I live about 20 miles away from any store selling paper (and I don't drive) so while it's nice to use lighter weight paper, sometimes you make do with what you have. I've used my 20lb printer paper, generic brown wrapping paper used for sending packages, and even inexpensive gift wrapping paper (I draw pattern on backside). No matter what paper I ended up using, I had very little trouble tearing the paper away as long as I used very short stitches (1.5 setting). I also run my wooden point turner down along the stitches and that helped split the paper between stitches and it tears away easily. Have fun!