Monday, June 30, 2008

Gocco and Napkin Advice

Gocco Question:

This weekend gocco'd some thank you cards on Paper Source Luxe White note cards. The prints kept coming out slightly smudged and with tiny splatters no matter how carefully I removed the card. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? Is it because the paper is textured? I didn't notice this on the flat surface cards that I printed a while ago. Unfortunately, I wasted two packs of 20 cards to get 10 good cards and 10 "only sort of splattered" cards. Any advice is appreciated. I'm planning on printing about 300 items in the next few weeks, so I need to figure this out pronto or go back to the drawing board.

Napkin Question:

Since we're having a cocktail party and eliminating pretty things like place cards and menus, I'd like to stick our monograms on the napkins. Given the lack of plates, I'm estimating one napkin per person per hour, which would be 750 napkins + guest towels for the john. (My boss calls the bathroom "The John." It still makes me giggle every time. It's so endearing.) Unfortunately, it's about $300-$500 for everything that I'd want in an ideal world.I've tried Print Globe, For Your Party, Branders, and every other site that comes up in Google searches. Does anyone know of any more affordable places?Oh, and my earlier post on gocco'ing my own napkins was crap and I don't know who I am kidding. If these invites have taught me anything, it's that, when it comes to Sunshine vs. Wedding Projects on the weekends, Sunshine wins every time. And at the end of the day who really cares if the guests get plain napkins or even a combo of plain napkins and printed, right?

6 comments:

122LOVESME said...

i don't really have an answer for your gocco questions, since i haven't bought mine yet, but i did want to say that i am LOVING the sunshine too :)

MK said...

I have never used a Gocco machine before, but I tried to print my table numbers and menus on Luxe paper from Paper Source and it was a NIGHTMARE. I had the exact same problem that you are describing. When I printed them on untextured paper they were fine. It was a bummer because I loved the paper.

I don't know anything about those Gocco things, but I don't think it's your Gocco skills -- it's the paper.

Tara Vorhes said...

No help with the Gocco but that luxe heavy paper is a nightmare to print on... basically my printer ate it.

Really for that many napkins I might consider having the nicely printed ones and then as the night goes on have the plain ones for back up... After 4 hours of drinking and dancing I doubt anyone will notice anymore...

Chitown Wife said...

My guess is you are wanting different colors on the napkin? That is the part that jacks it up. Tara has a good point. I know we had a sit down, but for some reason I had a ton left, so you actually may not need that many.

Anonymous said...

I haven't done much with the Gocco yet{just the save-the-dates, which miraculously went well} BUT I did my first go-round on the textured paper and it looked not so good. Because the Gocco isn't letterpress with all that force, the ink doesn't go down into the textured grooves. That could definitely have something to do with it.

Another thing could be: Did you use a laser printout to create the master? Because when I tried using my little inkjet's printout, the edges of the letters were not as crisp. It was acceptable, but not perfect. And using the blue filter thing helps sometimes with photocopies. Sorry I'm not more help! Have you posted on Weddingbee? Because Mrs. Penguin is like a freaking genius on the Gocco and she seems to always answer questions on the boards about it.

ami @ elizabeth anne designs said...

hmm. i've printed all of my things on luxe cream with black gocco ink. the only thing i can think of is that you have a LOT of carbon, which sometimes creates little dots outside the design. try adjusting your laser printer settings to do a lighter print?