I know these aren’t particularly exciting, complicated or fancy, but this is why I love this machine. 
Friends I haven’t seen in 10 yrs. stopped by for a surprise visit. They didn’t know such thing as a home laser even existed and just didn’t see how useful it really could be. So as we sat here chatting, I whipped up two quick signs for their Gecko cages and 30 minutes later they had custom gifts. They are gobsmacked and are now rethinking the 3D printer they wanted. 
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Love the effect. What material did you use ?
Thanks
John 
PS Daughter breeds geckos, so might be a pressie for her 14 vivariums (?) or whatever !
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Nice! Looks like airbrushed paint on the backside of acrylic to me.
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They are adorable … And will be so fun to see every day!
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You need to contact GEICO to see if you can save 15%
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^^^^^ 
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Thanks John, it’s thick clear acrylic spray-painted on back and then engraved.
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Close! Spray painted
Actually, a 3D printer is a great sidekick for your glowforge hero.
Those names amuse. I totally get the Gamora, but Shaggy?
Is what it is. Great name tags.
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I agree, I do enjoy my 3D printer as well! I just find the GF so much more useful and if I could have just one, it’s not even a contest. Besides the ease of use, the most significant difference for me is the creativity the GF allows. I have used to printer to make specific objects and, once I get them printed correctly, there’s no reason to continue with the project and it’s jut kinda a done deal. With the GF, I’ll tinker and play with the same file over and over and each project is unique.
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Good story. I do like the creativity and wide range of things a laser can do. There are all those broken plastic things though that the 3D printer excels at, but the Glowforge makes the world a more beautiful place, definitely!
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I was thinking that Solomon was a better name than Shaggy but some folk might not be amused.
Excellent! 
OK, here’s how the Gecko names were explained to me:
Shaggy belongs to my Goddaughter and he was named after the Scooby-Doo character which is homage to my hubby who looks like Shaggy, or at least he did in his younger days when he had lots of hair lol 
So poor gender-confused Gamora use to be named “Groot” until “he” started laying eggs and they realized he was a she. I guess they couldn’t live with the image of Groot and Shaggy making little Geckos, so they changed “Groot” to “Gamora”. (Gamora is a friend of Groot.) Apparently Geckos live complicated little lives 
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LOL
Tell me about it. I put finished designs in a FINAL sub-folder so as to not confuse them with the work files.
I have a LOT of Final-2, Final-3, etc…
The struggle is real.
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I suspect I would be doing the same with a n3D printer but the long time and high costs needed for the 3D printer as well as the more nerdy fiddling needed turned the decision to the Glowforge where the cutting time is minutes, and a few hundred dollars of (the less expensive anyway) materials can last for months instead of making a single object in the same side range, and build times that take days instead of minutes.
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Very interesting as I had actually thought their origin was different, That Shaggy as a name for a critter with no hair is kind of like calling a seven foot tall sumo wrestler built person Tiny.
And I thought Gamora was one of the monsters that fought Godzilla. 
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These friends of your sound like keepers! I bet you knocked their socks off with these custom signs.
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