Register or log in —

Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Peppermint
more by Mrs. Peppermint (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Peppermint
Mrs. Peppermint's Picture
Miss Peppermint, LA/Palm Springs Age and Occupation: 23, Actress Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Web Producer Engagement Date: October 21, 2006 Wedding Date: December 2007 Blogging Since: July 2, 2007 Venue: historic estate overlooking the heart of Palm Springs About Me: I am a Southern California native who enjoys cooking, writing, travel and all things in the arts. Mr. Peppermint and I met in college and he proposed on our four year anniversary in one of our most special places, Joshua Tree National Park. We're having a destination wedding in Palms Springs that will incorporate tradition as well as reflect our personalities!
About Mrs. Peppermint

I Heart Custom Maps

October 12th, 2007 @ 11:59 am by Mrs. Peppermint

When I saw these Couture Maps in countless magazines and blogs, I knew I wanted one. I mean, really, just look at them:

However, they are…shall we say…cost prohibitive. I really love the look of them, but I also don’t want to break the bank for them. After a few days of pouting and looking at the site for way too long, I decided to be a problem solver. Cue the Gocco.

I had bought a Gocco awhile back after reading one of Mrs. Lemon’s posts. Mr. Peppermint & I had considered making our entire invitation package but after time constraints sunk in, we opted to have the invitation and reply card made while we supplied any extra inserts. Making the custom map ourselves would add a great personal touch as well as save us a considerable amount of money.

Since this was our first Gocco project, I was extremely relieved that our gocco came with a cd (in English!) that explained how it worked–otherwise we would’ve been lost. So, we opened it up and got started…


First you set your design down before closing the machine and pushing down (to flash the bulbs and burn the image onto the screen)


Next you remove the screen (with image burned on) and apply ink between the plastic film & screen, making sure not to touch or rub the screen with the tip of the ink tube (very important!)…

You place the inked up screen back in the Gocco, put a test piece of paper where the original drawing had been and push it closed (squishing the ink–the best part!)…


We did it in two colors that overlapped, so here’s Mr. Peppermint inking the second layer…

After a night of Gocco fun, we had our maps ready to go. I must say that it wasn’t as hard or time-consuming as I thought it would be (we made about 100) and I’m so glad we did it ourselves! Had we been Gocco pros I think we would have been wiser about how to line it up properly (a few have the colors overlapping too much), but I kind of like the personal touch it gives.

Here’s what we came up with:

Tags: , , |   Link for this post | Share this post: I Heart Custom Maps      
Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Peppermint
more by Mrs. Peppermint (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Peppermint
advertisement below

21 Responses to “I Heart Custom Maps”

1.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Jasmine (message)  1,154 posts, Bumble bee

Ahh, so cute! I love it. I’ve always been a big fan of Couture Maps, but couldn’t get over the price. This is an awesome alternative and adds such a sweet personal touch.

 
2.
Mrs. Bird of Paradise
Bee
Mrs. Bird of Paradise (message)  297 posts, Helper bee

thanks for posting this! i’ve been so curious about how gocco works!

 
3.
Member Icon
Member
Maegan (message)  272 posts, Helper bee

Your maps are soooo cute!! I love that personal touch. I’ve been thinking about our maps and what to do, you’ve inspired me. I think I need to get a Gocco and try my hand at cute maps. Thanks for the great post!

 
4.
Member Icon
Member
e (message)  70 posts, Worker bee

i want to gocco so badly but it looks sooo hard~!!

i also want to do these kind of couture maps (and i think i could achieve it on illustrator)..problem is that our guests will be coming from all areas of nyc to long island and our church and reception site aren’t quite close enough to do a cutesy map like this i don’t think :/

 
5.
Guest Icon
Guest
ladyjeni

Question. Did you print out two screens. One for the black the other for the green?

Thanks!

 
6.
Guest Icon
Guest
Nadine

where did you buy your Gocco? and what model did you get?

 
7.
Guest Icon
Guest
Tea

again with the gocco cuteness…i want one now. lol. the maps look cute. great work

 
8.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Peppermint (message)  81 posts, Worker bee

ladyjeni - I did do two screens, though I should mention that with Gocco, you can do more than one color on the same screen. We chose not to because our two colors were very close to each other (and since this was our first Gocco experience, we wanted to make sure it worked!!)

e - I was a bit intimidated by Gocco as well, but I must say that it was surprisingly easy (especially with the English instructional CD). We bought ours through welsh products (http://www.welshproducts.com/) and it came with the CD.

 
9.
Guest Icon
Guest
Kat

Great Job Miss Peppermint! Bravo!

 
10.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Tulip (message)  615 posts, Busy bee

Those are adorable!

And thanks for the mini Gocco tutorial. I ordered one from Japan via Ebay (and the mail is taking FOREVER!), so there won’t be any instructions with mine….. In other words, the more I see of the process, the better!!

 
11.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Chickadee (message)  208 posts, Helper bee

Very cute Miss Peppermint!

 
12.
Member Icon
Member
Luzl (message)  25 posts, Newbee

Great job, Ms Peppermint!

I love those couture maps too, but not so much the price :( So I searched high and low for someone who can do something similar for me. Luckily, I stumbled upon an etsy artist(http://vcad.etsy.com) to do a custom artwork without breaking the bank. And I’m soooo happy with how they turned out!!!

 
13.
Guest Icon
Guest
rzblna

Thanks for the tutorial, I always wondered how they worked. It’s not as intimidating as it seems.

 
14.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Violet (message)  255 posts, Helper bee

Very cool, so cute!

 
15.
Guest Icon
Guest
Lori

Ladies, I too Gocco and one of the most important steps is to make sure your image is a xerox. The carbon form the xerox is what allows the image to be transferred to the high mesh screen. I learned this thru trial and error, but Gocco is such a cool machine!!!

 
16.
Guest Icon
Guest
karebearlbc

My sister saw that in countless mags to and made me do one for her wedding. I did it in Illustrator! It’s really fun and you can get creative with it too!

 
17.
Member Icon
Member
nancEE (message)  64 posts, Worker bee

Thanks for the tutorial! Which gocco model did you buy?

 
18.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Peppermint (message)  81 posts, Worker bee

nancEE & Nadine - I have the PG5 gocco which I bought from http://welshproducts.com/process/proddetail.php?prodID=G1PG5&basicID=G1PG5
(really great service & fast!)

 
19.
Guest Icon
Guest
Mrs. Bluebell

Toooo cute!!! But every time I decide I don’t REALLY need a gocco another project like this times up! GAH!!!

 
20.
Guest Icon
Guest
Techie Bride

That settles it. I’m getting one. I’ve been on the fence about the goccos for awhile, but I’ve been pining for those maps also. And you just make it look so easy. Mine!

 
21.
Guest Icon
Guest
My

I am so jealous… I want a Gocco machine.

 


You can also just...

Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Peppermint
more by Mrs. Peppermint (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Peppermint
Visit our sister sites Project Wedding
Wedding Songs
eHarmony Advice
Dating Advice
JustMommies
Pregnancy Calendar
Fertile Thoughts
Infertility Support
Copyright 2004-2009, eHarmony, Inc., Advertise
 


Sponsors
Mrs. Peppermint
Mrs. Peppermint Miss Peppermint, LA/Palm Springs Age and Occupation: 23, Actress Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Web Producer Engagement Date: October 21, 2006 Wedding Date: December 2007 Blogging Since: July 2, 2007 Venue: historic estate overlooking the heart of Palm Springs About Me: I am a Southern California native who enjoys cooking, writing, travel and all things in the arts. Mr. Peppermint and I met in college and he proposed on our four year anniversary in one of our most special places, Joshua Tree National Park. We're having a destination wedding in Palms Springs that will incorporate tradition as well as reflect our personalities!
Weddingbee PRO
 
Boards
 
Classifieds
 

Blog Calendar
November 2009
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930

Weddingbee Bios
Wiki
More