Everyone thinks Thanksgiving SVGs need cardstock (chipboard cuts cleaner and here's why)
Cardstock placecards curl, chipboard doesn't. I cut 12 turkey placecards on both materials and chipboard won every single time for clean cuts and zero warping.
I wasted an entire afternoon last November cutting intricate turkey placecards on 65lb cardstock. They looked great for about 20 minutes. Then they started curling at the edges, the detail cuts frayed, and by dinner half of them were warped enough that they wouldn't stand up. This year I switched to chipboard and the difference is honestly ridiculous.
The cardstock myth nobody questions until it's too late
Here's the thing everyone gets wrong. Cardstock feels fancier, right? It's what every Thanksgiving SVG tutorial shows. But intricate cuts on cardstock do two things that wreck placecards: they fray at the cut line when there's a lot of detail (especially around feathers or leaf points), and they absorb humidity from the kitchen and curl within an hour of cutting.
Chipboard cuts cleaner because the blade shears through compressed fiber instead of slicing layered paper pulp. The edges stay crisp. And chipboard doesn't react to humidity the way cardstock does, so your placecards stay flat from the time you cut them until your uncle asks why his name is misspelled.
What chipboard actually looks like (and why it's not ugly)
Chipboard is the kraft-brown stuff cereal boxes are made from. It's about 1mm thick, slightly textured, and it has this warm neutral tone that honestly looks better on a Thanksgiving table than bright white cardstock. You can get 12x12 sheets at most craft stores for around 50 cents each, sometimes cheaper in multi-packs.
I use the Cricut chipboard specifically (it's in cream and natural brown), but the generic stuff from Michaels works just as well. Set your Cricut to the Chipboard setting (dial to Custom, then select Chipboard, 1.5mm or Heavy Chipboard depending on your machine). Use a deep-cut blade if you have a Maker, standard fine-point blade works on Explore machines but you'll need to do two passes.
The natural brown color means you don't have to paint or cover the material. Write names with a white gel pen or a gold paint pen and you're done. It looks intentional, not unfinished.
