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Mrs. Cream Puff, San Francisco Bay Area Age and Occupation: 25, Illustrator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Merchandise Planner Engagement Date: May 27, 2007 Wedding Date: August, 2008 Blogging Since: February 7, 2008 Venue: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception at the Green Room About Me: I never dreamed about my wedding as a little girl because I was too busy playing in the mud or pretending to be Martha Stewart–but now that it's here, I'm having a fabulous time DIYing everything in sight! We’re planning a very fun multicultural wedding (I'm Jewish and Mr. Cream Puff is Chinese), filled with as many personal details as I can muster.
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A New Skill

April 16th, 2008 @ 12:38 pm by Mrs. Cream Puff

My friend Kathy got married last year and had a beautiful wedding. Kathy is super funny, and one of her great ideas cracked me up: she decided to have cocktail napkins printed with funny facts about she and her husband-to-be. Tragedy struck, however, when they arrived one day AFTER her wedding. Stupid napkin people.

Thanks to Kathy’s genius idea and my decision not to trust anyone but myself (which is surely a serious psychological problem), I will now have custom napkins at my wedding. And so will my friend Amanda. Why? Because this weekend we used a gocco for the first time ever to print fun facts on 1300 napkins. 650 for Amanda, 650 for me.

A New Skill :  wedding diy gocco san francisco Img 865.jpg


I am not going to lie, I was a little bit (okay, a lot bit) terrified of the gocco. Tons of people have used them and raved about them. They even say that the gocco is an easy machine to use. But it looked complicated to me. I mean, you have to flash these bulbs, and I don’t get how the screen works, and all the instructions are in Japanese! How easy could this possibly be?!

The answer, my friends, is VERY easy. Well, except for the bulb part. That part takes some getting used to.

So here, in pictures, is our adventure with the gocco.

This is me, trying to arrange my fun facts in order to burn the screen. Please do not ask me how this works. I really have no idea. Actually, I am pretty sure it’s magic. So I didn’t ask any deep questions about magic or science–all I did was follow the video I found online from Paper Source.

A New Skill :  wedding diy gocco san francisco Img 8631.jpg

Burning the screen requires putting some weird bulbs (my manager told me they’re carcinogenic, which is why we’re outside–sorry, squirrels) in the top of the machine and then pushing down on the machine to make them flash. For some reason, this process terrified me. Probably for the same reason I really don’t like popping balloons–I really don’t like loud noises or bright flashes. I was convinced it would be very bright because Sue (the woman in the video) acts very surprised when her bulbs flash.

A New Skill :  wedding diy gocco san francisco Img 8641 http://www-static.weddingbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/15/img-8641.jpg

As it turns out, it was neither loud nor very bright. Although, Amanda looks very surprised for some reason!

A New Skill :  wedding diy gocco san francisco Img 864011.jpg

Okay. So our first trial with the ink did NOT go well. In fact, we both nearly freaked out and thought we were gocco failures. The ink was sort of bleeding all over the napkin, and half the words didn’t even print. It was not legible. Then we noticed that the black ink tube said, “for fabric.” Long story short, Amanda was concerned about this when she bought the ink, but the guy at the store told her it would be fine. As you can see, it was not fine:

A New Skill :  wedding diy gocco san francisco Img 8661.jpg

So we decided to try the other thing of ink we bought, which was red. It was all in Japanese, so we had no idea if it would work on paper or fabric, or neither. As it turns out, it works on paper:

A New Skill :  wedding diy gocco san francisco Img 865011.jpg

And it is BEAUTIFUL! We were so proud of ourselves! We promptly made tons of napkins. Here’s beautiful Amanda with the gocco and many, many napkins:

A New Skill :  wedding diy gocco san francisco Img 864021.jpg

All in all, this project cost us each about $50 in gocco supplies and napkins. When all is said and done, we both had 8 facts and 650 napkins. Lucky for me, I was able to borrow Paper Source’s gocco for this project, so we didn’t have to invest in one. Sadly for me, at 9am yesterday morning one of my co-workers told me that Paper Source has the gocco for sale again, and I promptly dropped about $200 bucks on a gocco and a bunch of supplies. Oops. So I guess this project cost me a teensy bit more than $50! Oh well, there are many wonderful years of printing ahead of me. Right? Right?

When I got home, I put all of my napkins in a water-proof tupperware for safe keeping. And there they will sit for the next 3.5 months. High five!

A New Skill :  wedding diy gocco san francisco Img 8661 http://www-static.weddingbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/15/img-8661.jpg

And for all the Negative Nellies out there, yes, I did check to make sure that the ink will not wipe all over my guest’s faces when they use them. And no, they will not give anyone cancer. :)

Tags: diy, gocco, san-francisco |
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55 Responses to “A New Skill”

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1.
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Bee
Miss Pineapple (message)  682 posts, Busy bee

Oh dear, posts like this make me want a gocco so badly, and a cuttlebug and a xyron! So cute Miss Cream Puff!

 
2.
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Guest
Kelly

I love the fun facts idea! My gocco is sitting on the table waiting for me to grow the balls to try it. Thanks for letting me know it’s not too hard.

What type/size font did you use to get it to come out so clear?

 
3.
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Guest
Quyen

Those turned out great!! Good job!!! Maybe I’ll have to try my hand at this gocco stuff now!!!

 
4.
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Guest
shelli

Hi Miss Cream Puff. I am also a summer San Franciscan bride to be. I love your idea! I have a gocco too but all my printing jobs are mess. I believe its the copier I am using. Anyways, can you please tell me what you used to print your random facts. Was it a laser printer or copier. I am really trying to figure this out! Any tips will help.

 
5.
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Bee
Miss Dahlia (message)  413 posts, Helper bee

Those look great!

 
6.
suzanno
Hostess
suzanno (message)  2,683 posts, Sugar bee

Fantastic! I just ordered my invitations, and so thought I had absolutely no excuse to buy a Gocco, but I am seriously rethinking that right now.

 
7.
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Member
ninanina (message)  85 posts, Worker bee

These are awesome-and you’re easing my fear of the gocco.

 
8.
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Guest
mhb

I’m still scared of it. I need to see more fun projects. :-)

 
9.
stargazerlily
Member
stargazerlily (message)  942 posts, Busy bee

I went to Miss Creampuff’s wedding and all I got was cancer.

I rove these napkins, Miss CP. Too ambitious for me!!! The personalization is so awesome!

 
10.
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Member
Jann (message)  7 posts, Newbee

Very nice! I’m including fun facts of us also but it’ll be part of the table-name cards to (hopefully) encourage conversations at the tables.

LOL @ your final comment. I went to a wedding once where the bride stamped all the napkins with regular gold ink. It did kinda freak me out and I tried to use the unstamped parts of the napkins… I’d bet THAT is hazardous to one’s health!

 
11.
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Guest
Michelle

I love that idea. C’mon Penguin….we can do that project with 53 days left. But get your rings first, and your marriage license. Then we will dive into another DIY project. :)

 
12.
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Member
brooklynbaby (message)  21 posts, Newbee

That’s it, I’m getting a Gocco.

 
13.
Miss Tiramisu
Bee
Miss Tiramisu (message)  1,098 posts, Bumble bee

I LOVE your napkins! I was going to do something similar but had recently crossed it off my DIY list because the list was getting a little long…. you might have just inspired me to put it back on!

 
14.
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Guest
jkl216

Very fun project. Thanks for sharing! I’ve been looking for other projects where I can get more use out of my gocco. I never thought about printing on napkins.

 
15.
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Member
angiepangie (message)  157 posts, Blushing bee

The napkins look great! Now I have another DIY project to add to my list.

Also, thanks for sharing that the gocco bulbs don’t flash in a scary way - that is another of my reasons for not using mine yet. I am also afraid of popping ballons and bright flashes!!

 
16.
jilian
Member
jilian (message)  783 posts, Busy bee

These tools are so versatile!! I’m glad the ‘bees’ are thinking outside the box!

My birthday is in June and I just took my mom by AC Moore to show her the cuddlebug - and various accessories I ‘need’ to go with it :) She has a 50% off coupon that’s good this Saturday - and my fingers are crossed!! (She also has instructions to buy me the fiskers rotary paper cutter with another 50% coupon - that I’m reimbursing her for though!) Ooh lala - I can’t wait to try my news toys. (Even though the wedding is over - I’ll think of some other projects!)

The gocco stills scares me a bit - but maybe one day!

I’m sad we only got to see fun fact #1 :)

 
17.
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Guest
tenfour

HAHAHA. Way to conquer your fears, girl!!! We rock.

 
18.
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Guest
Jenny

GREAT idea! Now I want to know all the other Random Facts! Your guests are going to have a great time with this creative detail!

 
19.
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Guest
wsukarebear

As a crafty mc-crafterson myself (I just blew 75 dollars at a scrapbooking store this weekend) it’s good to know the Gocco isn’t as intimidating as it looks…I might have to invest, yet! :-)

GREAT money saving (kind of!) and personalized tip! GREAT job! :-)

 
20.
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Guest
JenniferB

Very cute! And as for your friend whose napkins came a day late…at least you could re-use random fact napkins instead of the regualr wedding napkins. I love this idea!

 
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Mrs. Cream Puff
Mrs. Cream Puff

Mrs. Cream Puff, San Francisco Bay Area Age and Occupation: 25, Illustrator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Merchandise Planner Engagement Date: May 27, 2007 Wedding Date: August, 2008 Blogging Since: February 7, 2008 Venue: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception at the Green Room About Me: I never dreamed about my wedding as a little girl because I was too busy playing in the mud or pretending to be Martha Stewart–but now that it's here, I'm having a fabulous time DIYing everything in sight! We’re planning a very fun multicultural wedding (I'm Jewish and Mr. Cream Puff is Chinese), filled with as many personal details as I can muster.

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