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:
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