Holiday Cards

This is the first year Ihave been organized enough to print cards to sell in my Etsy shop.  It sounds pretty straightforward....

I bought a new photo printer last spring, and was thinking about card and calendar production the whole time. 

I made calendars for family and close friends last year, and was quite happy with the result.  I printed them on some great cotton paper. 
When I went to print cards to sell last week, however, the pre-cut and sized cards I had purchased seemed to wick up the printer ink, and the colors came out dull.  It seemed the same on regular cardstock, which is what I usually have printed on.
I had some high quality matte presemntation paper that the colors came out positively glowing, but it isn't stiff enough for cards.

I did some research, and saw that some artists are printing their cards on linen textured cover stock -- I guess a trip to Staples is in order!!!

Meanwhile, I printed some small versions of my seasonal artwork, and have them in my shop.....