I can’t believe this is my 100th post! In appreciation of YOU, my lovely readers, I would like to have a giveaway! Simply leave a comment telling me what your favorite post was on SewTrashy and/or what you’d like to see more of in the future. There’s no right or wrong answers here, just want to hear what YOU enjoy.

The giveaway package will have several handmade surprises that I’ll keep secret for now, but also I’ll throw in a pack of my Gocco Printed notecards (your choice). Check out my Etsy Shop to wet your appetite!!

I will pick a winner at random Monday, June 29th at 5:00pm! Start posting and spread the word!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you and enjoy your weekend!

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY ETSY SHOP >>>

Well, this past weekend was my (our) first craft show. I would not call it a complete success, however it was a great learning experience and proved to myself I can do it! In that sense, I would say we were successful. First off, the show was only about 30 vendors in this Ukrainian Catholic Church. Most of the people that came (all 150 or so) were quite older, and just didn’t seem to be interested in purchasing anything! Not from me, not from any of the vendors. It was beyond slow, but like I said before, the experience was a good one. I am now prepared to take on another show, to put myself out there again and again.
 

Dustin was incredibly supportive through the whole process, telling me how proud he was of me over and over… especially during the two days we sat behind our completely dead booth listening to what sounded like Ukrainian Ska music on one side of the room and Carribean Steel drums on the other… yes, it was interesting to say the least. So, again, we’ll chalk this one up on the side of experience. 

Here are some photos from the weekend. And oh, did I mention? My cousin got me into a show this Friday at an Art Gallery, hopefully more of our crowd. We will see how that one goes! Enjoy! 

My “wibits” and a tshirt pillow. We sold one of the plaid guys.
Made from an old pair of Dustin’s pants. The others are made from
thrifted or donated old fleece blankets.
 

Close up of the Wibits.
My little sister wants this one. 

My $5 Display rack from local thrift shop.
Gave it a quick coat of white, looks good as new.
I think it was originally used to house sewing patterns. 
 

Detail shot on the display rack and cards. 
 

Extra Gocco cards for sale. Picked up the blue metal container
for .69 cents at my local thrift store. I have another matching
SUGAR one that is quite larger for .99 cents. I love the color.
 

One of my new designs I created for a Gocco Swap.
I love this one so much. I think I’ll make it into a tshirt!
 

Make these from glass chips and magazine/junk mail clippings and a little felt.  

Detail of one of the shirt designs.
 

 Tiered Dessert Tray I made from thrifted and donated vintage items.
 

This is what I first saw when I walked into the church. LOTS of sausages.
 

LUNCH! Those potato ravioli type things were SO YUMMY! Pyrohys? 
 

Dustin thoroughly enjoyed every bit of his food. 
Isn’t his hat great?  
 

I’m excited for the next show. I hope things pick up. I did get a lot of great feedback from other wonderful vendors at this show, so that was very encouraging. Oh, did I mention, we definitely spent more at the show than we made! But that’s ok. We found some great vintage items. I’ll share those next week. Until then… HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! 

I am so excited for this swap, my very first! I want to keep my design a suprise for the others involved so I can only give you this little sneak peek. Can I just say I LOVE my metallic gold ink. I didn’t think I would like it, but I DO! I’m so pleased with how the print turned out. Can’t wait to show you!

However, I am not happy with the paper I ended up using. I could NOT for the life of me find good quality heavy BLANK postcards… ANYWHERE! GR! Not even Kinko’s would sell me their postcards unless I had something printed on them. Oh well. Can’t change it now. I’ve printed about 70 of them in addition to over 50 notecards. Yes, shop update after the 1st!! 

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? 

Enjoy!! And, thanks for looking! 

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!

My cousin and I at Kings Dominion. 1988

I was flipping through some old photos yesterday with my little sister (she is 9.) and we came across this photo of my cousin, Amanda and myself from 1988. My sister says, “Who is that?” I answer, “That’s me and Amanda.” She says, “No, who is that person dressed up as?” My jaw dropped! I can’t believe she didn’t know what a SMURF was! That’s like… her not knowing who Spongebob is! Suddenly, I realized… I’m getting old!

Alright, alight… I know I’m not THAT old yet… I turned 26 today, but I will say it was quite an eye opener to know that my childhood is fading away… faster than I want it to! I know that the future holds some wonderful things, but it is always a little sad to finally realize you are an adult. However, who says I have to act like one!! 

Happy Birthday to me!!

The biggest thing I am thankful for on this birthday day… my wonderful, adoring husband who loves me enough to buy me my very first Gocco!! Now, if I can just figure out how to use it.