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Mrs. Cupcake, Philadelphia Age and Occupation: 27, Graphic Designer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Construction Project Manager Engagement Date: February 10, 2007 Wedding Date: September, 2008 Blogging Since: December 7, 2007 Venue: The Desmond Hotel in Malvern, PA About Me: Mr. Cupcake and I hit it off at a Halloween party and immediately began a long-distance relationship. After two years, he moved to my neck of the woods, and a year and a half after that, he proposed at the “place we fell in love.” I am a true perfectionist who enjoys designing and creating more work for myself, so wedding planning is my perfect outlet. Mr. Cupcake and I are both old souls, and we hope to weave that aspect of our personalities into our wedding day.
About Mrs. Cupcake

Borrowing Ideas: Gocco Napkins

July 3rd, 2008 @ 9:28 am by Mrs. Cupcake

When I read Miss Cream Puff’s post about Gocco-ing cocktail napkins with useless facts about her and Mr. Cream Puff, I knew I had to steal— er, borrow— her idea. I immediately got to work coming up with some fun facts about Mr. Cupcake and me, and bought 600 3-ply cocktail napkins at Party City.


At $2.99 per 50-pack, I spent just over $35 on this project. I already had the Gocco, the screens, and the teal ink that I had planned to use, and my labor was free :-)

I printed all of the layouts on one page on a laser printer, and cut them down to size.

I decided to try to get two fun fact layouts out of each Gocco screen to get more bang for my buck, and planned out how I would register each napkin before I flashed the first screen.


Once the screen was flashed, I blocked off the first fun fact layout and inked up, then taped the second layout to the screen for use later on.


I set up the layout so that if I placed the napkin flush left and hanging off the top of the sticky mat, the layout would be centered.

This also proved useful, because enough of the napkin was hanging off the right side of the machine that I could hold it while lifting up the top of the Gocco unit so the multi-layered napkin didn’t stick to the ink.

This is what happened if I didn’t hold down the right side of the napkin after inking, risking a little smearing

Once I finished the first batch of napkins, I blocked off the second design with my ink blocking material at the bottom of the screen, and scraped the ink from my first design onto my second (as to not waste ink), then added a bit more ink for full coverage. I then taped a scrap piece of card stock over the screen-side of the first design so that no ink would come through the screen when I was printing the second design.

It worked like a charm, so I was able to utilize only 3 Gocco screens for 6 layouts.

Even Mr. Cupcake was excited at how great the napkins were turning out!

Alright, not so much, but he had had a long, tiring day….

After a few (okay, several) hours of hard work, all 600 napkins were done, and covering just about every surface of our apartment.

For your entertainment, here are the 6 facts I printed:

Brooke & Nick Fun Fact No. 1:
The new Mr. and Mrs. first met at a Halloween costume party in 2003. They struck up a conversation while waiting in line for the rest room… and the rest is history.

Brooke & Nick Fun Fact No. 2:
The first two years of Brooke and Nick’s relationship were long-distance. Over those two years, approximately 23,296 miles were traveled between Lewisberry and Manayunk/Media to see each other.

Brooke & Nick Fun Fact No. 3:
The first movie Brooke and Nick went to see together was “Elf,” starring Will Ferrell. It was their second official date.

Brooke & Nick Fun Fact No. 4:

Early in their relationship while discussing books that they loved as kids, Brooke and Nick discovered that they shared the same favorite: “Big Dog, Little Dog” by P.D. Eastman.

Brooke & Nick Fun Fact No. 5:
Nick proposed to Brooke on February 10, 2007, while sitting amidst the life-sized game pieces outside of the Municipal Building in Center City, Philadelphia.

Brooke & Nick Fun Fact No. 6:
Nick’s love of history and Brooke’s knowledge of useless pop culture facts have led them to be a successful Quizzo duo. They go by the team name “Incredicouple.”

Are you “borrowing” most of your wedding detail ideas, or have you been able to come up with anything completely unique?

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40 Responses to “Borrowing Ideas: Gocco Napkins”

1.
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Guest
Sarah

There’s some stuff I like to think was unique, but yeah, I did a whole lot of “borrowing.” Martha says use architectural photos of numbers as table numbers? Okay! Someone in MSW has a fire pit and s’mores after the reception? Doin’ it! The only thing I liked about my cousin’s wedding was the cocktail hour music? Stealin’ it!

 
2.
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Guest
Yvonne

I love your napkins. I have one question though, does the ink smear, when it’s getting wet? Can the guests get the ink on their clothes when it’s wet?

 
3.
Miss Cupcake
Bee
Miss Cupcake (message)  1,169 posts, Bumble bee

@Yvonne: the ink definitely doesn’t smear. I had asked Miss Cream Puff this, and she promised it didn’t, and I tested it out myself by getting a napkin wet and rubbing it on my hand. No ink came off!

 
4.
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Guest
Allison

This is a cute idea, but I’m curious…did you use the regular ink or the fabric ink?

 
5.
Miss Cupcake
Bee
Miss Cupcake (message)  1,169 posts, Bumble bee

@Allison: I used regular ink, also per Miss Cream Puff’s recommendation :-)

 
6.
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Member
Indigo (message)  34 posts, Newbee

Genius!! Can you do this for me?? I’ll pay you. Cute facts too!

 
7.
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Guest
Laura

So adorable!!!! People are going to be impressed.

 
8.
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Guest
Dani

screeeeeeeeeeeech! I LIVE in Lewisberry!

 
9.
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Member
shannamt (message)  130 posts, Blushing bee

I totally steal ideas and just added this to the list :)

 
10.
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Guest
Cole

So is a Gocco just like a mini at home screen printer? I was so confused about it before, but now I sort of want one!

I love the napkins! Such a fab idea.

 
11.
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Krista

I think the uniqueness comes out in the ways that we all combine the ideas stolen/borrowed, and you will use different ideas than I will use, etc. Besides, sometimes I think up an idea on my own, and then see someone else blog about it…so it’s not all that original after all.

Luckily, I don’t think our wedding guests are addicted to wedding blogs like brides-to-be are, so to them it’ll all be original and unique. And the big picture will be FH’s and mine…a culmination of “something borrowed”. :-)

 
12.
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skm

prior to seeing your and ms cp’s post, i had done something similar…putting fun facts on the water bottle labels for the water we’ll give guests in oot bags, and provide at our ceremony…i love it! It’s like a little sneak peak into the couple and random stuff some guests may never know. One of my favorites of mine is that (me and the mister are both engineers introduced by an engineer friend) the first conversation mr. skm and i ever had began by him asking me, “soo…what kind of calculator do you use?”…i think stuff like that will get people chuckling and also excited to see us marry. Great post miss cc!

 
13.
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Member
McG (message)  116 posts, Blushing bee

Just call me Swiper!

“Swiper no swiping” hehehe ;)

 
14.
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Bee
Miss Pinot Noir (message)  772 posts, Busy bee

I have Gocco envy!

 
15.
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Bee
Miss Pomegranate (message)  956 posts, Busy bee

I have Gocco envy too! Hrmm….

 
16.
frenchbulldog
Bee
frenchbulldog (message)  6,077 posts, Bee Keeper

@Miss Pinot Noir & @Miss Pomegranate: DITTO!

 
17.
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Member
MichelleTom (message)  10 posts, Newbee

I totally stole this idea from Miss Cream Puff and the napkins came out great!!! I’m so thankful for the bees!!

 
18.
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Guest
Tara

I love this idea. I also really love the font you used for your and Mr. Cupcake’s names. It’s lovely!

 
19.
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Tea

@McG: LOL. that was awesome!

i guess you can consider me a swiper jr. because just about everything i like has been borrowed from someone…mostly the bees. thanks ladies! :-)

 
20.
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Guest
Miss Mimi

Where do you ladies get these Gocco machines? Do they have them at Michael’s? I have a coupon…..

 
21.
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Member
missm (message)  811 posts, Busy bee

borrowing and adapting is what it is all about, but as another poster mentioned, it is the combination and execution that makes each event unique. we’re adapting the fun facts idea to little decorative tidbits here and there for the eagle eye-d guest.

 
22.
Miss Cupcake
Bee
Miss Cupcake (message)  1,169 posts, Bumble bee

@Cole: You’re right on the money….. check out YouTube for Gocco tutorials, and also do a search on Weddingbee! The Wiki has an article on the Gocco and links to all the bee’s Gocco projects.

@Tara: Thank you! That font is called Albemarle, and I used it on our invitations, too (which will be completed soon!)

@Miss Mimi: My Gocco was a gift, I believe my sister-in-law got it on Ebay or Etsy or something of the like….. They sell the larger ones at Paper Source, which give you more surface area for ink coverage, but these are quite a bit higher priced.

 
23.
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Maria

OoOoO…if only I had a gocco machine…

One idea that I have is for the ribbon of my bouquet. Instead of white ribbon (etc.) I am going to try to get a Japanese silk obi with cranes on it (good luck symbol) and cut it down to a good width, give it to the florist and have them wrap my bouquet with it (I study Japanese urban history, so I have a connection with Japan).

 
24.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Green Tea (message)  705 posts, Busy bee

i’m incorporating fun facts also but not on napkins, and it was cool to see cream puff (and now you) doing that on napkins which i think is even better than how i’m doing it! too late for me to change it up though. nice job!

 
25.
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Lisa

Looks great! How many tubes of Gocco ink do you use when doing these though?

 
26.
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Miss X

I like to think that my borrowed ideas are “kicked up a notch”…or at least adapted to our personal tastes.

 
27.
Miss Cupcake
Bee
Miss Cupcake (message)  1,169 posts, Bumble bee

@Lisa: I had already used a little bit of the teal ink for an earlier project, and I still have a teensy bit of ink left in the same tube after doing all 6 designs/600 napkins. I made sure to always scrape any unused ink off a screen when I was done with it and apply it for the next design, so I wasted as little ink as possible.

 
28.
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Member
QueenoftheClick (message)  94 posts, Worker bee

That is sooooo cool. I have never seen Gocco done on napkins! I love the fun facts too. Great pic of your fiance1

 
29.
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Guest
 
30.
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Mary

LOVE these napkins and LOVE GOCCO even more! Thanks for sharing this great idea - I’ve since become obsessed and on a mission to gocco my own wedding paraphernalia…I’ve even shared your ideas and gocco knowledge on my wedding blog!

 
32.
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Guest
Mrs. SKI

Did you use a template for this? What program did you use? I am going to buy my Gocco soon and love this idea. I am not very design savvy though so I need a starting point. Please let me know!

 
33.
yellowapron
Member
yellowapron (message)  11 posts, Newbee

Mrs Cupcake, since you’re doing 2-up on 1 screen, how did you cover the part that you don’t want to print yet? What did you use that would not damage the screen?

Thank you~!

 
34.
Mrs. Cupcake
Bee
Mrs. Cupcake (message)  1,169 posts, Bumble bee

@yellowapron: When doing #1 of the two layouts on the screen, you don’t have to worry about blocking #2 off as long as you use the ink blocking material to block off just the section of the screen that you’d like to print. (See the third and fourth images above.)

When getting to work on #2, I scraped the excess ink off of #1, used a piece of scrap paper (card stock or something somewhat thick works best) and a little bit of scotch tape to hold down the scrap paper over that area so no leftover ink would print onto my next set of napkins. The tape won’t damage the screen, but if you’re not planning to reuse the screen it wouldn’t matter anyway since you have already printed part #1! :-)

 
35.
yellowapron
Member
yellowapron (message)  11 posts, Newbee

@Mrs. Cupcake: thank you so much for your reply! i appreciate it!!! i’m going to give it a try. since gocco screens are going extinct, i would do anything to save up on screens and doing 2-UP would be worth it! :) thank you again!

 
36.
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Guest
Love is All About “We”: Cocktails, Anyone? » Weddingbee » The Wedding Blog

[...] but certainly not least in the list of details I obsessed over, were the fun fact napkins that I had screen-printed with my trusty Gocco. It was so fun hearing people talk about the [...]

 
37.
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Guest
We interupt the good deed doing for some consumerism… « Just stuff

[...] cool ideas: Wall art! Extemely customized napkins for a special event My own fabric design – for something very very small I hope. (Stop me if I ever mention that [...]

 
38.
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Guest
Johnsie Reavis

Where can you order additional gocco inks and supplies?

 
39.
Mrs. Cupcake
Bee
Mrs. Cupcake (message)  1,169 posts, Bumble bee

@Johnsie Reavis: unfortunately supplies are harder to come by now that Gocco supplies are no longer being produced…. sorry I can’t help more! I stockpiled all of my supplies last year.

 
40.
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Guest
Cheap and Easy Thrills » Weddingbee » The Wedding Blog

[...] cute idea—love quotes. Or, like Mrs. Cupcake, you could always do random facts about yourselves! Mr. Ramen and I liked the fact idea… we [...]

 


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Mrs. Cupcake
Mrs. Cupcake Mrs. Cupcake, Philadelphia Age and Occupation: 27, Graphic Designer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Construction Project Manager Engagement Date: February 10, 2007 Wedding Date: September, 2008 Blogging Since: December 7, 2007 Venue: The Desmond Hotel in Malvern, PA About Me: Mr. Cupcake and I hit it off at a Halloween party and immediately began a long-distance relationship. After two years, he moved to my neck of the woods, and a year and a half after that, he proposed at the “place we fell in love.” I am a true perfectionist who enjoys designing and creating more work for myself, so wedding planning is my perfect outlet. Mr. Cupcake and I are both old souls, and we hope to weave that aspect of our personalities into our wedding day.
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