Progress on the DIY train

I am enjoying planning this wedding. Ok - sure sometimes I don't. But for the most part, I do. One of the most enjoyable aspects of throwing this big party has been unleashing my creative side. I don't think I am a terribly creative or crafty person, but I have my moments. I plan on making, or D.oing I.t mY.self, a few things to make this partee more personal and cost effective (hello budget anyone).

Luckily, I am one of the last of my buddies to get married, and have thus learned tons about the wedding biz. I decided that we would make our own invitations. Sounds a bit crazy, I know. But, the reality of it all is that we want to cut back on the amount of paper we use (for obvious reasons) and use recycled paper. I can't even begin to tell you how much "green" wedding invites cost. It seems as though that really bump that price up just for being able to say "environmentally friendly". Anyway, I don't really care for many cookie cutter invites, so why not make our own using recycled cardstock that we buy in bulk?

To do this, I bought a nifty little thing called a gocco. It is sort of like a table top screenprinter.


They no longer manufacture it in Japan and it is pretty hard to come by in the US. I found a used discontinued model from Japan on Ebay, and I just had to get it. Well, a few days ago, I whipped it out and got to work. It was fun, but also a learning experience. The machine and the process has some limitations (namely size-wise). Regardless, I am still very happy with the results. Here is a bit of the partial finished product:

You can see where I got stingy with ink.

I know with a little more practice I will be ready to tackle our invitations and be able to print them in lovely colors. I can't wait to get started on my next Gocco project!