Now that we've announced our winners for the Squshify My Pet contest we are going to show you the process of a custom order. Our style may have evolved from what is pictured below, but the process remains the same.
Our most popular custom request is for ornaments that look like pets.
We offer a selection of dog breed and cat breed ornaments in our shops, but sometimes they just aren't the right match for your pet. Maybe your pet is a wonderful mix of breeds or has different markings from what we offer on our standard design. Or maybe your pet is a breed we don't currently offer in the shop.
The first step in creating a custom ornament is making a sketch. The purpose of the sketch is to give a good approximation of how the finished ornament will look. We use digital colors that represent the felt colors we have as closely as possible. We also keep the limitations of felt in mind when we make the sketch.
Before we start a sketch we love to get pet photos to work from. Photos from straight on are the best. Each of our contests winners sent in their cutest photo for the contest. After voting ended we asked our winners for any additional photos they thought might be helpful in making the sketch of their pet.
The photo on the left was our 1st place winner's entry in the contest and the photo on the right is the additional photo we received.
This is the sketch we made from the photos. Since this dog was our first place winner, this is the sketch that will be turned into an ornament for the contest.
The photo on the left was our 2nd place winner's entry and the photo on the right is one of the additional photo we received for the sketch.
Here's the sketch we made.
The photo on the left was our 3rd place winner's entry and the photo on the right is the additional photo we were sent.
Now this sketch was a bit tricky. This dog has beautiful, but complex markings. We could make a super fancy sketch, that includes more of the markings, but we could never create it in felt. Keeping our limitations with felt in mind, we made a sketch that we could make into an ornament while hopefully still capturing the essence of the dog's unique look.
With all custom orders, once we have a sketch, we send it out for review and feedback. We sent each of our contest winners the sketch of their dog so they can let us know what they think.