A belated Christmas gift finished at last:
I printed some contact info cards for my brother. He designed them.
It was my first project in my new crafting closet (which is almost done).
It was really cool printing in my newly organized space! So much that I later finished the last belated Christmas gift I had to make! I'll show you that one on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
(AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!)
Last year I picked up some Hallmark Christmas cards at a post-holiday sale. I think they were 90% off. But that was before I knew I'd be getting a gocco for my birthday!
How could I not design my own cards this year?
I started by making silhouettes of the kids, and just added to it. I'm really happy with the finished product. The gold showed up well on the red, the design printed well, and I just love those silhouettes.
There is a wallet-sized photo of the three of them on the inside.
I wish I could have sent them to all of you, my friends, so here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy your holiday.
For my brother Kris's birthday I made him some cards he designed
himself. He didn't know that he did, though. He drew this drawing in the back of a book he gave me for my birthday. I thought it was way fun, so I screenprinted him a set to give away.
And I printed the mailer, too - so I hope he liked his happy mail!
Happy belated, little bro! It was truly the post office's fault that this was late - not mine!
One of Princess' birthday gifts was a chance to use my gocco to print her own stationary. Well, we finally got around to it on Friday.
She drew the image, and helped to burn and ink the screen.
And then she printed.
A lot.
And matching envelopes.
I love these prints - I have one hanging on the fridge. She made like 50 cards - she'll be writing on them for a couple of years! I guess she needs a kid's gocco swap...
I've scheduled art for Fridays this year - in the hopes that we'll actually do more of it. So we're going to do printmaking for a while - different techniques, different artists, etc. Awesome.
p.s. Monkey threw the hugest, saddest tantrum because he couldn't gocco, too. Huge tears and much crying. I didn't even have any bulbs left, so I really couldn't let him. He had quickly drawn a 'silly rocket' and demanded to ink it with orange and print it. Oh my boy. The only thing that calmed him down was letting him use my official gocco pen.
I have to admit that it's easier to get out the Gocco while Thomas is at kindergarten! I generally only print at night, after the kiddos are in bed. But I had the itch to print during the day (the keys) and the two remaining were super interested in the whole process - and each had to make their own print. Monkey is SO proud of his very own gocco card.
And here's how nerdy I am - I thought that the paper towels I used to clean the key screen looked really cool.
I haven't thrown them away yet.
I also like how the layer upon layer test prints look.
Yep. A gocco nerd.
I was so exited to sign up for the 'art of the note' Gocco card swap hosted by Sarah over at cloth.paper.string. This was my contribution:
This is always what I would like to say when I send someone a card or letter - that's not just me, right? :) I printed some on a mustard cardstock and some on olive.
Here are my ten bundles of cards - now off to the post office!
P.S. There's one set of Olive cards in the shop (sold) - and I'm on Poppytalk today!
New Gocco print ideas - so many ideas, so little time (and supplies!). I am in love with my Moleskine notebook that Erin sent me - and I thought it would be cool to try printing on them.
These are the little pocket-sized ones.
Nice to keep tucked in your purse.
And while I had a screen inked...
I've been wanting to print on index cards - such a fun look! Inspired by Treatzone's cool cards. These will be giveaways for future shop orders.
And some notecards. The 'mine' idea was kind of specific to the notebook - like 'This is MY notebook - keep out.' I don't know what it 'means' on cards - but I like the design all the same. I also made some on orange cards, too.
I'm hoping to get some up in the shop today or tomorrow done!
We were lucky that both sets of Grandparents could come to Princess' baptism. Aaron's parents came from out of state. While she was here - his mom asked if I wanted this quilt - she makes models for a quilt shop. But if I didn't like it, it was okay.
Um, yeah, I love it! Lots of the 'peas and carrots' prints and just so fun - check out the bias-striped binding! Even the backing is gorgeous. Monkey insisted on sleeping with it one night - it was my MIL's idea to put it in the playroom, and I think it's so fun there - especially after moving the rocker downstairs.
(You can see more of my MIL's quilts here, here, and here).
My SIL came with her family and brought me her old sewing machine - yay! Maybe I shouldn't say this, but it's much nicer than Stanley. Hmm, she'll need a name.... Can't wait to try her out, but first I've gotta make some room to move around my bedroom/craft room so that I can actually put it on the sewing table!
They didn't leave empty handed, one of the things for my MIL were these notecards + matching waterlily envelopes. She wanted to see how my gocco printer worked.
Any excuse to break out the gocco!
For my mom, for Mother's Day:
I made her some personalized flat cards. It was fun to play with the pink ink on navy paper.
A week or two ago I was trying to make some Thank you cards - and the screen didn't burn correctly - see the faded patches in the middle?
Frustrating - but I have a couple ideas as to what caused that, so it's all good.
And I reused my flower screen - they are worth cleaning after all! ;)
(psst - that means a giveaway...)
My box o' gocco supplies arrived this weekend - so I had to test them out, right? ;)
I made a stack of birthday cards. Just silly ones.
I think Aaron got me the gocco in hopes I'd do more 'artsy' stuff rather than 'cutesy' - and there are some artsy ideas brewing, for sure - but as I told him, I had this silly cake doodle card in my head and I had to let it out. It wouldn't leave me alone, I swear.
The cake + text is drawn, the banner and scallop at the bottom was cut paper that I photocopied.
And now I have a handy stack of cards to give for people's birthdays - assuming I remember to send them out...
So, just some fun, silly cards, and since it's been 100 posts since my last giveaway - let's have another!
I have two sets of five of these hand printed birthday cards to give away!
Just leave a comment on this post, and I'll draw two names later this week. Probably Friday.
Just a little thank you for reading my blog - thanks especially for commenting!
p.s. I'm updating my Masterpiece post - my opinion on Sense & Sensibility
