Today, I etched a picture onto a leatherette ornament and learned about how to use a laser engraving printer in the process!
I decided to go with a cat theme because this past Christmas, I had planned to travel with my cat Scarlet, but ended up staying in Sioux Falls because the weather was too intense for traveling.
This was her reaction:
Since cats are notorious for thinking Christmas trees are giant toys just for them, I designed a riff on the idea of a cat attacking tree ornaments:
The font is taken from here: https://www.dafont.com/baubles.font
It’s free for personal but not commercial use!
The cat is a modified version of the one in this font: https://www.dafont.com/animals.font
I drew the rest of the line art using the paintbrush tool and star shape tool in Illustrator, and gave everything soft edges and a playful, loose style of drawing.
When etching on this specific material (leatherette), very fine lines tend to get lost, and simple shapes with bold lines come out the most accurate and visible. I simplified the design a few times before finally sending it to the printer!
Here’s the result:
I love how it came out so clear and you can almost hear the tinkling sound of the bauble the cat is grabbing! It even looks like the cat is smiling with amusement at the mayhem it’s causing!
I plan on adding a tiny jingle bell to the string of this for extra whimsy since Scarlet loves the sound of jingle bells.