Hello Gocco.

For my birthday last year, the boy bought me a gocco, and my very generous coworkers bought my supplies. I was SO excited and thankful. I knew that I wanted to make our invites, save the dates, programs, and various other cards with the gocco, so I was super happy that I received it as a present.
Fast forward to today, in which gocco is no longer being produced and supplies are running out fast. I've recently just stocked up on supplies, but I'm worried they won't last me. I have to make the most of what I have. I do think I have enough for our wedding, I just need the paper. And the design.
I plan to hand write and illustrate our invites, so I practiced today by making a "hello" postcard. I had a disastrous first gocco experience in which I used up three screens and somehow got red paint all over my arms. It was not fun trying to clean off that red ink.

BUT I'm proud to report that today's go was much more successful! I was prepared with paint remover, q-tips, and a squeegee (aka, an old rewards card.)

I'm excited to design our wedding paper stuffs now, it should {hopefully} be fun!


[Here's my original all strapped and ready to be made into a screen. I just drew the flowers and wrote "hello" with the carbon pen. This is the point where I quickly hopped on the computer and watched a gocco tutorial just in case, especially after my disastrous gocco trial last summer.]

[Here's the finished product in gold ink! Yay it worked!]

[A close up of the text]

[A close up of the flowers]

[Some duds that are missing ink in several areas, and I tried it on yellow but didn't love it.]

This Book Belongs To:

[Bird Lovers Bookplate by turtlepapers; Dandelion Bookplate by TayloredArts; Hearts Bookplate by onegoodbumblebee]

When I was little, totin' around a bunch of books in my Keroppi backpack, I used to stick a bookplate in all of my books. It had a little polar bear reading, and I got a lot of joy out of writing my name on one. I'm a little possessive.

Now that it's been almost 2 weeks since my last Gocco project, I'm starting to contemplate my next one: bookplates! I don't know what direction I want to go in for the design, but I'm thinking I'd like to be adventurous and try, possibly, maybe, TWO (gasp!) colors instead of one! I'm also not sure where I can find nice labels/adhesive paper without going to Staples, although maybe that's not a bad idea in case I mess up on really nice paper...

...wish me luck!

My First Gocco Experience

[My first Gocco project. A little smudged, but totally handmade by yours truly!]

On Saturday, I spent the whole day playing with my Gocco with hyperartpro! I now have 25 birthday cards, but it was a long (but fun!) 6 hours to get to that point. And next time I print, I'll be a little wiser about the whole process.

This is what I learned from the day:

[Burning a screen, attempt #1. Please let this work. Shoot. It didn't work.]

[Me tracing after my first failed attempt at burning a screen]

1) The photocopier at the library does not make dark enough photocopies. Note to self: adjust saturation on copier so that photocopies come out darker.

2) If photocopies are not up to par, using the handy-dandy carbon pen that comes with Gocco kit is a piece-o-cake.

[My second failed attempt at burning a screen]

3) Don't cry after you've wasted 6 bulbs and 2 screens without any luck of successfully burning a screen! Take a deep breath and remove the blue filter that the instructions told you to use! Next time you will know better! Really!

[Red ink! All over the place!]

4) Expect your hands and arms to look like you've been stung by thousands of bees if using red ink. This may only occur if you're lucky enough, like myself, to be a messy crafter. Make as many jokes about the red ink on your arms as many times during the night as humanly possible.

[It worked!! It really worked!!! Let's go eat dinner finally!]

5) Don't get impatient and play with wet ink. That stuff smears all over the place. ALL OVER THE PLACE.

[Hyperartpro's otter stationery. Totally cute!]

6) Gocco with a friend! Especially one who makes ADORABLE stationery with cute animals on them.

Well, aren't YOU lucky if it's your birthday soon! I have the perfect card for you. ;)

[Thanks to hyperartpro for taking all of these photos on Gocco day.]

Etsy How To: Gocco!

Thank you to hyperartpro, my gocco buddy, for showing me this video of making Valentines with a gocco. Thank you Etsy Labs for this easy to follow video!

I've been crazy busy (think bowl of cereal at midnight for dinner =P) but hopefully next week I'll have something to show!

Can't get enough of Etsy videos?? Check out Etsy's home on YouTube here.

My New Toy: the Gocco PG5

[Fun projects made with Gocco: Thank You notes; Mix Tapes print; Flora print; Loco for Gocco logo; Gocco PG-5, image from Paper Source]

Don't know what a Gocco is? Click here.

Yesterday I came home to a large box sitting at the front door. I picked up the Fedex slip and saw that it was for the boy, and then I saw the sender's address: PAPER SOURCE, CHICAGO, IL.

Heart skips a beat. Why would the boy buy something from Paper Source, if not for me?? WHAT IS INSIDE THIS BOX?? After fumbling with my backpack and purse, I bring the box inside, and I'm sitting there with the cat, and I turn to the cat and I say, "Cat, do you think we should open the box? When do you think the boy will be home so we can open the box? Can you accidentally jump on the box so that it will open? No? Ok, I guess we have to wait than."

And so we sit. And we wait. And sit some more. And we wait until MIDNIGHT until the boy finally comes home. At this point I had the box cutter in my hand ready to rip it open.

And inside, covered in white packaging peanuts was *drum roll please* the Gocco PG-5!! It is now sitting proudly on my living room floor, begging me to hop onto Illustrator and come up with something FANTASTIC to print.

I am also excited because my good friend, hyperartpro, recently got a PG-11 so we will be gocco buddies!! Now I just need a cool design and some paper and then I'm ready to go...after I figure out the instruction manual written in Japanese...

Thank you for the new toy!! I LOVE it. o_O