Back in June my husband bought me Lotta Prints as an early birthday present. I was so excited to try making my own stamps. I had already tried my hand at potato stamping an old skirt several months earlier. (I must have remembered the idea subconsciously somehow… from somewhere, who knows?!) Anyway… I was having a lot of fun making my own stamps, but yesterday I finally got around to trying some prints and they just were horrid. Maybe the fabric paint I used combined with the old pillowcase I tried to print on. I don’t know. It was a sad day overall. However, I did manage to make a dress! I will share that soon. 

I’m bummed. I’ve had really great results with my Gocco until today. (Not the Gocco’s fault, mind you.) It’s frustrating that changing factors disrupt your results. However, I get it. I know when you change something you are almost guaranteed to run into a snag, especially with printing.

This first card was supposed to be something to make my husband happy. Instead, he’s lost all hope for his design to EVER be brought to reality. You see, we attempted screen printing this for T-shirts one afternoon with total and utter failure So, trying to be an encouraging wife I suggested we print the design onto some cards since I have had such great success. (He wants to send people encouraging notes.) Hmm, hopelessness soon set in once he saw the design was stuck (more than usual) to the screen. I always get a little stick-age between my design and the screen after it is exposed, but this was crazy… parts of the paper were fused to the screen. So sad. I will try again in hopes of boosting Dustin’s ego. 

Since, I had bad luck with the first print, I decided to draw something with my RISO pen. Some Horse chestnut leaves actually. I thought cropped the right way might look really pretty on a crisp white card. I traced over a drawing I had done this weekend and filled in the leaves with my pen. I, then, laid white paper under the trace to make sure the print would come out well. Hmm, disappointment … again. I’m not sure if the heat from the bulbs reacted with the tracing paper, or if the paper didn’t give me good coverage with the pen. Either way, it did not come out the way I had hoped. And, I definitely inked the screen VERY well. Gr! Do I give up or try again? 

One last shot with the Gocco. Thankfully, I had written out a little something to go on the backs of my cards and burned it into the same screen with the leaves. Hallelujah! It worked. It’s little bit less than crisp (which I have a hard time accepting with my anal-retentive nature when it comes to my designs), BUT I actually am quite happy with it. Maybe it makes it a little more “real”, reinforcing that “handmade quality” that I love. I’m happy to have something to finish off the cards by adding this information and my mark. 

Although I wouldn’t call this a successful day of printing, I’m happy it wasn’t a total bust. Did I mention Gocco printing on your couch results in…. green ink on your couch? 

Two new card designs now for sale in my shop.  

Enjoy!! And, thanks for looking! 

Just wanted to share 2 new Gocco cards with you. Printed these Friday of last week. I’m really happy with how these turned out. They should be up for sale in the shop by the end of the week! (Please excuse the photos, they are not the best)

Here they are, drying on my patio table that is currently in the kitchen… hm, long story… moving into a much smaller place. You know how that goes.
 

“Hello Love” is pretty straightforward. I made this design while flying home from San Francisco.
 

“Tank You” was inspired by my little sister, Amaris. She wanted to draw something that I could use on the Gocco (she thought it was so cool) So, I asked her to make something for a thank you card. She accidentally wrote “Tank You” so I had her draw a tank that I ended up modifying and simplifying to use for this card! I love how it turned out. 

The only thing I want to change is to modify the cards to have rounded corners. I bought a corner punch that I thought would work, but it ended up being more ornate than I realized. I thought it was just a rounded corner… not so! Ah, well, I’ll keep searching. Until then, you’ll have pokey corners! :) 

I am very proud to sale that yesterday I set up my Etsy shop and made my VERY FIRST SALE!!! HUGE, ENORMOUS THANKS goes out to Jessie for being my very first customer!! She is now the proud owner of my first set of Gocco printed notecards! I just stocked up on more supplies so there will be many more Gocco cards up for sale soon as well as some other handmade goods! Check back for my shop updates.

AHH!! I’m so excited! Now off to make a little something extra to send out with Jessie’s cards!  

My first Gocco print.

For my birthday this year I received my first Gocco machine from my fabulous husband. Honestly, although I was so excited to start printing, I have been very intimidated by that little machine. I have seen all of the wonderful things others have been creating and psyching myself out a bit. Not sure if I would be able to create something I’d be happy with. 
 

The inks. How pretty!
 

Well, I got up the nerve last night to try it out. Armed with a plethora of inks and ready with my photocopied design I had made earlier, I set out to attempt my first batch of note cards. I cannot even describe how excited and pleased and giddy I was as my first print was revealed!! I am so far beyond hooked to this machine! Can’t wait to create some more designs. 
 

Gocco screen after cleaning and cleaning.
 

My question to you seasoned Gocco-ers, how do I get these screens clean!!?? I’ve tried and tried to get this screen clean by using the screen cleaner, windex… blotting and blotting. However, as you can see, I couldn’t get it all off… or even half of it off! Any tips on how to clean these bad boys? Also, can I reuse this as is? I think I got all of the ink out of the design on the screen.
 

FYI: I will be putting a batch of these notecards in my Etsy shop soon! Will keep you posted!