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?