We've been in the laser cut card game for a while now (18 years and counting), and I'd like to think that we've learned a thing or two about creating high quality luxury cards. Sadly, we've also seen our fair share of shoddy work (not created by us, obvs).
As conscientious card creators, we put a lot of effort into making sure that our cards are the most luxurious of luxury laser cut cards. That means quality, quality, and more quality.
Today we're sharing our top tips on how to spot a genuinely high quality laser cut greetings card, because actually, not all cards are created equal.
Why Does Quality Matter With Laser Cut Cards?
Trust us when we say that quality is super important when it comes to luxury laser cut cards. A high quality laser cut greetings card will be crisp, clean and cut perfectly. High quality laser cut cards are perfect keepsakes, designed to stand the test of time. Renowned for bringing happy tears to the recipients, they are often kept in memory boxes or put in frames, treasured for many years after the event. These are the sorts of greetings cards that you give to your nearest and dearest when you want the card to feel like an experience in itself. And if you aren't giving a physical gift, (e.g. if you're giving them money instead), then you want the card to be the main event, a showstopper, if you will.
But an inferior laser cut card is not designed to last. Often made as cheaply as possible and therefore sold at a lower price, they just don't have the same impact. A poor quality laser cut card will probably be burnt and brown around the edges and, well, just a bit flimsy. This is not the look you want when it's one of your favourite human's biggest life events and you want them to know how much you care.
And let's not forget about the moral and environmental stance here- a general rule for life is that when the quality isn't there, you can probably bet that the product has not been made fairly, ethically or sustainably. Of course, this is a pretty sweeping generalised statement, and it won't always be the case, but it's something to be aware of.
But how do you tell the difference between a high quality laser cut card and a poorly made one?
There are ALWAYS clues. Generally, poorer quality laser cut cards are much cheaper, usually cut on thin white card, they often have burn marks on them and sometimes the design itself can be a giveaway because they are clearly copies of original art.
Let's dive in...
Good Work Isn't Cheap, Cheap Work Isn't Good
The most obvious clue that the quality is not up to scratch is the price tag. Have you ever heard the saying, "Good work isn't cheap, cheap work isn't good"? That saying exists for a reason, and you really do get what you pay for.
Let's do a little comparison...
Our laser cut cards currently cost £5.75 for a personalised A6 sized card, plus postage. Of course, we are VAT registered, so immediately 20% of that cost is VAT (£1.15). Materials cost approximately 80p (we say approximately because it can go up or down depending on the paper colour). The time it takes to draw, cut and make each card varies, but on average, the cost of paying our staff a fair wage for this time comes to £3.25 per card. Those of you doing the maths here will see that we are up to a grand total of £5.20 so far, leaving a whopping 55p to cover the cost of ever increasing electricity, studio rent, design time, the cost of any errors or waste materials, laser cutter costs (buying the £20k machines plus maintaining them), website fees, accountants fees, studio waste collection, a workplace coffee habit and a modest amount of profit. Ouch.
Yet somehow, it is possible to buy a non-personalised laser cut card for 89p from a well known Chinese website, and some UK-based Etsy sellers are selling personalised A5-sized laser cut cards for £3.99 (that's twice the size of an A6 card).
How is this possible when our most basic costs for a personalised A6 card come to £5.20?
My Spidey senses are telling me that some corners may have been cut, somewhere...
Luxury Cardstock vs. Cheaper Materials
On the subject of cost-cutting, a poorer quality laser cut card might be made from a thinner, cheaper cardstock. If you want to geek out on paper weights, take a read of this article which explains all about paper weights. And if you don't want to read that, here's the cheat-sheet: the higher the number gsm, the thicker the card or paper. 80gsm is your average printer paper thickness, and 300gsm is a thick, high quality card stock.
Anything less than 300gsm is, in our eyes, too thin. The problem with opting for a thinner cardstock is that when a large proportion of the front of the card is cut away, the card can become very flimsy. And it doesn't take a genius to work out that a flimsy card just won't stay standing on a mantelpiece.
Another card thing to look out for is the phrase 'FSC certified'. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council. FSC certified means products that come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits. It is considered the global "gold standard" for sustainable forestry, verified by independent third parties.
Our cards are made from 300gsm, FSC certified cardstock, by the way.
Burn Baby, Burn
And while we're talking about card quality, let's discuss the elephant in the room- burnt edges.
When cards are cut by a laser, the intense heat from the laser rapidly melts, burns, or vaporizes the material, cutting highly precise shapes. This means that scorching can be a big problem.
The worst offenders when it comes to scorch marks are natural, coated or laminated cardstocks. Cards made with natural, unbleached, or fibrous materials (like Kraft) contain woody lignin and sap, which burn and char easily. Coated, laminated, or brightly dyed cards contain synthetic resins and pigments that melt, vaporize, and leave thick, dark smoke residues on the surface of the card.
And brilliant white card can often cut perfectly, but over time it will turn a disgusting yellow colour around laser cut edges.
White card edges turn yellow after laser cutting because the intense heat caramelizes the natural sugars (lignin) and adhesives in the paper. As time passes, oxidation causes these leftover microscopic burn residues to darken and yellow, especially when exposed to oxygen and UV light.
So when shopping for a high quality laser cut card that will look good for longer, avoid white cards, and definitely don't buy something that has already got visible brown or yellow patches around the cutting.
During our 18 years of laser cutting experience, we have refined our process and carefully sourced our cardstock to minimise the scorching and yellowing. I'm not going to lie, it became a bit of an obsession for a few years. We tried and tested all the cards we could find; those of you who have been with us since the early days will remember when we offered our cards in a whole load of colours. That was what we like to refer to as 'the great cardstock experiment'. After much testing, we finally settled on a beautiful, slightly metallic, cream-coloured, FSC certified, 300gsm cardstock.
Accuracy: It's all in the Details
Another clue that a laser cut card is not as high quality as it could be is in the design itself. If the design is not in the right place on the card (i.e. not central, uneven or wonky), this shows a lack of attention to detail. Perhaps the border around the design feels 'off', or maybe the top and bottom of the design don't quite match the side borders.
The design might look really thin and impossibly delicate (but not in a visually appealing way)- almost as if the designer has used a generic clip art image and turned it quickly into a laser cut using a bit of auto-trace wizardry. Perhaps it looks like they've added in a bunch of awkward joining shapes to make a quick, thrown together collection of vectors hold together when cut out (spoiler alert- they probably have). These are all things I've seen in shops and online over the last two decades, and they make me feel a sadness that is equal to the sadness I feel when I see AI-generated 'art'.
A high quality laser cut design will be considered, thought out and perfectly composed. There will be a consistency in the design style that shows that it was all created by one single human artist. The designer will have taken their time to create a product that is well-balanced and unique. One object will flow seamlessly into the next, no joining struts or generic clip arts required. Each line will be carefully considered. Each object will be drawn with purpose and intention. There will be no awkward, ugly blank spaces or areas that just don't feel right.
Fonts will have been carefully selected to contribute to the overall aesthetic of the design. Perhaps that means choosing something script-based, swirly or decorative. It might also mean that the text is not sitting on a straight line, for example, if it is text on a ribbon or banner, it should curve and flow with the shape of the object it sits on.
There will usually be one main focal point in the design, and everything else is there to work alongside that main thing, not compete against it. In good design, everything serves a purpose - to direct the eye and guide the viewer on a journey around the page.
Sadly, there are copies of our work out there at a much cheaper price. They use elements from our original designs that they have clearly auto-traced, and then carelessly plonked amongst a whole load of other traced elements. These copies break my heart; not only are they committing theft by using my original hand drawn images, but they have obviously created something in such a slapdash, haphazard kind of fashion and said to themselves, "yep, that'll do." So designs that look very similar to a design by another seller, particularly if they are much cheaper, are a big red flag for me.
Envelopes
Envelopes are a huge giveaway about the quality of the card. I know what you're thinking, an envelope is just the packaging, surely it's not that important?
But first impressions count.
Envelopes should be thick enough paper that the card doesn't show through, and, ideally, should have a peel and seal fastening so that the sender doesn't have to lick the envelope (gross).
Cheap envelopes will be thin and flimsy, and will probably be the lick-and-stick variety.
We use 120gsm paper, peel and seal cream envelopes for a proper luxury feel that matches the card perfectly.
The Clues Are There - How Product Photography Reveals All
When you're standing in a shop, actually holding the physical item, you can see for yourself whether there are burn marks, or how thick the card and envelope are, but when you're buying something online, it can feel like a risk. How do you trust that what you're buying is top-notch, quality merch?
The photos of the item are a big hint. Of course, read the description, look out for card gsm and phrases like 'FSC certified', and 'peel and seal envelope', but look closely at the images as well.
Are the images all computer-generated mock ups? Instead of a physical shoot of a real life product, sellers create mock ups by overlaying their artwork onto professionally shot background photos using templates (or, in some cases, stolen images from other businesses - we've seen our photographs stolen and used with images of another company's designs placed on top of our cards).
If they've used entirely mock up images in the listing, that's a red flag for me. It means that the actual design has not been cut and tested by the business. It's all about speed, quantity and convenience for the company, not about what the customer might actually want to see.
Look for variations in shots- are the cards at different angles, in different positions, shown with different examples of personalisation? Does the card fit properly into its surrounding, or does it look 'plonked' and out of proportion? Are there any close up images?
If someone can't be bothered to properly photograph their product to show customers what they are really buying, how can you be sure that the quality is there?!
Final Thoughts
As someone who has actively chased quality in the laser cut card game for 18 years so far, I've literally seen every cost-cutting trick in the book. I've seen many paper cut card companies come and go, and they usually fail because of one thing- their products lack the quality that their customers desire.
What I'm trying to say is that if you are buying a card for a big life event for a favourite human in your life, quality matters. It sets your card apart from all the other cards they'll receive, making yours memorable and meaningful.
High quality laser cut cards make a huge impact on the recipient. It's why we receive reviews like these on a daily basis:
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