It's been over a month since our first wedding anniversary, and I have yet to share with you the gift that I made for Nick! My apologies... I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath ;-)
I decided that I wanted to create something truly handmade for our anniversary, and I wanted it to stay within the realm of the traditional first anniversary paper gift. (By the way — who made those things up???) I decided to
Gocco a print with all hand-drawn elements, with the focus being a quote from the song we danced to at our wedding, "Love is All About We," as well as our names and wedding date. (Listen to the song "We"
here.)
I started with a light sketch that would fit within the size specifications of how large my Gocco can print with one screen (around 4.25" x 6.25") (
image 1 above). Once I had the basic layout sketched, I began drawing my letters with more pressure (image 2 above). I am left-handed and things often smear when I work with pencil, so I often work right-to-left to make things a bit less messy (
image 3 above). I think my final result looked cute! (
image 4 above)
I also wrote a bunch of random words that relate to us and drew a few cute little doodles to be used later...
I scanned my main image and brought it into Photoshop to erase any speckles and bump up my contrast. After I printed my image out in black and white, I burnt a Gocco screen with my image and used my ink blocking material to keep my ink contained to the right areas (
image 1 above). Then I inked my screen with white ink (
image 2 above). Next, it was time to print!
I used chip board as my canvas, as it's a current obsession of mine. I really like the organic look of the white ink on the chip board (and since it's very neutral, hopefully it will always coordinate with our decor!).
Voila! I only needed one print for the final project, but since I had already used up a screen and spent time inking it, I made a bunch of extra prints. Who knows what I'll use them for, but I like having some extras regardless.
Remember those random words and doodles you saw above? I scanned them in as well and created a full-screen pattern with them.
I used a large sheet of chip board and repeated the pattern with my Gocco. It wasn't perfect and there were some bald spots, but for once I wasn't going for perfection.
After everything was printed and dried, it came time to frame it up.
I had purchased a black frame at Home Goods (
image 1 above) that had a double-mat and a space in the center for a 5" x 7" photo (
image 2 above). The mats were glued together, so I gently pulled them apart (
image 3 above). They didn't pull apart perfectly, but that's okay, because the area that got messed up would be covered up later. I took the larger mat that had been on top and placed it on top of my large piece of chip board with the repeat pattern; I traced around the inside and outside of the mat, and then used an X-acto blade to cut away the excess chip board (
image 4 above).
I lined up my patterned mat, the white mat, and my main image so everything was centered, and used Scotch tape on the back to hold everything in place (
image 1 above). When I turned everything over, it was perfectly lined up and ready to be framed (
image 2 above).
The final product:
Nick really loves it and I was happy to have come up with a unique idea that didn't cost a lot of money. Since I spend so much of my time sitting at a computer, it was nice to do something more hand-drawn, and it was a great excuse to break out my Gocco.
in 2004, on our one year anniversary, as Daphne and Fred
Now that we're all hitched and stuff, we no longer consider Halloween our official anniversary... but I will always remember it as our meetiversary.
painted pumpkins via ritzy bee blog
eerie eyeball recipes via simply stated
spiderweb coasters via 12fifteen
Duncan the disgruntled banana via Oh! Apostrophe
Halloween invitation via Brooklyn Limestone
