Wanna make shit happen, but also kinda drained? Feeling inspired, but maybe also feel like napping? Excited to hit your goals but maybe like…next week? 

You, me, and everyone else, my friend. Which is why we need some furry friends to both encourage us along the way, and remind us to take it easy. 

I hope these pins remind you that Making Shit Happen is less about hustle & grind, and more about being bold, creative, and tenacious. 

That going after big ideas doesn’t require 5am wake-ups and cold plunges, or 10 steps for success, and that the only thing crazier than seeing a goal come to life is the idea that you can’t also get 8 hours of sleep, make time for hobbies, and cultivate relationships while doing it.

Nah, we’re done with that ish.

About these pins:

These pins have been hand-designed by yours truly, expertly crafted by an experienced manufacturer, and ready to adorn your bag, jacket, or pin collection display!

You’ve got two fun designs to choose from for purchase: 

<< NEW: Plus a 3rd Stretch Goal Design! The "One Step at a Time" Turtle, unlocked at $1400 in funding. 10% of the proceeds will go to CureSearch, a nonprofit that my mom hikes for every year to raise money for kids cancer research in honor of my cousin Lesley. >>

After deciding on the first two lil guys out of several animals and ideas, I ran into a hurdle. Both of them were brown, and they were both holding onto wood…which is also brown. 

I love color. This was not gonna work. Why not my favorite two retro colors instead? 

In the immortal words of Billy Madison “I drew the duck blue because I've never seen a blue duck before, and to be honest with you, I wanted to see a blue duck.”

In this case, it was partially blue (and technically teal), and a beaver. But hey, you get the idea. And thus my teal and orange pin designs were born.

What about the turkey?
This project is a part of Pintopia, which includes a cross-collaboration with another creator. I worked with Justine from the Turkeys on Telegraph campaign. If you pledge for *both* of our projects you will get my "Just Wingin It" turkey mini pin free AND a freebie mini pin from her campaign as well! 

The Just Wingin It pin will NOT be available for sale, so be sure to pledge both projects to grab this awesome freebie!! See the Pintopia section for more details. Note that the pledges must be for physical rewards (i.e. supporter level donations don't count)

The first 48 hours of a campaign are the most important because people like to jump on a moving train. So to give an extra thank you, backers who pledge in the first 48 hours will receive a FREE 3” vinyl sticker of one of the two pin designs! 

Which one? That will be determined by a community poll to see which is most popular. The backer community can VOTE until Sat. March 30th at 12pm PDT. At that point, a winner will be declared!

UPDATE: The winner was... the BEAVER! 🦫

Want to see both sticker designs available? Read on! 

Remember unlocking levels in Mario World? That's how you can think of stretch goals. The more money we raise together beyond the initial funding goal, the more fun stuff we can make happen. 

It’s like a big community thank you hug for collectively taking us to new heights and making it rain (i.e. paying for more production and stuff). 

NEW STRETCH GOAL ADDED!

When stretch goals are reached, you will be able to choose in the survey from any of the unlocked designs for your sticker and/or pin selection!

Here are your options for supporting the campaign and grabbing some goodies:

You'll save $2 per pin AND grab a freebie sticker! 

Totally not into pins but still want to support me in bringing this project to life? 
There is also a $5 no-reward Supporter level just for you. But also...cute animals and retro colors. 
Think hard about that one. 

Didn’t back in the first 48 hours, or want more than just your one freebie sticker? Any backer can add stickers to their order a la carte in the add-ons section of the survey! 

At just 4 bucks each you can buy one for your laptop, one for your water bottle, one for your friend who needs to slow TF down, and one for your boss who has too high of expectations for you. JK, maybe don’t do that last one.

To start, only 1 sticker design will be available, chosen by a poll in the first 48 hours.
[Update: Beaver won!]

But if we hit Stretch Goal #1, both the beaver and sloth designs will be unlocked (i.e. you can buy either). [Update: we did it- both Beaver & Sloth unlocked!]

And if we hit Stretch Goal #2, a third mystery design gets unlocked!
[Update: Raccoon i.e. Trash Panda!]

Welcome to Pintopia — a celebration of creativity and collaboration from a diverse group of artists collectively running enamel pin crowdfunding projects from March 28th - April 18th.

Freebie Cross-Collaboration Pins — All 125+ Pintopia creators have paired up with a fellow participant to create two unique pin designs together. If BOTH projects reach their initial funding goal, backers who support BOTH will get the TWO [2] cross-collab pins for FREE! One from each creator. The more pairs of Pintopia creators you support, the more free pins you will earn ✨

*Pledges must be for physical items to qualify for the freebie pins

Crowdfunding is a way to help independent artists and creators bring ideas to life. I like to think of it as democratized business since it’s you, the community, contributing financially to make this happen.

Logistically, here’s the breakdown: 

IMPORTANT INFO: Shipping is not included in the initial pledge and will be added and charged separately after the campaign ends, in order to give you the most accurate shipping rates.

Shipping Estimates (subject to change, all in USD):
US: $6
Canada: $18
EU: $23
Aus/NZ: $26
Elsewhere: $30

Note that I will be unable to ship to the following countries:

France, Germany, United Kingdom

All orders are shipped through USPS and come with tracking. International backers are responsible for their own countries VAT or import taxes/fees.

When shipping internationally I will make every effort to properly fill out customs forms. I will abide by your country's customs and shipping laws, which means I will denote the package value as the cost of your order, and mark this as merchandise. Please do not ask me to change the value of your package, or mark it as a gift. I am not responsible if your country holds your package and requires extra payment to release it.

March 28th - Campaign Starts
April 18th - Campaign Ends and backers are charged
May 2nd - 5th - BackerKit surveys sent out
May 16th - BackerKit surveys locked down and charged for shipping costs
June 6th - Final quantities and drafts are sent to the manufacturer
6-10 Weeks - Pin and merchandise manufacturing period
Early August - Fulfillment and shipping begins

While I will make every attempt to stick to this timeine, it IS subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances. These include but are not limited to manufacturing delays, customs issues, acts of god, the government shutting down because adults can't cooperate, an occasinal ADHD spiral, or Mercury in Gatorade. 

Please note that while I expect (and hope!) to begin shipping by early August, this doesn't mean you will receive your package immediately at that time. I'm a one-human show, and depending on the total amount of backers (paired with my detail-obsessed Capricorn nature to triple-check everything), the fulfillment period can last several weeks. I appreciate your patience! 

Well, for years I’ve had a business as a Make Shit Happen coach, helping people do the damn thing- putting into action whatever wild, scary, or exciting idea they’ve had but hitting mental and strategic roadblocks along the way. 

Which always involves folks getting out of their comfort zone, pushing past overwhelm, and figuring out (many) new things, usually all at once. 

But occasionally I like to take my own advice. 

I joined BackerKit last year, working on the Success team, and when I saw the invitation to join Pintopia I had that all too familiar see-saw of thoughts:

What a cool opportunity to try something new! // Omg this is overwhelming

Maybe a fun way to learn about crowdfunding? // I should just binge Love is Blind.

Which obviously meant I had to do it. 

So really, welcome to a crowdfunding campaign designed around overcoming resistance… as a way to overcome resistance. Very meta, I know.

Do I know what I'm doing? Eh... Maybe?

Ok, so we were batting near 0 in direct experience going into this, since even my BackerKit work experience is on the post-campaign side of things. One could say I'm ... just wingin it. 😛

 

From wanting to work my way around the world (check) to renovating a vintage campervan with just YouTube University (check) to building a deck from a literal back of napkin drawing. 

(Or like that time in college I invented floating beer pong with a pool raft, solo cups, and velcro. Really shoulda seen that one through, maybe I’d be retired already). 

With that, I knew I could add crowdfunding to the list.  

I’ve leaned into numerous resources from colleagues to other creators, had crash courses in Procreate, and even hired a fellow Pintopian for their “middle man” services to help me bring this to life. 

So do I know what I’m doing? Well, way more than when I started! 

I know that I’m far from alone in going up against resistance, overwhelm, fear, doubt, and all the things that stop us from going after goals big and small, and this project was no exception. 

I’ve also learned the hard way how terrible burnout can be for our mental and physical health while operating in a world that glorifies being busy and attaches our worth to our productivity. 

By pledging to this campaign you are stating that you understand all the below information and agree to our terms and conditions.

Early Bird Pledge Levels
Early Bird pledge levels are only available for the first 48 hours of the campaign! Early bird backers will receive one free 3" sticker with their pledge level. The sticker design can be selected from any of the unlocked designs in the survey post-campaign.

Backer Responsibility
As a backer you are responsible for completing your survey and paying shipping fees within a timely manner, to receive your rewards. As creators, we are only able to communicate with backers through project updates and reminder emails (email correspondence will be sent to the email on file for your pledge). As a backer it is your responsibility to check and read project updates, and to check for survey emails. If you fail to stay updated and do not complete your survey, you could forfeit your rewards. (Read more about reward forfeiture below)

Manufacturing
I've partnered with a very experienced creator for help bringing this campaign to life, and will be using trusted manufacturers that she's worked with before. But occasionally things happen and there are minor delays in manufacturing.

I will always be upfront with backers along the way. I will disclose any setbacks, delays, and any other pertinent updates.

It's important to understand that this is a crowdfunded campaign. Crowdfunded campaigns are often subject to delays due to unforeseen circumstances. Please also understand that money pledged to a crowdfunded campaign is a donation or investment. This is not an online store and you will not immediately receive your rewards after pledging.

Please note that minor changes may occur in production, and that the images presented here are my mock up designs. There is a possibility of slight changes in color and size in the physical item.

Pin Grades
There are two grades of pins: First Grade and B Grade. I will only be offering First Grade pins in this campaign. Remember that my pins are handmade and may have minor cosmetic imperfections.

Examples of First Grade imperfections are as follows, but not limited to:
- Small buff marks, scuffs, or scratches on metal/enamel
- Small specks, pores, or bubbles anywhere on the pin
- Slightly low or uneven fills
- Slightly misaligned screen printed details (for pins with screenprinting)
- Slight variations in the distribution of glitter
- Slight defects in text (this is usually only in pins with small text)
I want to make you aware that these First Grade pins may have small imperfections, but 99% of the time, these imperfections are non-existent or not noticeable.

An important note about color and size.
It is crucial to understand that while I am partnering with an experienced pin designer, the pins in this campaign have not yet been manufactured. The designs you see on this page are mockups, which means the final product may vary in color and size. In most situations, the majority of pins turn out looking like the mockup designs.

Different computers, phones, and other devices have different screen settings which means coloration may vary between screens. I will be using a Pantone Solid Coated book to choose the colors for the designs. The manufacturers use those Pantone numbers to know which colors to mix and apply where, however, looking at a Pantone swatch on paper, is different than looking at a Pantone color in enamel.
Each mockup has a rough estimate of what the size will be. Our sizes are either specifying the general height or width of the pin. The actual size of the physical product may vary.

Glitters, translucent enamel, sand blasted enamel, pearl enamel, and metal plating colors may vary on the physical product.

Refunds or Exchanges
After the campaign has ended, you will have ample time to make your design selections in your BackerKit survey. You will be notified before surveys are locked down and any add-ons are charged. Once your order is locked down, I have a no refunds or exchanges policy. The only time I will issue a refund or replacement, is in extenuating circumstances, or if your pin arrives damaged (please read the section on pin grades to determine if your pin is damaged). If you believe your pin was damaged in transit, please reach out to me immediately and attach photos of the damaged pin.

Forfeiture of Rewards
Once project shipping is completed backers will be notified via a campaign update. This campaign update will have a final survey completion date. If your survey is not completed, and your shipping costs not paid by the completion date, you will forfeit your pledge payment and rewards. I will not fulfill forfeited rewards and pledge levels after the completion date

Lost or never received packages - Forfeiture of rewards
I will make every attempt to get your package from my office to your home. Packages for this campaign will come with a tracking number. Regardless of tracking numbers, sometimes packages are lost in the mail. I will notify backers with an update when the project is near completion. If you have not received your package by the completion of the shipping process, you will have an extended period of time to contact me about a missing package. If you do not contact me within that extended period of time about a lost or never received package, you will forfeit your rewards and I will not provide a refund or re-ship your rewards.

Rubber Backs vs. Locking Backs
Each pin from our campaign will come with rubber backs, but it's been advised to me to highly recommend purchasing locking backs. If you choose to adhere your pin to a jacket, bag, or other item, with a rubber back, and it falls off, I will not replace the missing pin.

Shipping Policies
Please visit the shipping section to read about these policies.