The surveys were approved to be sent out, so the Smoke Test surveys have been sent!
In order to catch any potential issues in the survey, a Smoke Test has been sent out to 22 Backers as a preliminary before the remainder of the surveys go out to the rest of you!
If you are one of the backers who received this smoke test survey, please fill it out as soon as possible! If you come across any issues while filling out your survey, please let me know!
🌻Sampling Stage 🌻
Now that the surveys are in progress and (hopefully) going out to the rest of backers in the next 48 hours, my next goal is getting each of the binder designs into production sampling!
I plan to get both the binders, and the acrylic tags into the sampling stage this week! Once I receive the samples, I'll be sharing photos and, as long as no changes need to be made, they can move straight to production.
Exciting stuff! I can't wait to get the samples into my hands.
As always, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment or reach out!
I'll be in touch again once the smoke tests have cleared and the rest of the surveys have been sent out!
Thank you all SO MUCH for your support on this binder project! I can't wait to get the rest of the samples in my hands to show off for all of the stretch goal designs!
🌺 Some fun facts of the campaign:
⭐ Cute Collectors reached 428 Backers with $33,515 in total funds raised!! ⭐ You all collectively ordered 736 Binders and 239 Acrylic Binder Tags! ⭐ You smashed through every single stretch goal I had planned, with the initial funding goal getting knocked out within 15 minutes of launch!
❗Check Your Payments! ❗
Most pledge payments have processed without issue (thank you!), but there are still a few thousand dollars of failed payments, so this is our first formal reminder to please double-check the cards you used for your pledge!
If your payment details need to be updated, no worries! Backerkit will remind everyone untilSeptember 10th to correct any payment issues you have. After that, the funding will be locked and you will no longer be able to pay for your pledge, so please get those corrections in as soon as possible!
🌻 Survey Phase & Next Steps 🌺
I am currently working on setting up the surveys all backers will be receiving soon! For those unfamiliar with crowdfunding, a survey will be sent out, usually two weeks after the campaign ends, so that backers may select the designs that wanted for their pledges as well as add on any additional items.
📢 In addition, the surveys will also be where you will pay the fee for shipping the items in your pledge! 📢
Shipping is charged during the survey phase rather than the campaign phase in order to more accurately account for carrier costs frequently changing as well as allowing a smoother fulfillment process overall.
I am aiming for the surveys to be sent out around September 10th, with a smoke test being sent out to a select few backers ahead of time in order to test the survey and ensure everything is laid out properly. So please keep an eye on your emails!
As always, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment or reach out!
I'll be in touch again soon when payments close and surveys are able to be sent out.
We still have a cool 24 hours left and EVERYTHING has been unlocked!! Everyone will officially have 6 unique binder designs and 6 acrylic binder tag colors to choose from!!
Cherry Blossom Binder: UNLOCKED ✅ Ginkgo Leaf Binder: UNLOCKED ✅ Monstera Leaf Binder: UNLOCKED ✅ Bluebell Binder: UNLOCKED ✅ Purple Hydrangea Binder: UNLOCKED ✅ White Lily of the Valley Binder: UNLOCKED ✅
Cherry Blossom Acrylic Tag: UNLOCKED ✅ Ginkgo Acrylic Tag: UNLOCKED ✅ Monstera Leaf Acrylic Tag: UNLOCKED ✅ Bluebell Acrylic Tag: UNLOCKED ✅ Purple Hydrangea Acrylic Tag: UNLOCKED ✅ White Lily of the Valley Acrylic Tag: UNLOCKED ✅
I'm honestly blown away by the response to this! I know it sounds old and tired, but I genuinely cannot thank you all enough for the support you've all shown this project. It really means a lot to me to be able to branch out and try new things with the merch I design and it feels amazing when folks are as excited about it as I am!
I've had a few more questions pop up and wanted to do a quick FAQ down below:
➡️ Will I be able to add on more items to my pledge when the campaign ends?
Yes! Once the campaign ends, my next step will be working on a survey so that everyone can fill out which designs they want. During this phase of the project, you'll be able to select the designs you pledged for during the campaign, add on any additional items you may want, and pay for your shipping!
➡️ Will you have leftover stock of the binders available in your shop later?
The short answer -- YES!
The long answer: Yes, but I have NO idea when that will be. As always, my focus lies on getting everyone their rewards as fast I can, and the leftovers won't be listed in my shop until everyone who pledges to the project receives their order first. This also ensures I can still rectify any lost packages, which can happen sometimes!
There's a chance I may open up a few extra pre-orders via the Backerkit Pre-Order Shop once I have a better idea of the design quantities people are ordering. If I do end up opening those at a later date, I'll place the announcement here!
When it comes to placing orders through the Backerkit Pre-Order Shop, all orders will be put on the same timeline as backers, AKA you will have to wait to receive them just like anyone else who backed the project. Pre-Orders would NOT be shipped out faster.
➡️ Conclusion
Thank you all again SO MUCH for making this project a reality!! I will be in touch again once I have updates on the survey and when those will be going out!
We're down to the wire here on our final three days of the campaign! As promised, I've got the final design ready to reveal, which will unlock at $29,000 USD! We're already well on our way and I believe we can get this guy unlocked before this project comes to a close 💪💪
➡️ Design Reveal: White Lily of the Valley 🎉🎉
For the final design (for this campaign), I thought long and hard about what would fit the collection and colors the best. I had a few ideas on different colors I ended up scraping or pocketing for a later project, and the result is something neutral, but will be very elegant: A White Lily of the Valley Binder!
The mockups look a bit gray-ish, but this was entirely to ensure the binder could still have the contrast to see the design properly on monitors. The real physical binder itself will be white.
With all of the binder interiors having white pages, I feel this was a bright, clean look to round out the whole squad.
➡️ Additional Pledge Tier: Binder Tag Only
Some folks have asked for a pledge tier for only binder tags, so I went ahead and added that pledge tier for those who only want the tags for the binders they already own.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do not add binders to this tier!! There are already binder tiers available if you choose to add acrylic tags as add-ons!!
➡️ Final Unlock After Lily of the Valley
Lastly, at 30,000 USD, the last two acrylic tag designs for the purple hydrangea and white lily of the valley will be the final thing to unlock outside of the last binder design!
I can't believe it's already almost over and we've covered so much ground! I can't thank you all enough for the immense amount of support you've all shown for this project.
I've never done high-ticket items like this before and my audience is not primarily TCG fans, so suffice to say this project was a scary thing to put dozens of hours of work into to make it happen! I really appreciate you all for believing in the vision. ❤️
I'll be in touch again soon to give any final updates on what unlocks in the last 72 hours!
As we're nearing the end of the campaign, I have a very quick update to cover some questions I've been asked, talk about milestones, and discuss the final hidden design!
➡️ Purple Hydrangea is UNLOCKED 🎉🎉
I almost didn't have time to blink, but Purple Hydrangea is now the 5th unlocked design backers will be able to choose from at the end of the campaign! Thank you all SO MUCH!
➡️ Last Design Reveal: August 24th 👀
The last design of the campaign will be revealed tomorrow here in the updates section. I won't give anything away just yet, but feel free to guess in the comments on what you think it may be. I'm super excited to show it off!
➡️ FAQ: Will this campaign have "pay over time" ?
Unfortunately due to how expensive binders can be to produce, enabling Pay Over Time could end up with the campaign lacking the necessary funds to proceed to production and push out the timeline a substantial amount while waiting for funds to roll in.
In order to keep the project moving on track so that all backers can receive their goods sooner, I won't be doing Pay Over Time for this campaign.
If you find yourself in a tight spot financially, I will also have any leftovers available in my shop next year once all orders here are fulfilled, so if you need to downgrade your pledge a binder or two, please do so!
➡️ FAQ: Will you add more discount pledges?
I've had several folks ask me about adding more pledge tiers that have discounted binders, similar to the 3 Binder Discount Pledge Tier.
I was trying to figure out how to manage this while also ensuring that the Early Bird tier members still get the perks that were expected.
With this, I've decided to add two more tiers: A 5x Binder Discount Tier and a 7x Binder Discount Tier, keeping up with theme of odd-numbered binder amounts like the 3-Binder Tier.
I hope this can suffice and still please everyone! Early Bird tier members have the perk of being able to purchase any number of binders at the $5 OFF discount price, but anyone who missed early bird can still pledge for a specific number of binders and get a discount as well.
The new tiers are up and ready to be pledged to right now!
