To the Moon and Back: Space Animal Enamel Pins

so, let's start with the good news: i was finally able to link up a new fulfillment integration (chitchats) that's allowed me to resume shipments to the US. i've set up three test orders to see how it goes & to ensure that everything gets delivered successfully; if these tests go well, US fulfillment can resume in its entirety.

...now for the bad news 🥲

these test orders i set up were campaign orders with roughly the same item setup: a pin + postcard set, the campaign bonus stickers, and one of the pin banners. of these items, everything but the stickers and prints were manufactured in china. with the new tariff rates on chinese goods entering the US (not to mention the rate on canadian goods, which is less than the chinese one but still substantial), the total tariff fee i had to pay for each of these packages was about $35 CAD, or $25 USD.

to be as frank as i can be: there is no way i can reasonably afford $35 out of pocket for the remaining US orders i need to fulfill. to be clear, this is all in part my fault; had i been more efficient with ordering items for the campaign and gotten to fulfillment sooner, maybe i could have avoided this entirely. i don't know!!

regardless, it's where we're at now, and i'll admit that im at a loss with how to proceed. i'll be continuing to ship other non-US orders, and maybe for now i'll simply have to just ship out US orders here and there when i have the spare funds to do so. it also doesn't bode well for future backerkit campaigns, since i would need to be adding a $35 tariff fee to everyone's shipping payments, which sucks!! i don't want to pass this cost on to you guys!

i don't know. i'm still figuring out how to proceed moving forward, but i wanted to at least update you guys with where i'm at currently. if you package was one of the ones i'm sending out monday, you'll get an email then with your tracking information!

honestly, this sucks. it sucks that the situation in the US has gotten so out of control. it sucks that small businesses are the ones disproportionately affected by these new fees and rules. it sucks that things will be more expensive for literally all of us when it's already so hard to make ends meet for everyone rn. i'm sorry for letting my frustration slip through here, but this impacts not just my backerkit campaigns moving forward, but the future for my online shop & entire art business as well. 

)as a reminder, if you also backed the batpack campaign, your batpack orders are being fulfilled by white squirrel in the US so those shipments are unaffected!)

hopefully in the next update i'll have some better news, but we'll see 🤞 until next time, thank you for reading!

hey all! as i mentioned in my last post, my goal was to ship out as many US orders before the 29th as possible to avoid the upcoming changes to import duties, & i was able to get about 30% of the way through orders before it became too risky to risk shipping things out too close to the deadline; packages I dropped off on friday only got picked up on monday, and a few orders that i had to ship through a non-USPS service are already getting held due to import fees. so, we're gonna play it safe and hold off on shipping anything else to the US until we know a but more about how much import duties may be/ensure that there's a system in place that will allow you guys to actually pay them & get your items.

some of you should have received your packages already! if you did, I would love to see pictures of them, or to just know that they arrived safely! more orders should be trickling in over the next week or so, so if you got a shipping email notification, keep an eye out!

ill be keeping a close eye on the tariff situation & will update you guys as soon as I have a plan to move forward with the rest of fulfillment. 🖤 until then, have a great rest of your week, everyone!

hey everyone! GOOD NEWS -- as of today, people will begin getting shipping notifications for their orders shipping out!! YIPPEE

right now, im trying to get as many ordeds out before august 29th as I can. as you may have heard, the US will be removing the de minimis exception that allowed business in certain countries to import goods duty free if the declared value was less than $800. with this removed, it means that anyone receiving my products in the US may be subject to tariffs and import duties after the 29th.

i say MAY because there's a few things to note:

- before the 29th, everything will be proceeding as normal!
- canada domestic & other international orders aren't affected 
- after the 29th, ill be testing to see exactly how much in tariffs/duties will be assessed on average. this may unfortunately just be something people in the US will have to keep in mind from now on, but we'll see :(
- since the US has hinted that they might just be slapping an $80 flat fee on EVERYTHING coming into the US from canada, and im not willing to subject you guys to that, im also looking into other shipping options that allow me to pre-pay duty fees ahead of time that MAY avoid that random charge entirely. but its an additional cost that I wasnt planning for so! we'll see!!

there's a lot of what ifs and maybes floating around with all this uncertainty, which feels like its been a constant throughout this whole summer. yeesh!! but for now, keep an eye on your email for a tracking notification to see if your package will be on its way soon!

(AN ADDITIONAL NOTE: im managing backerkit fulfillment via shopify, which is brand new for me! so you may get a shipping notification from both shopify & backerkit -- dont worry, they're both me!)

hey everyone!! amazing news -- the pins arrived a few days ago & they look AMAZING 😭😭



I was hoping to have a better photo to show yall, but they arrived literally the day before I was set to leave for a trip, so ill have better photos to share next week!

we're still waiting on a few of the add-on items, but fulfillment for anyone who just ordered pins & the add-ons i already have will begin next month :) right on schedule!

I have a VERY limited amount of extra pins here with me at fur-eh 2025 in edmonton, so if you happen to be at the con this weekend, be sure to stop by and check out the pins in person! 

its here!! id requested that my manufacturer show me a photo of the pin colors before we begin final production/metal plating, just to ensure all the pantone colors worked well together -- and they look amazing!!

we just have the photo for miss baker for now, and remember, this is BEFORE the metal plating process, which is why the metal isn't gold! all the pins will be gold plated in final production.



look at how pretty and big it is!! i cant WAIT to see how she (and everyone else) looks with the screen print details & gold plating. production is moving pretty quickly and I should have more photos pretty soon! ✨️