I bought a gocco printer off Etsy about a year ago but never got around to trying it out. So I brought it down to Bethany’s thinking I’d have a chance to play with it in her big rambling house. It’s a lot easier to craft down here with her big spacious kitchen table and her big bright windows. My house is nice and bright too but it doesn’t clean up as easily as Bethany’s does.

I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the light colored linoleum floors. Maybe it’s the acres of counter space. Maybe it’s the fact that there is a washer and dryer downstairs in the garage only steps away… Or maybe it’s just that I can let Bug wander the house and be as noisy as she wants while I craft because Toby is not here working in the next room. Whatever it is, it gives me a lot of freedom to be as crafty and messy as I want. And when I’m done, it’s a cinch to clean up!

The other reason I was finally up to trying out the Gocco is that CC is here visiting and she’s very helpful in reading directions. I’m terrible about reading directions. I’m a speed reader and I tend to skip ahead when I get bored and I miss all kinds of important details. If I was doing this alone it would have taken me hours to figure out but not with CC around!

While I made up a design on my computer and then ran off to a nearby Kinkos to make a Xerox print (the Gocco only works with carbon print outs and my ink jet printer is not carbon) CC read the 20-or-so page manual.

When I got back we attached the flash bulbs, burned our master print and then we were in business!

There were a few kinks to work out of course like the fact that using two different color inks too close together can run into each other… But this is the best way to learn.

I should have designed this differently with more space in between my color spots OR printed it in two passes. I’m definitely going to do another design with color spots on the first press and then detail on top on a second press. I’d have to burn two masters for that idea. Which is fine but masters are a bit expensive.

This probably makes no sense to most of you reading. When I do it again, I’ll do a step by step type post. Not that I need to. There are plenty of them on the web. But it’s fun so why not share?

I decided to skip the two-color printing and just print in red. It was a lot easier. The ink is oil-based so clean-up can be a bit of a pain. Of course I didn’t have any paint thinner on hand so you can imagine me with smudges of paint all over and madly wiping it off on mountains of paper towels. Next time I’ll be way more careful and way more prepared. (Don’t worry, Bethany, your house is smudge free!)

But there will definitely be a next time because this was loads of fun. Stay tuned for some cards in my shop!