Ribbits everyone!

Quickly popping in to let you know almost all Backer packages are sent off!
Here's a run down for those who love numbers. (It's not me, numbers aren't my friend, ahaha.)

- There are 13 who didn't fill in their survey; Four of those supported with a $1 backing (offered to fellow Pintopian artists). The others either paid their pledge choice (or didn't) and never filled in the survey.
- There are 7-8 whose cards need to be charged. They filled in the survey's but still need to pay the outstanding sum. The cards either refused or had insufficient funds.
- The last 23 have paid but are all combined shipping. Meaning they will have to wait until Roundbirbart is back in her office again to pack them together.

The other 292 Backers should have gotten a mail saying it's on their way or even a tracking number with it. All packages are sent with tracking and are officially out of my office. The last 100+ I sent off myself will have their tracking probably be active around Thursday or Friday.

BackerKit unfortunately doesn't always recognize the carrier's tracking numbers. Please use https://parcelsapp.com/ to track your package. Once your package arrives in the destination country it will also be traceable through your local postal service!

If you live outside of the Netherlands your parcel will be shipped via Deutsche Post. If you live in the Netherlands it'll be shipped through PostNL.

In August I hope to have another crowdfunding project, albeit a bit smaller and without a collab pin option. Just to test the waters and expand the enamel pin selection of amphibians. The theme will be Poison Dart Frogs and Salamanders. I'm thinking around 3-5 poison dart frogs with 2-3 salamanders. You can hit the
Check out the teaser page if you are interested in this new project.

Feel free to tag me on socials when you receive your enamel pins and other goodies. I'd love to see where they hopped to!
Instagram | BSKY | Discord | Twitter

As always I hope you all have a frogtacular day!

Ribbits everyone,

Some might have seen it from Roundbirbart's update already but we've started shipping all the enamel pins! I had to process the tracking numbers, survive the packing week plus I had Dutch Comic Con. But I survived so here's an update for you all.

For those who chose combined shipping, your orders have either been packed and shipped or waiting on being picked up by the postal service. Roundbirbart will be out of town for a 3 week trip so you will have to wait a bit longer. Until mid to late July.

I have 119 orders left to pack and ship off myself, which I hope to start getting to this week. I had to clean up after the convention first, to make literal room for the parcels, but all should start going out next week, I hope!

BackerKit unfortunately doesn't always recognize the carrier's tracking numbers. Please use https://parcelsapp.com/ to track your package. Once your package arrives in the destination country it will also be traceable through your local postal service!

If you live outside of the Netherlands your parcel will be shipped via Deutsche Post. If you live in the Netherlands it'll be shipped through PostNL.

There are 9 of you out there who have a failed charge on your card. I will try to re-charge again on 26th of June and I want to ask you to check if you have sufficient funds, check if all is in order or maybe do an authorization.

Some of those 9 failed charges had a SCA regulation mention which (if I understand it correctly) you'll need (next to authentication also) to authorize the payment. (I think this is like how VISA does a 2 step check with their app here in the Netherlands.)

In August I hope to have another crowdfunding project, albeit a bit smaller and without a collab pin option. Just to test the waters and expand the enamel pin selection of amphibians. The theme will be Poison Dart Frogs and Salamanders. I'm thinking around 3-5 poison dart frogs with 2-3 salamanders. You can hit the
Check out the teaser page if you are interested in this new project.

Feel free to tag me on socials when you receive your enamel pins and other goodies. I'd love to see where they hopped to!
Instagram | BSKY | Discord | Twitter

As always I hope you all have a frogtacular day!

Ribbits everyone!

Here to bring the good news that I just received the Fedex tracking for all the enamel pins!
It's divided over 2 boxes for a total of a whopping 27 kilogram!
I'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed it will arrive before I leave for the convention DoKomi next week. I'd like to be sure I got them in before I leave, relief for my brain and all that.

Here's a big overview (and rambling, sorry I am a yapper) in case the enamel pins arrive on time!
(If they arrive whilst I am away to the convention a lot can be disregarded, ahaha.)

I won't have time to pack the enamel pins for all the backers before I leave for DoKomi. Fedex guesses I will receive the pins 1-2 days before I leave to the con. *sweats*
I also have to coordinate with Roundbirbart for all the combined shipping orders. My priority is to do this straight after the convention weekend. We both have another convention (Dutch Comic Con) two weeks after DoKomi so I will try to pack/ship as many as I can in between those conventions. 

I also plan to bring a small amount of enamel pins to the upcoming DoKomi convention (if they arrive on time). The enamel pins I will sell at the convention will come from the overstock that I ordered next to the amounts the Backers pre-ordered.
Preparing for the biggest conventions that are (almost) back to back really put a dent in my budgets and I'd like to use the sales of the overstock to prepare for the last half of 2025.
It will also help prepare for the next crowdfunding I'm planning in August. I'll be focusing on more poison dart frogs and I'm also thinking salamanders!

It feels horrible to sell the pins on a convention already whilst the Backers are all still waiting but I want to stress that I will have enough enamel pins and that backers have precedence on the pins straight after the convention. I'm thinking of just bringing one bag of each pin to the convention and that's it. I want to see how people react in real life to the pins and what they think of it.

With the delivery of shipment now imminent, here is the heads up for the locking of the survey and charging of the cards for the survey. On Tuesday 3 June I will lock and charge in one go.

Roundbirbart had contacted everyone to double check with the Local Pickup for combined shipping in my survey and I have manually updated about 40 Backers to fix it.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier. Don't worry about feeling like you are bothering me with questions, I'm here to help!
With the convention coming up I might not respond until after Monday 9th of June.

I've been asking around and so far no one has had any troubles when they we sending from the Netherlands to the United States. I am expecting this as well but as a heads up, something to keep in mind, there might be possible extra costs for you, the Backer, when the parcels arrive and are imported into the US. I expect it to not happen but we never know and want to keep you updated about it regardless.

Completely forgot to show the finished backing card last update. This is the backing card the two freebie pins will be pinned on for all the combined shipping backers. Just two friends in a pond! (Pins are placeholder images, these will be the actual pins in reality.)

The Early frog freebie and extra's which could be purchased via the survey are all here as well!
They look pretty cute, can't wait to use them myself. 

When all is finished and wrapped up the leftovers and overstock will be added to my online shop. I will also bring them with me to upcoming conventions later in 2025 and 2026. The freebie pin will be 'while stock lasts' available for purchase as well. Enamel pin prices will be higher than during crowdfunding, price will be €15 per enamel pin, Northern Glass Frog and the set of Tadpoles will be higher, yet to be determent.

I cannot 100% guarantee pick up will be available for DoKomi but I like to try and offer it for those attending. Please send me a message through the contact form on my website, before June 3rd for Dokomi! And I will try to get back to you asap. Disclaimer: this can only be done if I receive the pins on time. If I do not get them on time I will let you know.

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And that's it for this froggy yapper. Thank you for reading, ahaha.
If the pins do not arrive before the convention, you can disregard all the points around the convention. I will start fulfillment after the convention weekend regardless :) 
Have a great weekend everyone!

Ribbits everyone!

I've said multiple times now that I wouldn't update too much but I'm just too excited to not pop in and show some pins! I think you all don't mind.

More sample pictures
Past weeks I've been surprised by my manu with screenprint sample pictures. I had not expected them to be honest, but this is the first time I'm doing screenprint and working directly with a pin manufactor instead of a middle man. Pleasantly surprised tho! I'm only missing the Black rain frog. I received it but the screenprint was so light I asked if they could change it to another. Waiting on that one for now. All others are now approved tho! (The tadpoles were done already, they didn't had any screenprint.)

The Pacman frog had some issues with the screen print colour at first. So I asked for another colour but that was not it. But now the left is the final choice and approved one! Right is way too bright, would be a good one for the albino colour variant. Maybe in a future crowdfunding or pre-order in the shop.

Freebie enamel pin backing card
In the meantime I've also finished the freebie backer pin backing card. Not yet ordered but I'm still waiting on the pins so there's not need for it yet.

Combined Shipping
Regarding the combined shipping Roundbirbart has emailed a bunch of you already to check if you wanted combined shipping or not. I've processed those who emailed back manually. So those who mailed back should now have 'Local Pickup' in their survey country address.
Please double check yourself if you have the Collab freebie pin from us both and you want combined shipping to enter 'Local Pickup' in your address line instead of United States/Germany/whatever country the pins need to go to. This only counts for my survey.

Shipping and tariffs
Like the last update it's changing all the time. The 200+% has dropped down again now to.. somewhere around 50% for those in the United States. This will be until August somewhere but we'll just have to see how it'll go. To prepare yourself, expect a payment needed with anything coming from outside of the United States. For orders outside of Europe it's an additional 20%, but there's also the de minimum. My thoughts are: prep some budget on the side for any possible extra payments you need to pay as the person 'importing' the items. That way you are prepared!

Locking surveys and charging cards
Here to mention I'll be locking survey's and charging cards when I get a shipment notice of the enamel pins. Not sure when that'll happen,but I'll be sure to let you all know a few days before that. Just make sure all is set and filled in correctly. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier. Don't worry about feeling like you are bothering me with questions, I'm here to help!

When will the pins be shipped
I'll be honest, I don't know exactly if all the approved screenprint samples are now in production or done already. These photo's were sent to me over the past few weeks. I think it's safe to say I won't receive the enamel pins before the weekend of 7 and 8 June. I have the German convention DoKomi then and would have liked to offer pick up there. Bu I don't think I'll have them by then.

And that's all it! If you are attending DoKomi beginning of June I'll be in Hall 4 at booth 4M03 and I wish you a very fun convention weekend. The next convention will be Dutch Comic Con two weeks after. Can't wait till I have the pins tho, super stoked for them!

Wishing you a frogtacular early weekend!

P.S. I'm overly excited but I'm planning to do a much smaller crowdfunding in August. Focused on poison dart frogs and possibly salamanders. Hit the 'count me in' button if you like to stay updated. Nothing is set yet but hope you are excited for this as much as I am already, ahaha.

Ribbits frogs!

All enamel pins are officially in full production! To celebrate, here are all the enamel pin sample pictures I've received. There are a few with some minor edits and they are all very nakey without their screenprint.. but I'm super excited about them all! 

The Nothern glass frog will be partially transparent and the Black rain frog will have recessed textured metal with semi transparent resin in a brown colour on it. It's all working out as planned so far, so super pleased with that!

Love to hear what you think of all these Frogtastic Frogs!

A little information recap for your ease:

Locking and charging the survey's won't happen before the end of April.
I will first check for all the combined shipping if that's set up correctly and after that I'll give an heads up when I will lock and charge the survey's. I'll probably to the route that Roundbirbart did: charging and locking the survey's when the enamel pins are being sent yo me.

Please keep an eye out on your email (the one you use for Backerkit) in case I contact you about the combined shipping.

No backer but interesting in the frog pins?
For those who didn't join the campaign I have opened a pre-order shop!
Pre-orders made in this shop will be shipped out together with the Backer fulfillment.

What about the tariffs?
Just like Roundbirbart I am located in the Netherlands, Europe.
It's still unclear how this would look like with all the tariffs, but I can warn you all to be prepared to pay 20% extra on top when the parcel will arrive in the US. That's how these tariffs work, the percentage amount needs to be paid extra. That said for the Netherlands there's still the de minimum active (anything under $800 will be exempt for customs) so there's also a chance no extra costs will happen.

Everything else I'm still looking into, seeing how it's going for those shipping things out now, etc. But I think it is safe to say: expect to pay some more money when the parcel arrives in the US. These costs are for those 'importing' the parcel, so that would be you, the backer. There's also a chance no extra costs will pop up but I want to be clear and transparent on this part. I'll continue with the 'wait and see' mindset for now and keep you updated.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier.

Have a frogtastic week everyone!