Custom Frenzy

Challenge is good.  I've been a little ambivalent about some changes happening at work.  Half of my job is going to be removed from me over the next five years - the half that I fought for and wrote the job description for.  I'm going to regress back to what I was doing before.  I'm also going to have to re-prove my skills for my old function now that I'm returning to it full-time.  On the other hand, the opportunities and the ceiling for me at work just sky-rocketted a whole lot higher.

So, while I see the next 5 years are a setback for me, it's a temporary set back.  It has made me realize that, new growth is found through challenge.  I fear change.  I accept that life is about change - from year to year, from day to day, from moment to moment even.  I face it, but I'm allowed to still fear it.  So long as I face it.  If you don't, you go the way of the dinosaur.

Which brings me to my first custom order: a die cut dinosaur.

So, I've gotten a frenzy of custom orders this month.  It's a challenge for sure.  These orders make me smile and fret at the same time.  The day job comes first and it has its own host of challenges right now (and for the next foreseeable five years).  With that going on, will I be able to get enough supplies in for these custom orders?  Will I meet the deadlines?  Will I even be able to create what is desired?

Well, I had to say no to a couple designs.  I knew I didn't have the talent to make them.  If I can't draw it, I can't break it down to basic shapes and, therefore, can't reproduce it on my computer.  Lucky for me, the customer gave me choices.  As soon as I saw the choices - one stood out.  An image immediately came to my mind and I sketched it down:

At first, I planned to cut the dinosaur body separate from the spikes because the body is one colour and the spikes are another. Then, I realized I could cut the dinosaur FULL in silhouette - body, spikes and all.  I could then cut the body without the spikes and just layer it on top of the full silhouette.  The spikes will stick out and be placed perfectly every time.  I won't have to place each spike by hand.  (Nor will I have to place that itty bitty eyeball.  It can be the same colour as the spikes if I just cut it as a window through the body layer.)

Here's what it looks like on my computer screen.

And here is is all finished as a Christmas ornament.  The names are too small to make with die cut letters.  I put a gel pen in my machine and drew them.  Then I just coloured them in.

I like that this ornament doesn't have to be an ornament.  It can be a door hanger!  One day, I will have time to make some plain ones, but not until my other custom orders are happily on their way.  I'll tell you about the others later!