Flying Friends: A Batpack Companion Project

hi ya'll! we're starting to get close to the launch of the campaign, so here's the reveal for the pin design backers who pledged to both the batpack project & my pintopia 2025 project will receive for FREE if they choose to pledge to flying friends!

 
this design will be 2.5in -- so slightly bigger than the main campaign pins -- and i'd like to play around with soft enamel and antiqued metal to give it a bit of a vintage look! what do you think?

hello all! i hope you had a happy & safe holiday season, and welcome to 2026!! 🎉

as you all know (i assume), the flying friends pintopia project officially launches on january 22nd. as we get closer to the project launch date, i wanted to share a few key details i've worked out over the holiday break, after getting quotes from my manufacturers & doing some number crunching!

so, with all that being said, let's get into our first 3 campaign goals!



if the campaign reaches its base funding amount of $1000 USD, we'll unlock the marine bat soft enamel rainbow pin!

what with marine & tangerine bat getting the short end of the stick during the batpack campaign last year, i really wanted to put one of them in the spotlight for this campaign. this design has a lot of fun new tricks, including soft enamel with a clear coating (to mimic hard enamel) and TRANSPARENT enamel (!!!), along with a nifty rainbow metal finish! i was most excited for this one, myself, so i really hope you guys like it too :)



next up, at $2000 USD, we unlock the dreamy bat gold hard enamel pin!

dreamy bat was a fan favorite during the batpack campaign, so they were a shoe in choice for getting a pin during this year's pintopia. you're all pretty familiar with the gold metal hard enamel pins i like to make -- most of my pins are similar to this -- but this little guy will also be a bit bigger at 2in tall!



finally, at $3000 USD, we'll unlock another pin with a new-to-me feature: a gold hard enamel hanging bat pin!

i was torn between this design & a few of the other sketches i shared initially for the 3rd starting slot, but i wanted to focus on some new design concepts rather than just making standard pin designs, so i went with this guys so we can try out the hanging chain concept! i own a few pins like this and absolutely love them, so i'm really hoping this little guy turns out well!!  🤞 

there's still a lot of pre-planning work to be done before the 22nd, but i'll keep sharing more sneak peeks when i can! a lot of my time lately has been spent puzzling out financials for the new year, so setting things up art and graphics wise has fallen a bit on the wayside. we'll get there though!!!

until next time! ❤️

hi friends! thank you all so much for joining up to get updates on my upcoming pintopia 2026 project -- it lets both me & backerkit know that people are interested & helps me plan accordingly!

today, i wanted to share with you all the freebie stickers previous backers of my projects will get if they choose to pledge to flying friends in january.

if you backed the batpack campaign...



you'll get this super cute design of cupid bat & tangerine bat! 🍊❤️

if you backed my pintopia campaign from 2025...



you'll get this sticker of laika & a little bat friend! 🦇🌠

if you backed both projects, you'll get not only both of these stickers, but a free pin design as well! this design will be revealed to you guys soon ❤️

all freebie designs will be available to purchase as an add on during the campaign, as well -- so others can still acquire them if they pay, or, if you want to get additional copies for yourself!

however, they won't be restocked later on once they run out, so while leftovers may be available after the campaign, they might not last!

i'm still hard at work getting everything ready for pintopia 2026 and I cant wait to show you guys more of the work im planning for the campaign! i hope youre having an amazing december so far ❄️

hi there, everyone! first off: thank you SO much for checking out my upcoming project for pintopia 2026! in this post, i hope to answer a few questions people might have about the project and give you all an idea of what this project's scope will be.

so, first off:

as a member of pintopia, this project is about just that: pins! more specifically, this project is a partner project to my first ever backerkit campaign, BATPACKS, which launched to great success in fall of last year!

followers of mine likely already know this, but early this year, i had to abruptly move countries with very little notice; this put a massive strain on fulfillment for the two campaigns i had in progress at the time (the aforementioned batpacks + my pintopia campaign from last year). i had to incur a ton of additional costs and expenses as a result, so while id hoped to already be in the process of planning a direct followup to the batpack project, ive had to put that on hold until I can financially support another large project like that.

so, here's where this year's pintopia campaign comes in! the goal of this campaign is to not only fund a small collection of batpack-themed pins, but to put any leftover profit towards paying off these costs + funding pre-development for the next series of batpacks!

with that in mind, the scope of this project is going to be fairly small! we're focusing JUST on smaller items, like pins and stickers.

there will be a brand new collection of pins unlockable as part of the campaign! there will likely be 4 - 6 available designs total, dependent on funding. again, with the small scale of this project, we're not planning on adding a large amount of unlockable designs, to try and keep expenses as low as possible.

here are a few sketches of potential ideas for the pins!



we'll be hopefully incorporating a few new, unique features into these pins (like hanging parts & transparent enamel, for example) to give them a little extra pizzazz.

as the project unlocks stretch goals, supporters will be able to vote for which designs they want to unlock!

additionally, add on items from previous campaigns that I have in-hand stock of will be available during the campaign as add-ons! batpacks from the original campaign will NOT be available at this time, since extras are still with my distributor in the US.

speaking of...

this campaign will be shipped from canada. this the same as my last pintopia project, but different from the original batpack project, which shipped from the US.

IF YOU LIVE IN CANADA: you are unaffected by the current tariff mess!

IF YOU LIVE IN THE UK/EU: we have a GPSR partner & have not currently experienced any issues with shipping to the UK or the EU! tariff rates are the same as they have been.

‼️IF YOU LIVE IN THE US: please keep in mind that you will likely need to pay duties & tariffs on your pledge, on top of the cost of shipping. while other countries generally allow you to pay tariffs directly yourself once your items have entered the country, the US has no such infrastructure in place & thus, tariff payment falls into the hands of the artists shipping your products.

as of today, 12/4/25, the current tariff rate on chinese goods entering the US from canada is 33.3%. THIS RATE MAY CHANGE BY THE TIME THE PROJECT REACHES THE FULFILLMENT STAGE. tariff fees will be included as a separate line item when you pay for your pledge shipping cost AFTER the end of the campaign; shipping and tariff fees are NOT included in your pledge amount.

for ALL OTHER COUNTRIES: tariff & duty rates are unchanged from what they have been.

yes, but sadly not as many as I've had previously. because US orders pay tariffs based on the total retail cost of EVERYTHING in their packages, including tons of things for free means I need to pay significantly more in tariffs than what is charged to backers, if their pledge included a lot of free/discounted items. this caused a big issue with last year's pintopia, so i'm trying to avoid it this year! 😅

however, if you supported EITHER the batpack project OR last year's pintopia, you'll get a FREE exclusive sticker with your pledge! & if you backed BOTH of my previous projects, you'll also get a FREE exclusive pin as well ❤️

depending on size and manufacturing cost, a single pin pledge will be between $15 ~ $20 USD, not including shipping + duties & fees.

 we launch january 22nd, 2026, at 10am, alongside all the other projects participating in pintopia 2026!

that's all ive got for now! be sure to follow this project to make sure you're getting updates on pin designs & campaign details pre-launch; there'll be a ton of sneak peeks & such that you'll only find here!

until next time -- thank YOU for all your support!! 🦇❤️