True Colors

Deep blues, shiny golds, subdued browns, bright greens. Elegant Scribbles clients love colored paper stock for their invitation envelopes and place cards. One third to one half of our projects involve writing on colorful paper. The results are beautiful and striking but present a different set of problems from those using black ink on ivory stationery.

There's a knack to writing on colored paper stock, and it takes some trial and error to find the right ink for all the variations. Dark, rich colors often absorb ink - even paint pens - so that what might look fine as you're writing, quickly disappears to faint, unreadable markings. Metallic papers can do the same. A black Sharpie should write on anything, right? Nope. Many golds, silvers, and bronzes soak up even a bold Sharpie.

But take heart! There are inks for every paper stock. However, it often requires a bit of time to match ink to paper. I spend lots of time at Sam Flax testing pens on colored envelopes and place cards. The brightness of the ink on the paper, absorbability, whether the ink dries quickly or smears or bleeds are the main things that have to be tested on colored or metallic paper stock.

So keep that in mind as you choose your invitation stationery. And remember to give yourself or whoever will be addressing your envelopes and writing your place cards time to find just the right ink for your paper.