured, solid core, and 65-lb. weight.

Various sizes available: 12×12, 12×24, 8.5×11, assorted note card sizes

Regular price $19.99 for 100 12×12 sheets, $14.99 at 25% off = $0.15 per 12×12 sheet

Colors: Lots available. I especially like the option of monochrome color packs with a wide range of shades/tints in them (like this Teal palette pictured above).

American Crafts Precision Cardstock

American Crafts Precision Cardstock says it’s “the best cardstock for cutting machines” (again, I believe it’s identical to the new Cricut cardstock so this claim makes sense if it’s also what Cricut’s selling).

This cardstock has a subtle woven texture and is 80-lb. weight. American Crafts claims it to be solid core, but when torn, there is some white on the inside which actually does show in your project if you have a less-than-perfect cut; this feels misleading but may or may not bother you.

Only 12×12 sheets available.

Regular price $23.49 for 60 12×12 sheets = $0.39 per 12×12 sheet*

*I don’t know how this compares to regular American Crafts cardstock/if there’s a difference, but you can get the regular cardstock from HSN for $16.95 or $0.28 per sheet.

Colors: Awesome variety of colors in each pack! They coordinate well together, making them useful for lots of projects.

Cricut – old version

Cricut’s old cardstock has a very subtle (almost flat) texture, making it sometimes difficult to tell the front from the back. The old cardstock is 80-lb. and solid core.

12×12 and 12×24 sheets available.

Regular price $11.49 for 24 12×12 sheets, $6.89 at 40% off = $0.29 per 12×12 sheet

Colors: Aside from a few clearance options still available, the old cardstock seems to be going away, sadly. In 12×12, you can still get a Basics pack (white, black, gray, cream). In 12×24, you can get Basics or Brown Tones.

Cricut – new version

Cricut’s new cardstock has a subtle woven texture (definitely easier to tell the front from the back) and is 80-lb. Again, I believe this to be identical to American Crafts Precision Cardstock, and, similarly, it claims to be solid core when it actually has some white on the inside.

These new color combo packs only come in 12×12 sheets. Pictured above, from left to right are Natural Neutrals, Jewel Tones, and Pastel. There’s also a Mermaid Melody cardstock pack with blues and purples (it was out of stock when I was making this post).

Regular price $19.99 for 48 12×12 sheets, $11.99 at 40% off = $0.25 per sheet

SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: You have to be an Access Subscriber to be able to purchase this new cardstock. As much as I absolutely love having an Access subscription and usually recommend one anyway, I think it’s in poor taste for Cricut to exclude so many customers from being able to buy physical materials to use with their machines. I honestly don’t know what their goal is there, but I don’t think it’s very cool.

Colors: More color variety than there used to be, but there are only four sampler packs with six colors in each. I do like the color combos of these, though, and they will complement each other well in projects. Colors are just slightly different than American Crafts (if you compare the pastel yellows side by side, mint green side by side, etc.).

Here’s a comparison of the old Cricut cardstock’s texture and the new (it’s hard to photograph, but hopefully you can see the difference):

Which cardstock is best for quality?

I think Cricut and American Crafts cardstock are tied for best quality. I also love the quality of the original Cricut cardstock. I think the textured cardstock feels nicer in most projects and the 80-lb. weight also lends a higher-quality feel.

However…Recollections performed better in some instances, so it could be argued that this is the higher quality paper. But for the most part, I prefer the feel of Cricut and will usually reach for that first in my crafts.

Which cardstock is best for price?

The cheapest cardstock is The Paper Studio, which comes out to $0.11 per 12×12 sheet.

2nd place is Recollections at $0.15 per sheet. Then Cricut at $0.25 per sheet and American Crafts at $0.39 per sheet.

Even though The Paper Studio is cheapest, I think the best budget cardstock overall is Recollections (I’m just not a huge fan of The Paper Studio, so I think the small price increase is worth it for a slightly higher-quality cardstock).

Note: I calculated these costs per sheet after taking into account common discounts you can find for these brands. Hobby Lobby cardstock goes on sale for 40% off every other week, I was able to get Michaels cardstock at 25% off, and Cricut at 40% off (you can get more discounts on Cricut materials with a Premium Access subscription). American Crafts is the only cardstock that doesn’t seem to go on sale so the price listed is the full price.

Which cardstock is best for color variety?

Hmm…this is a tricky question because I think all brands offer a decent amount of colors.

I think Recollections has the largest selection of colors overall. There are several multi-colored packs available, but I also really like that Recollections comes in large monochrome variety packs as well (they have a Red Palette, Pink, Orange & Yellow, Green, Blue, Teal, Purple, and Neutral).

I was actually surprised at the variety in these monochrome packs (I only purchased the Teal Palette to use in these comparisons, but it came with both bright and muted shades, which was nice). Going with Michaels cardstock may require you to invest a little more money up front to get all the colors you want, but you’d probably be set on cardstock for life if you bought each of these palette packs.

I also love American Crafts for its color selection, and despite not having maybe quite as many colors as Recollections, I think American Crafts has the best colors overall. The Bright and Pastel packs I bought each have 15 different colors in them, and the colors coordinate very well together. I feel like the color selection is less tacky/bright than some of the Recollections and therefore more useful.

I love the new color combo packs that Cricut offers and I think they also coordinate very well together, which makes choosing colors for projects easy. Each pack only has six different colors, so the amount of colors available is lacking. If you need exact colors for projects, you may or may not be able to find them in these packs. I think I prefer Cricut’s colors to Recollections since they’re…classier, if that makes sense (the orange in the Jewel Tones pack is the only really bright/garish one). I would be thrilled if Cricut came out with a wider variety of these combo packs in the future!

As for The Paper Studio, the multipack I bought had a decent rainbow of colors, but a lot of them are bright (similar to Recollections), so certain colors won’t get used as often.

Which cardstock is best for intricate cuts?

For each brand of cardstock, I cut three sample images with intricate lines and tiny cutouts:

• #M4997646C – mandala
• #M505A4BC6 – butterfly
• #M456C89CF – flower butterfly

I cut all of these on the “Cardstock for intricate cuts” setting (your Cricut machine will cut over each design twice).

I was surprised that Recollections performed the best on these intricate cuts. I had to pop some pieces out by hand that were still attached in one corner, but I had to do that with every brand actually. Recollections was the only cardstock where the tiny holes in the flower butterfly cut through all the way.

Both the new Cricut cardstock and the American Crafts tore a little on the back as I peeled the pieces away from the mat (I think my mat was too new). I feel like these papers are great if the cut goes all the way through, but they seem more fragile if it doesn’t (they perform great on less detailed cuts).

The old Cricut cardstock did fairly well, but still not as good as Recollections did on the more intricate parts. There was one small area that tore/separated into layers when I removed it from the mat (again, I think it was a mat problem, not a cardstock problem), but this was less tearing than the new Cricut and American Crafts cardstock. I would say the old Cricut cardstock placed second for intricate cuts.

The Paper Studio had the most tearing and dragging. I would definitely want to redo the flower butterfly if I were using it in a project, so I wouldn’t choose this cardstock for intricate projects.

Which cardstock is best for scoring?

To test how well these cardstock brands scored, I made a few more of my spring flower favor boxes. All brands of cardstock scored successfully (meaning it was easy to fold the paper on the scored lines). But they also all cracked to some extent on the folds.

The Paper Studio was the worst and definitely looked the cheapest after folding (and the box just felt more flimsy than the others).

I would say American Crafts and the new Cricut cardstock were next, with noticeable cracking. And this is mostly because these cardstocks aren’t what I consider solid core so you might see a little white when the cardstock cracks, making the edges appear “fuzzy”. However, these boxes still felt nicer/sturdier with the higher-quality texture and heavier weight.

The old Cricut cardstock also cracked and appeared worn after opening/closing the box a few times.

So, finally, I think I would rate Recollections as the best for scoring: it had minimal cracking and the folded edges looked more crisp than the others.

Which cardstock is best for drawing with Cricut pens?

All brands of cardstock did really well with Cricut pens (I used a 0.4 fine point pen and a 1.0 gel pen for each sample). Sometimes the textured cardstock can create tiny gaps in drawn designs, but it was so minor that I’m not even going to consider that here. I think you’re safe to use any of these papers with Cricut pens!

(I should’ve chosen a darker gel pen for the old Cricut cardstock so it would show up better in the photo, but I promise it drew as well as the others.)

Get my Father’s Day card project in Design Space HERE.

Which cardstock is best for foiling?

Cricut cardstock (both old and new) and American Crafts are best for foiling. I think the original Cricut cardstock with the slightly more subtle texture gives the very best result, but it may just be that the foiling is more legible on a less textured cardstock.

Recollections and The Paper Studio were both awful for foiling, with The Paper Studio being the worst. I don’t think it’s worth even trying to foil on these papers! The foil doesn’t transfer well and you get a lot more fallout between your design. I even did these brands twice to see if it was just me not getting the foil straight enough or something, but, nope, poor results both times.

(These Happy Birthday tags were made with silver foil and the medium tip.)

Which cardstock is best for paper flowers?

Rolled flowers

Right off the bat, I will say that The Paper Studio is probably not a great option for rolled flowers since the cardstock tore when cutting, with the blade dragging the cardstock on the mat. I even cut a second flower to be sure and the same thing happened. I was still able to salvage the flowers by hand-trimming the torn part, but obviously that’s not what we want. You may be able to avoid this by making bigger flowers (so the curves aren’t as sharp when cutting), but either way I’d avoid The Paper Studio.

All the other cardstock brands cut fine (I used a used LightGrip mat here instead of the sticky StandardGrip one I was having trouble with previously).

I will admit I’m an amateur at rolling flowers. I probably man-handled them a little too much, so the smooth carsdtock petals (The Paper Studio and Recollections) got a little crushed.

My favorite flowers ended up being the textured cardstocks (old or new Cricut and American Crafts). I think they held up just a little better being a thicker weight cardstock.

But, honestly, all the flowers turned out well. If I were making a lot of rolled flowers for a shadow box or other large project, I might just choose the cheapest cardstock that doesn’t tear when cutting.

You can get these flowers in Design Space HERE.

Stacked flowers

For fun, I also made some marigold flowers that are made by layering or stacking multiple flowers instead of rolling. Each layer is the same size and each flower used 10 layers (I recommend between 8 and 10).

I didn’t have any problems with any of the brands cutting these flowers.

After assembling the marigolds, I think I prefer the smooth cardstock (either Recollections or The Paper Studio). This is totally personal preference, but I just think the textured cardstock creates a lot more shadows and for some reason I didn’t like those flowers as much (even though I just recommended the opposite for rolled flowers…I realize this doesn’t make sense at all, haha).

You may prefer the textured, so it’s up to you! The good news is that any cardstock should work great for flowers like these.

You can get my marigold project in Design Space HERE.

Which cardstock is best for larger than mat projects?

Larger than mat projects are exactly as it sounds: projects that end up being larger than the maximum mat cutting size. Here’s a larger-than-mat dinosaur I made for my son’s 4th birthday (it’s almost 4 feet tall):

For Explore and Maker machines, the maximum cutting size is 11.5 x 23.5 inches on a 12×24 inch mat. To create projects larger than this (to make posters, large birthday decorations, etc.), you have to slice the project in Design Space to fit the mat size, then assemble the pieces together afterwards.

The best cardstock for larger than mat projects will be any 12×24 inch cardstock or larger (at least for your large background pieces). Cricut only offers 12×24 inch cardstock in Basics and Brown Tones, so I usually use a combination of Cricut and Recollections cardstock.*

The easiest way to make larger than mat projects would be with a Cricut Venture machine, which has a maximum cut size of 23.75 x 27.75 inches on a 24×28 inch mat. Depending how big you want your final project, you may not even need to slice pieces in Design Space beforehand.

Cricut offers large size cardstock specifically for the Venture, in 13×25 and 24×28 sizes. You could use this cardstock with Explore and Maker machines, you would just have to cut it smaller to fit a 12×24 inch mat (and because this material is so much more expensive, I prefer to just use Recollections to fill in the colors I need).

*I actually found Cricut 12×24 cardstock cheaper at $0.44 per sheet. Recollections 12×24 cardstock was $0.50 per sheet.

What’s the best white cardstock?

A common question I see in Cricut Facebook groups is what is the best white cardstock (usually, someone is complaining that intricate cuts are not working on their current white cardstock or the paper is getting torn and dragged).

I have never had a problem cutting the original white Cricut cardstock. If you are having issues with your current white cardstock, I suggest giving this a try! You can see how flawlessly it cut the white lace decoration for my flower box favors (I used the “Cardstock for intricate cuts” setting).

Which cardstock will I buy again?

Out of the cardstock brands I tested, I will most likely buy Cricut and Recollections cardstock again (it’ll mostly depend on which colors I need to replenish or add to my craft supplies).

I will most likely not buy American Crafts again because it’s just too expensive. And definitely not The Paper Studio because it’s just poor quality.

The best cardstock for paper crafting

I hope this post answered some of your questions about cardstock brands and you’re able to find a favorite go-to for your Cricut projects!

Need some crafting inspiration? Check out all my Cricut paper crafts HERE.

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