Now if you’ve been making greeting cards from home for any time now, you would have tried various methods of greeting card printing and at some stage you’ve probably tried online greeting card printing services as well.

The printing at home method, especially if you’re using an ink jet printer can get very expensive, but there are other solutions for printing greeting cards and one of them is an almost forgotten technique that was developed 25 years ago in Japan by ‘Noboru Hayama’ called ‘Gocco’. Have you ever heard of this? I will explain it in just a moment.

The other method of course is to print greeting cards online using one of the many services available. Using online greeting card printing services can be quite cost effective. You can upload your card image and pick a verse and print out your printed greeting card with ease.

All that’s left is a personal message of your own, slip it into the envelope, slap a stamp on and walk your personalized birthday greeting card down to the neighborhood mailbox.

Now here is a way to print them at home using the method of Gocco. First I will explain what Gocco is.

As I mentioned, Gocco was developed 25 years ago in Japan. The Gocco printing method was developed as a fast and easy way to print from home. Gocco uses the basic principles of screen-printing and rubber-stamping, its clean, easy and fully self-contained compact printing system.

You can get Gocco printing devices that com as part of a complete kit or you can get the device itself from art suppliers like Dick Blick.com. These printing devices were once very popular in Japan and their main function was for making greeting cards. This process of printing has slowly disappeared over the years with home computer printing and online printing services, but it is slowly on the come back and inspired Jill Bliss to start a Web site called Save Gocco.

Bliss, who used a Gocco machine she bought on eBay in her handmade stationery business, Blissen, says she threw together the site “on a whim.” She handed out some press packets at the Bazaar Bizarre craft fair in Los Angeles, and soon SaveGocco.com became ground zero of Gocco-withdrawal angst. The site ultimately collected more than a thousand names of enthusiasts, in a show of strength that the signers hoped might inspire some entity to start making the product again.

It also carried news of Gocco art shows that started to pop up, and it listed retail resources. Wang says interest in the process among artists and crafters was already gaining momentum when word got out that the device was going to disappear. “Then there was just this urgency,” she recalls, “to find a Gocco.”

I found this video on YouTube that demonstrates the art and process of Gocco, its about 9mins long but I found it to be facinating.

Isn’t that just amazing, I thought it was so interesting.

So you could say greeting card printing services are varied when it comes to online cards but it is a fast and cost effective method but if you want that real personal feel about your printed greeting cards I would certainly give Gocco a try when it comes to greeting card printing.