Category: Guides

For anyone who talks about their dog like a family member, or keeps more photos of the cat than of the kids, a sculpture of their own pet is a gift that stays on the shelf for years. Our Print Your Pet sculptures start from an ordinary photo. Here’s how to choose the photo, the size and the color.

How it works

1. Choose a size (2, 4 or 6 inches) and one of five colors.
2. Upload one clear photo that shows your whole pet. An ordinary smartphone photo is all we need.
3. If you can, add a second photo of your pet’s side profile. It helps us get the ears, the tail and the shape of the face right.
4. We sculpt and print your pet, then ship it to you, or straight to the person you’re giving it to.
5. If we need anything else, we’ll email you.

Getting the photo right

The photo matters more than anything else, and a good one is easy to take:

• The whole pet, nose to tail. Paws, ears and tail should all be in the picture, not cut off at the edges.
• Get down to their level. Crouch so the camera is at your pet’s eye height rather than looking down on them.
• Soft daylight. Near a window or outside on a bright, overcast day. Harsh sun and dark rooms hide the shape of the face and body.
• A pose you love. We work from your photo, so pick one that shows your pet the way you want to remember them.
• No filters. Portrait mode and heavy filters can blur ears and tails into the background.

Choosing a size and color

• 2 inches is a little keepsake for a desk, a nightstand or a windowsill.
• 4 inches sits nicely on a bookshelf or a side table.
• 6 inches holds its own on a mantel or an entry console.

For color, white and cream give a classic, sculptural look, like a small porcelain figure, and suit almost any room. Black, gray or dark brown can echo your pet’s own coat, or simply match the frames and finishes around it.

Who it’s for

• A friend with a new puppy or kitten, to remember how small they once were.
• Grandparents, who will happily put the family dog on the mantel next to the family photos.
• Someone who has lost a pet. A small sculpture can be a gentle way to keep a companion close.
• Yourself. No one will mind.

Giving it as a surprise

Ordering for someone else? A good photo from their phone or social media works just as well as one you take yourself. At checkout, enter their address as the shipping address and we’ll send it straight to them.

Ordering for Christmas

Custom sculptures need only a little more time than our other pieces. For delivery before Christmas, we suggest ordering by Monday, December 14.

Small gifts are the hardest to get right: they need to be useful or charming, and ideally both. Here are our favorite pieces under $20, all designed and 3D-printed by our family in Windermere, Florida.

For the one who’s always losing their rings

A ring holder by the kitchen sink or on the nightstand gives rings somewhere to go when they come off for washing up or for bed. Ours come as a cat, a little dinosaur and an elephant, each in several soft colors.

For the art lover

Two of the most famous sculptures in the world, at shelf size. The 5-inch versions of the Venus de Milo and Michelangelo’s David fit a bookshelf, a desk or a windowsill, in a marble-effect or white finish.

For the gamer

A crowned skull with a twist-off top for dice, or a skull holder for pencils and dice. For more ideas, see our gifts for D&D players and miniature painters.

For restless hands and tinkerers

The interlocking fidget was tested and approved by our nine-year-old. The mausoleum kit snaps together in minutes with no glue or tools, a tiny build for anyone who keeps a little Halloween all year.

A tree of their own

A small hollow tree costs less than a greeting card, and the tree with hidden legs is pure fun. Ideas for styling them are in our tabletop Christmas tree guide.

If there’s someone in your life who spends Friday nights rolling dice, running a campaign or painting tiny figures under a lamp, here are a few gifts they’ll actually use. Our tabletop pieces are sculpted by Tytan Troll Miniatures, produced under license and printed in resin at 50-micron resolution, fine enough to show every rivet and wrinkle.

Our tabletop miniatures are a last run: when a piece sells out, it won’t be back.

Somewhere to keep the dice

Every player has a dice bag that’s too full. The crowned skull has a twist-off top and was made for role-playing dice; the open skull holders come in three sizes, for dice, pencils and the odd lucky d20.

For the painter

Busts are the miniature painter’s favorite canvas: big enough for real detail in the face, and a finished bust looks great on a shelf. Most come primed in gray, ready for the first coat; a few are left unprimed for painters who like to start from scratch. Each product page says which.

For the Dungeon Master

Every DM loves a surprise. The mimics look like ordinary furniture and cargo, right up until someone gets curious, and the sleeping halfling guard is a ready-made encounter all by himself.

Heroes, villains and a pumpkin

A few single figures for 28mm or 32mm tables, for a new character or a memorable villain. The tiny jack-o’-lantern costs less than a coffee and makes a nice extra for a stocking.

Looking for something for the rest of the party? See our stocking stuffers under $20.

A few small trees can do more for a room at Christmas than one big one: on a mantel, down the middle of the holiday table, on a windowsill or a bookshelf. Here’s how we style our hollow Christmas trees and their more playful cousins, the trees with hidden legs.

Plant a little forest, not a row

A line of identical trees looks like a display shelf. A small forest looks like a scene. Group trees in odd numbers (three, five or seven) and vary the heights so the tallest sits toward the back and the smallest spill forward.

Our hollow trees come in two shapes: pointed trees are taller and slimmer, non-pointed trees are shorter and wider. Mixing the two makes a grouping look more natural, and the sizes run from about 2 to 7 inches, so a set of three already gives you three heights.

Choose a palette

• All white reads like fresh snow: quiet and Scandinavian, and lovely with natural wood, linen, brass and greenery.
• White and green is the classic, cheerful choice, and works with red ribbons and plaid as well as with neutrals.
• Something else entirely: we can print the trees in silver, gold, red, blue, pink and other colors at no extra charge. Add a note to your order or get in touch.

Light them from the inside

The trees are hollow, and the large ones fit a regular battery-operated tea light. Lit from inside, they glow softly, which is especially pretty on a windowsill or an entry table at dusk. Our set of nine comes with two flickering tea lights to get you started.

Use battery tea lights only, never a real candle: the trees are printed in plastic.

On the mantel

Two arrangements always work. Gather a cluster of trees at one end of the mantel and balance it at the other end with something tall, such as candlesticks or a vase of branches. Or run a small forest the whole length, tucked into a garland, with the tallest trees at the back and a few small ones stepping forward. Either way, leave some empty space: a mantel looks calmer when it isn’t full edge to edge.

On the holiday table

Down the center of the table, set the trees in little groups of three along a runner or a strip of greenery, with tea lights in between. Even the tallest tree is only about 7 inches high, so everyone can still see each other across the table. For a dinner party, a small tree at each place setting doubles as a take-home favor.

Give it some personality

For a shelf, a kitchen windowsill or a kid’s room, add a Christmas tree with hidden legs. Tuck the legs in and it stands like any other little tree; let them out and it can sit on the edge of a shelf with its feet dangling, or stand on its own two feet. Add the gold star for a classic finish.

Beside a Christmas village

The small trees, 2 to 3 inches tall, are a nice size to tuck between the houses of a Christmas village or along a train set, where a few white ones look like a snowy wood.

Easy to put away

There’s nothing to water and no needles to sweep up. The trees are light and hollow, so they pack away in a shoebox until next year.

Our ghosts with hidden legs are the most popular thing we make, and it’s easy to see why. With the legs tucked in, each one is a simple, sculptural little ghost. Let the legs out and it suddenly has a personality. Here are our favorite ways to style them for Halloween, plus two tricks from our friends at The Little House on Chestnut.

Start with a family of three

The ghosts come in 2, 4 and 6 inches tall (measured with the legs hidden). Odd numbers and varied heights always look more natural than a matching row, so a small, a medium and a large together read as a little scene: a parent and two kids out for an evening haunt.

Give them a ledge

The legs are made for dangling. Let them out and seat a ghost on the edge of a mantel, a bookshelf, a stack of books, a windowsill or a stair step, with the feet hanging over. On a flat surface like a console table, tuck the legs away and the ghost stands on its own.

Keep the palette calm

White ghosts look elegant next to natural pumpkins, dried leaves, linen, brass and candlelight. Keep everything else soft and let one or two pieces of color do the talking, such as a painted pumpkin scene or a candy corn with hidden legs in its orange socks.

Add a soft glow

Slip a small string of battery-operated fairy lights inside a ghost and it glows from within, lovely on a dark evening or in an entryway. Kara from The Little House on Chestnut shows how:

Get them standing with their legs out

Want a ghost to stand on its own two feet? Let the legs out, then nudge the body slightly forward or back until it balances. It takes a few seconds of fiddling, and then it stays put:

Build a little haunted scene

For a bookshelf or a mantel corner, add a mausoleum model kit: it snaps together in minutes with no glue or tools, and comes with a graveyard base and tombstones. Tuck a ghost or two beside it, add a tea light nearby, and you have a tiny, candlelit graveyard that’s more charming than scary.

Leave them out all autumn

Because they’re friendly rather than frightening, the ghosts don’t have to wait for October 31. Set them out when the first pumpkins arrive and enjoy them all season.