Miss Cookie, Denver
Age and Occupation: 25, Nonprofit Fundraiser/Theatre Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Financial Analyst
Engagement Date: September 2007
Wedding Date: September 2008
Blogging Since: May 8, 2008
Venue: Ten Mile Station
About Me: With a degree in Theatre I never realized that planning a wedding was a lot like Theatre Management, until I started planning my own. I am a coffee addict, especially Starbucks' Grande Mochas, yummy! I love to cook (especially chocolate chip cookies for my honey), travel to exotic places, and be creative. As a couple, Mr. Cookie and I are extremely practical, down to earth, and children at heart. We live in a cozy abode with our adorable Pomeranian, and love to play board games and watch movies into the evening.
Go, Go Gadget Gocco!
May 20th, 2008 @ 3:00 pm by Miss Cookie
I always knew I was going to design my own invites. I worked as a graphic designer for a theatre company to put myself through college. And since I am a little bit of control freak, I knew couldn’t farm the invitation out; I had to design them myself.
I love letterpress! I’ve always dreamed of letterpress invites for my wedding, but when looking at our budget and the price of custom letterpress I had to reluctantly let go of that dream. Now with digital presses being fast and economical, many printers like to do “short” runs on those presses instead of the offset printers. To me they feel very commercial, and I wanted to give my invites a very personal touch. I was about ready to compromise on the invites and take them to a print house, when during my daily wedding blog reading I can across the Gocco on Weddingbee.
Let me just say that the Gocco is my answer to personalizing all our wedding stationery! I did a lot of research online to find the right price and model for me, and came across Northwood Studios online. I purchased the PG-11 version instead of the PG-5 because of the registration capabilities from Northwood Studios, as well as the extension package with the basic inks, a How To Gocco DVD and CD along with extra bulbs and screens. I think it was well worth the extra dough. The CD doesn’t work (which I need to email Judy about), but the DVD was hilarious! It was straight out of the 80s and had obviously been an old record from a VHS tape, but it had some great advanced Gocco techniques. Also, included in the extension package was a written guide, which proved extraordinarily helpful!
First project with my Gocco: Save-the-Dates. 
I got the birds and branch image from istock via Miss Penguin’s wisdom on her own save-the-dates. This is the card design, but for the envelopes I just used the birds and branch as well as our address. As a designer, I felt like I was cheating. I could have come up with the illustration in Illustrator but am a) too busy and b) just plain lazy! Besides, it was so easy to download and import into Illustrator – it look 5 minutes to download and import rather than the 8+ hours to draw myself. I love the fonts! I used Futura Medium (block font) and Laurell (cursive font), which I acquired years ago.
I double checked everything a million times before I flashed the screen because I knew I only had one shot to get it right! After all, this was my first ever Gocco project. Side Note: Always remember to use the blue filter to avoid excess carbon from imprinting onto the screen. Also, conserve bulbs and screens. I printed the birds on the front and the address on the back while using one screen in order to conserve the single use screens and bulbs.
Again, I used the wisdom of Miss Penguin on Gocco Printing and registering. Above is a photo of me printing the back of the envelopes. Because I had printed the front first, I covered the screen with regular paper to avoid the ink printing on the back.
This is me counting to 10 to get the right amount of pressure/ink on the print.
This is Mr. Cookie and Lyla helping me 
Here is the front of the envelope
Here are the envelopes laying out on my kitchen countertop
I loved how the envelopes turned out, but was very disappointed in the cards. I used a turquoise ink for the birds and branch on this beautiful chocolate brown paper by ArtCo. that I got at Xpedex Paper here in Denver. When I printed it the ink looked fine, but when it dried the ink turned silver. I think it must have been a reaction to the chemicals in the paper because when I printed the same ink on white paper the turquoise was fine. I seriously considered redoing the save-the-date cards, but I discovered the problem after printing about 25, and I didn’t want to waste screen, bulbs, and paper. I guess it was a great learning experience, but now I have to rethink my invitations because I wanted to use the same ink and paper for invites!
Inking my Save-the-Date screen…
The printed Save-the-Date cards.
Final product. Overall, it was really fun — even though I am disappointed with the colors of the cards. Next Gocco project: INVITATIONS!
25 Responses to “Go, Go Gadget Gocco!”
OMG!!! THOSE ARE GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!
ooooh, I love the turquoise on the brown paper. i’m planning on using the gold gocco ink on brown paper, but maybe I should test it first?!?! the contrast looks SO GREAT. can’t wait to see your invites!
@Miss Coconut: I think the gold will look really good on the brown. I’ve seen examples of it, and it looks really great! Printing light ink on dark paper is a bit of a challenge with the Gocco. I HIGHLY recommend a test run before printing!
You can still see you wedding website address on one of your STD’s, you may want to edit if you can!
They look great!
They look gorgeous, Ms. Cookie! I don’t think I’m patient enough to gocco my entire invitation suite, but I do want to do some pieces of it, so thanks for the tips! 
Your Save The Date Cards turned out really nice. I like the colors you used for the cards.
Great job Miss Cookie, they look fantastic! Question, what did you use for your master printout? Laser? Inkjet? Xerox?
Yours seemed to turn out ubercrisp. If you used a printer, could you let me know the model# and what kind it was? Hee hee, thanks!
WOW! You did such a beautiful job with these!
@Miss Coconut: I used gold ink on chocolate brown paper for my save-the-dates and I really liked how they turned out. Good luck!
@Miss Cookie: These are lovely! I really love the graphic and the colors.
Okay… we need to meet so you can show me how the Goco works. I wanted to try it, but was too afraid. I would still love to do my thank you cards this way. Do I hear the pitter patter of potential RENTAL??? *grin*
@Miss Penguin: I bow down to the Penguin — sage of all things Gocco.
I printed the master on Mr. Cookie’s work Laser printer. I had him print three copies, and I carefully picked which one had the best overall toner. I’ll get you the model# as soon as Mr. Cookie answers his work phone!
beautiful, but I would check with the post office on your envelope, the right side and a portion of the bottom is for official use so you may have trouble getting them delivered.
It’s gorgeous — nobody would think this was your first Gocco project; you are a pro.
Very pretty! You are making me feel super inadequate. Even though I have already picked out my invites I want to do gocco now!
I love how bold the colors and text are on that paper. Great job!
The turned out GRRREAT!
I love them and the birds you chose.
@Miss Cookie: Ahh, youre the best! No hurry on finding out, but I’d love to know! I honestly think your prints look much crisper than any I’ve ever made.
I think they look amazing! Cant wait to see your invites!
these look fabulous! that’s it, i’m buying myself a gocco. lol.
for the fellow gocco’ers, any recommended tips on getting good prints on darker paper? it seems only the metallics show up the best…
@tea: I agree, metallics do show up the best. White is really hard to get right! My advice: be liberal with your ink use.
they look awesome! i bought my gocco over a year ago and have yet to try it out.. the shame!
Wow, they look great! Well done
I think that I might be jealous. I want a Gocco machine…
