Hey backers!

Just wanted to provide a quick progress report.

A number of you have updated your payment information. Thank you so much for doing so! We're under 1k failed pledges, which is definitely a move in the right direction.



This still puts us under the goal for unlocking the bobcat, though. February 27th is the last day to update your payment information before your pledge shows up at $0 in the pledge manager. So this time next week, I'll provide another update. If the number of failed pledges is under $400, then I'm going to split the difference of the stretch goal and make the bobcat available as a design choice with the others. If it stays above $500, then I'll add that pin to the preorder store to unlock like we did for the sun & moon pins.



Remember that I will post an update before I lock your orders in the pledge manager, so you'll have a warning period where you're able to change your order to include the bobcat pin - however that unlock looks.

Oh yeah.

The bobcat pin!

Ahoy, backers!

This is a long but important update. Please set aside time to read through everything or review the summary at the end. :)

The end of this campaign proved to be a wild ride! Thanks to backer trains, our end timer kept being reset - for 3 hours and 34 minutes after Pintopia ended. Crazy! 

I've drawn up a bobcat design that I'm happy with, and my manu is working on the mockup of the pin now. This unlock is currently in limbo, though. So let me get into the nitty gritty of the campaign.

BackerKit has processed most of the pledges, but there's a substantial number of errored pledges. These errored pledges account for an entire stretch goal. If these payments don't go through, we cannot afford to unlock the bobcat pin. So, please, all of you. Check your pledge and ensure it went through. I, myself, had a couple pledges error because my bank didn't like 15 transactions coming out all at once. So I get it!

Unfortunately, even if all the failed pledges go through, we didn't raise enough to unlock free pins for everyone. I received a lot of positive feedback on these two designs (and I put a lot of work into the moon design to size it down to 1"), so I wanted to provide an opportunity for these pins. You can add these pins to your pledge for just $10 for the set. They will retail for $15 individually.

If you're unfamiliar with how unlocks work in pledge manager: You'll add the pins to your cart and check out per usual. If we reach the goal (35 pairs of pins preordered), then you will be charged for these pins along with your other add-ons and shipping. If we do not reach the order goal, the pins will not unlock, and they'll be removed from your cart and you will not be charged for them. Remember that you're authorizing a payment in pledge manager but your card will not be charged until I lock orders on my end.

Which brings me to my next point of business!

Throughout the campaign, I offered free shipping if you backed both this project and our collab partner (Live out Loud). I wanted to provide a reminder here of how that will look.

1) You will fill out both pledge managers per usual. You will see shipping charges on both pledges. Please check out and authorize payment as you would normally. Your card will not be charged until I lock orders.
2) We've already identified all 63 backers that backed both campaigns. When all of those surveys are filled out, we'll compare your backer profiles side by side in our campaigns. The survey with the lower shipping charge will receive a complimentary credit for the shipping amount.
3) We will then lock orders and your cards will be charged.
4) Done. You got free shipping on one of your orders.

If you have any questions regarding this, please just reach out. :)

Finally - 

Processed funds should be released to my bank ~Feb 28th.

I'd like to get estimated counts of pins as soon as possible, so I may place the order as soon as funds are in hand. So reward surveys are going out tomorrow. Once 70-80% of surveys are returned, I'll place the production order. I'll be ordering a little extra of each pin to have on hand for conventions and events, but if you want to guarantee to get the designs you want, fill out your survey and do it early. I will post an update and lock orders with warning. This means that you'll have three (3) days to finalize your pledge manager before it's locked. Both the update and that warning will be your reminders to fill out your survey. If you fill out your survey after the order is placed, we'll most likely be able to fulfill your order but, again, there are no guarantees.

Reward surveys will not include the bobcat pin. If enough funds clear to re-unlock that stretch goal, I will add it to the survey and post an update so y'all can update your pledge if you'd like.

1) If your payment didn't go through, please correct this as soon as possible.
2) Reward surveys are going out tomorrow.
3) The bobcat pin will not be included unless enough funds are processed unlock the design.
4) Sun & Moon pins can't be free, but they're deeply discounted. Preorder those to unlock them.
5) Read the FAQ about free shipping. Please just fill out your pledge manager as usual and trust the process.
6) Fill out your pledge manager as soon as you're able. Rewards are not guaranteed if you're late.

I think that's everything for now! I'll be back with more updates as things develop.

Hey Backers!

We're in the homestretch. Just one more week for Pintopia. :D

At the time of me writing this, we're just over 7k in funding. The number has been teetering back and forth by $50 or so, which is why I haven't officially unlocked our 7k stretch goal - the turtle - but rest assured that unlocked designs will be reflected in the reward survey even if I don't get the chance to update the campaign page. All unlocks will be based on the final funding amount.

That being said

I do have updates on some of the new unlocks! I've been hard at work designing these new pins, and I hope you all like them as much as I do. :D Backers can find these lower in the update - they're locked for backer eyes only as a special preview before I update the campaign page. <3

Before I get to the backer only goodies, I want to share a project I'll have launching next month:


Now onto the good stuff :D

I've updated the project page to reflect new stretch goals. Before I had the chance to do so, we passed 5k! So the fox and raven pins are unlocked and will be available as pin choices through your reward surveys. These pins will also be added to the all-in tiers. The price of the all-in tier will not change, and I will not be adding additional tiers. The all-in tier is just how it reads: all-in. So no matter how many pins we unlock, you'll be getting them all. <3

The deer/stag was a popular write in vote! So that'll be our next unlock, aka my next project haha! I'm working on additional designs and will have our page updated to reflect those as soon as my manu is back from holiday. It's the Lunar New Year, so I expect to hear from them next week. Until then:


I want to draw special attention to the 10k goal. These will be small sun and moon designs that I've been working on. They're planned to be 1" in size, but I want to try and go as small on these as I can. I personally love small pins, and I think a couple of small designs will be real cute with our big animals. These two pins will unlock if we hit 10k, and they'll be added to each and every tier for free on unlock!

They hit their 1k goal! So the mini music notes have unlocked. :D They're available as an add-on or as their own tier! So you can back for just some mini music notes if you like. Backing both campaigns also gets you an additional free pin from both of us. (A feather pin from me, and headphones from her.) We're also coordinating our shipping, so backing twice means you only pay for shipping once.
 

Heya backers!

The poll hasn't closed yet, but I wanted to get a jump on designing some new pins. And I ended up going on a journey. Fox had a strong initial lead, so I started working on that. Then raven jumped ahead, so I swapped gears. Haha! Now I have two designs I'll be sending off to my manu for mock ups.



With the rumors of increased tariffs, it's a little uncertain just how much extra these designs will cost. Reports have additional Chinese tariffs (most pin factories are in China!) have been spouting numbers anywhere from 10-60%, and if you don't know: It's not Chinese factories paying these tariffs, it's the importer - aka, your humble small business.



Keeping that in mind, additional pins will be unlocking at every $1,000 benchmark. This will provide enough padding to account for all the extra pins that will be ordered.

That means - unless y'all do something crazy in the poll! - the raven and fox design will be unlocked when we hit $5,000. If we start creeping on 6k, we'll have some more designing to do. Deer or stag was really popular in the comments! Maybe I should get working on that. :D

My sister & collab campaign are so close to unlocking their mini music note pins! It'd be sure awesome if we could bump them over 1k this weekend :D [LINK]

Honestly, he's so cute. New stretch goal is just money for me to back this, okay? Okay.