Halloween bags are finally here!! Locking addresses by this Friday 23rd + Otakon/Dokidokon pickup available!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Jul 21, 2021 at 01:57:27 AM

Hey everyone, exciting news!! The Halloween bag shipment has finally been delivered to me today!! 👄👻👁🐈‍⬛🙌🏼💖 I just brought in all the boxes in my place, so they are almost ready to be shipped off to their forever homes with you all!! 🥳

I'll be starting the shipping process soon this week!! 🎉 My tracking number didn't show much info on the exact arrival of these bags up until they reached my state this past weekend, so I'll be spending the first few days quality checking the bags to make sure everything is all good! On Friday, I'll be locking all the Kickstarter/Backerkit Halloween bag shipping addresses so I can get finally get started on mailing out your orders!! :) 

Need to change your shipping address? 

This is your last chance! I'm going to give everyone here on Kickstarter/Backerkit until this Friday July 23rd at 12pm to change your shipping address if you have moved since backing the campaign! (If you have already messaged me in the past to update your shipping info, no need to message me again! I already have your new address on my updated spreadsheet 👍🏼) Please make sure your shipping address is correct in your Backerkit Survey before this Friday July 23rd at 12pm! If your package gets mailed to your old/incorrect address that's on your Backerkit Survey, there won't be a lot I can do to fix the situation other than have you redirect your package on USPS's website. So just please make sure your shipping address is correct before July 23rd!! 😃🙏🏼 If you could also send me a message if you just changed your address on your survey, that would be awesome! :)

Instructions on updating the shipping address in your Backerkit survey + recovering emailed survey:

https://help.backerkit.com/article/638-how-do-i-update-my-shipping-address

(If you need help with this step above, please message me on Kickstarter, Instagram @jbzydraws, or email me at [email protected]. Please do not use Backerkit email!! It takes a long time to sync up to my actual email for some reason and I don't get messages for weeks)

Updated shipping calendar:

This calendar will give you an idea of when I'll be working on shipping out your ita bags! The teal sections indicate dedicated shipping periods, while the yellow indicates that I'll be out of town for conventions. I'm going to have a small team with me to package out your orders, so we will be working hard to mail these all out ASAP!! 

Originally I wanted to work on the Kickstarter/Backerkit orders first and then all Etsy orders afterwards, but I'm going to do my best to integrate all winter orders together in the same initial batch (October 2020-Jan 2021 orders on all platforms). The reason I need to do this is because my Etsy shop's visibility has been turned off of their platform for the past 2 months due to my open preorders (which were delayed due to Covid19), so my sales have drastically been cut since my shop has been hidden. My art business is my only income at the moment, so I need to mail out at least a portion of my Etsy orders soon, or my shop will be shut down permanently. I decided this was the most reasonable route by grouping in some of the holiday Etsy orders with the initial preorders since they were ordered around the same time (Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan). I just want to be as transparent as possible about my shipping process, and I hope everyone can understand the situation I'm in! 🙏🏼 I will make sure to mail out all of your orders very soon!! I'll be working in mostly chronological order and by groups of bag designs. You will receive an email with a tracking number soon once your order has finally shipped out! :)

Dokidokon + Otakon Halloween bag pickup: 

I will be offering a local pickup option for the Halloween bags if you will be attending either Dokidokon or Otakon this year!! Pickups will be available for all Kickstarter, Backerkit, and Etsy preorders! 

This is what you will need to bring for local pickup:

• Proof of purchase for your order (ex: Kickstarter/Backerkit confirmation; Etsy order confirmation)
• Your ID so I can verify you are really you with this pickup order
• Your signature on a receipt I will provide for proof of your pickup (this is for Kickstarter, Backerkit, and Etsy so I can mark these as complete via local pickup)

If you will be attending either of these conventions and want to pick up your bag in person, please message me here on Kickstarter, Etsy, or on Instagram: @jbzydraws as soon as possible so I can mark you down for local pickup instead!! (This is so I don't accidentally ship out your order before the show! So preferably before this Friday the 23rd) If you preordered on Backerkit, please do not email me through Backerkit support!! Something is going on where their system does not properly sync to my actual email, so you can also use [email protected] if you do not have instagram to message me. 

After you message me about local pickup at either Dokidokon or Otakon, I will send you my artist alley table number/map after it is released to me! This is so you can easily find me during the con to pickup your order! :)

Gaming bag production:

The gaming bags are almost finished up!! My manufacturer sent me this pic at the very beginning of this month showing they cut all the fabric out already. This was just a few days after the Halloween bags were shipped out, so it should be anytime soon that these will begin shipping out to me! Just as a reminder, shipping should take approximately 1 month via boat to reach me. I should be finished with both of my conventions by the time these bags arrive, so I will be shipping these bags out as quickly as I can.

Just this past weekend, I received the new version of the red/blue sample bag and it looks amazing!! I'm so happy with the holo insert with it, I can't wait to decorate this with pins already 😻❤️💙

Here's some new features of this bag! Besides the new blue fabric on the OG version, all other changes will apply to the other 2 bag colors ^_^

• OG Red/blue bag: New blue fabric to better match the console (old sample had the wrong fabric color)
• New outside handle on the back to easily hold the bag while placing the shoulder strap around you
• New front window D-rings for hanging charms/LED lights
• New limited edition holographic inserts (Less than 50 inserts are available at the moment. Gray is the default insert color that automatically comes with the bag. Message me to add an extra $5 holo insert to your order! These were added later on)
• My shop logo embossed on the back to easily share the bag with others (and to match my other Halloween bags!)

Here's a Tiktok trend video I made of the various gaming bag colors all together 💖 Follow me on Tiktok for more fun videos like this! :) 

As soon as I get more information on the shipping timeline of these gaming bags, I'll be back here ASAP to update you all!! 🙂👾❤️

And with that, thank you everyone!!! 💖🙏🏼

I can't thank you all enough for your patience, support, and understanding with these two projects!! This has been one heck of a ride dealing with the Covid19 pandemic, lockdown, and the production line of these bags. It was definitely not what we were all expecting, but I'm *so* excited to finally ship out the Halloween bags for you all to wear out there in the world!! These bags look amazing in person, and I can't wait for you to see them up close! 😊 If you decide to take a photo/story on Instagram or a Tiktok video, please tag me in it and use hashtag #jbzydraws so I can easily find all your lovely pictures out there!! (All Social Media)

I'll be quality checking the bags by myself over the next 2 days until my friend arrives to help me out, so please bare with me!! I won't be able to give everyone an exact idea of when your package is next in line to be shipped out, but just refer to the little calendar I made above for a rough estimate~ 🙂 You'll receive an email with a tracking number once your order is finally shipped out! I will be dedicating 100% of my free time to getting your orders shipped out ASAP, so just be on the lookout for an email from JBlake Design/Etsy for that tracking info!! We are almost to the finish line :)

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!! I'll do my best to get back to everyone as soon as I can, I'm still dealing with things in my personal life at the same time so I'll try my best to get back to you all in a timely manner 🙏🏼 Thank you so much again everyone for your patience and support with everything!! I'll try to post some extra pics and video of this whole shipping process on social media. If you haven't already, feel free to follow me on Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, and favorite my Etsy shop through this link here! 🤗

💖Jess

Halloween bag manufacturing finished! Gaming bags finishing up soon after (pics + calendar included)
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jun 19, 2021 at 02:01:33 AM

Hello everyone! I wanted to wait for this update until I had more concrete news & pictures to share, and we are finally almost there!! This update will be split up into 3 main sections: the Halloween bags, the gaming bags, and the shipping timeline/calendar. 

Halloween bag update: My manufacturer has finally finished making all of the Halloween bags and a full quality check was just completed last week. The workers did such an amazing job with the sewing that there were hardly any errors during the quality check! This means that they are going to package the rest of these Halloween bags up for the international shipment to me. Shipping to me will take about 1 month via boat as long as the shipment doesn't get blocked along the route or held up at the border. That means they should arrive to me around mid-July! As soon as I get the tracking number, I will give more updates about the exact arrival date for these Halloween bags.

Here's a few pics of the Halloween bags during quality check!

As for the gaming console bags (the separate campaign I ran in my Backerkit store/Etsy Shop), my manufacturer did not want to rush these bags and sacrifice the quality of their work. So they decided to split up the manufacturing and shipment of these 2 orders: the Halloween bags (original campaign) and the gaming bags (2nd campaign). This means that the gaming bags will arrive approximately 1 month after the Halloween bags arrive (around mid-August, visual calendar below). For those reading this update who pre-ordered from the Backerkit store or my Etsy Shop, I hope you all can understand that all these delays were completely out of my hands due to Covid19 this past year. I'm working very closely with my manufacturer to assure that we can get you all the highest quality gaming bag possible, and I can't thank you all enough for your patience with this project. 🙏🏼 

If you all remember about two Kickstarter updates ago, I mentioned we were changing the blue fabric on the red/blue gaming bag to better match the console. I already requested a new sample bag to be made, so as soon as that arrives to me I'll share some updated photos! Here is another photoshopped picture just to remind everyone what the new red/blue bag should look like:

Shipping timeline/calendar: Theoretically, if the Halloween and gaming bags did arrive at the same time, my order of operation would be to ship out the Kickstarter orders first (all Halloween bags), then the Backerkit orders (mostly Halloween bags), then finally all of the Etsy orders (mix of both). With the Halloween bags arriving first in mid-July, this will give me exactly enough time to package them all before I get to the gaming bags that arrive in mid-August. I have a small team of family and friends to help me package your orders, so I will be dedicating 100% of my free time to shipping these out ASAP! I made a calendar below to show what the current estimated timeline is. Once the bags arrive to me, it should only take about 1-2 weeks to quality check and mail out all ready-to-ship orders. 

The orange sections of this calendar indicate that I will be out of town. The first orange block on July 29th-August 1st, I will be in the Artist Alley at Dokidokon in Kalamazoo, MI. As long as we have no delays with the shipment over to me, I should be able to package the majority of the Halloween bags before this show. If anyone will be attending Dokidokon and wants a pickup option, please reach out to me on Kickstarter, Etsy, or Instagram @jbzydraws. 

For those who pre-ordered from my shop & don't receive the Kickstarter email updates, I will always have this Kickstarter update link in my Etsy Shop announcements, Etsy FAQ, all bag listing descriptions, and in my Instagram bio @jbzydraws. I want to make sure all the new information is accessible no matter which platform you pre-ordered on. To everyone reading this update, I can't thank you all enough for your patience, support, and understanding with everything. I'm *so* excited we are almost to the final shipping phase! I'll keep you guys in the loop when I get more news~

P.S. If anyone wanted to check out my shop or social media, I have them here below just incase you want a direct link to click on or share with others:

Etsy Shop 

Instagram 

All social media links 

New shipping timeline update + more photos
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 13, 2021 at 02:53:16 PM

Hello everyone! I reached out to my bag manufacturer asking for any new updates about the shipment phase. My representative let me know there was a small shortage of workers last month due to possible Covid19 tracing in their area. They sent a group of workers home to quarantine just in case there was any possible exposure. Thanks to the vaccines, the workers have been returning back to work safely to catch back up to my order! This should be the very last delay in production, the new estimate for the bags to arrive to me is around late June/early July depending on shipping (about a 1 month delay from the previous late May estimate).

I don't think this Covid19 pandemic was something any of us anticipated having such an effect on production, I do sincerely apologize to everyone for the additional delay. Before some of the workers had to quarantine last month, a lot of the bag fabric was already cut out waiting to be sewn together. There were also a few fabric colors that needed to be restocked in order to finish everything up, so my manufacturer sent me a lot of pictures from what has already been finished! 

For the Vampire Lips bag, I was given the choice to wait for the same inside lining fabric color to come back in stock, or go with this similar pink color. I did not want to delay the bag production any further, so I chose a very similar pink for the inside of the mouth. I think this color is very close to the original fabric which is great!

Ghost bag progress pics- before and after! (My manu loves the ghost bag and sent me extra pics to show off to you all)

Eyeball progress pics!

With the eyeball holographic inserts, my manufacturer suggested adding a double layer to these inserts to prevent wrinkling during bulk production and shipping. Pins will still be able to fit in this double layer!

Backpack/crossbody straps

Another exciting update is that all the backpack and crossbody straps will be double layered to make them even more durable for every day use! The single layer strap I've been testing on the sample bag has already been perfect with everything that I carry, so this will be even better. :)

The bags should be finished around end of this month, and that’s when all of the bags will be shipped to me via sea (about a 1 month journey) which brings us to the late June/early July estimate. Once the bags arrive to me, I will do my best to package everything as quickly as I can for you all. I hope everyone can understand this final delay because of the pandemic happening. I can't thank you all enough for your patience and understanding during this time! I'll be back with another update whenever I receive more pics/shipping confirmation, thank you again! 🙂🙏🏼 

On schedule for May delivery + personal/ production updates
about 3 years ago – Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 12:03:54 AM

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for all your patience waiting for this next update, and I apologize that I could not come back here sooner to let you all know what's going on. I know a few people have requested updates here on Kickstarter and on Instagram, so I just wanted to let you know what has been happening with the bags and where I've been. This update will be a little lengthy, so please bear with me.

For full transparency about my absence since my last update, my closest Uncle and one of my best friends pass away recently, so I've been out of town attending both funerals and traveling to both families since the middle of February. My friend who passed is actually the person who inspired me to create my own art business while working for his Vendor booth at anime cons over the last 10 years. I wouldn't be here doing this Ita bag Kickstarter without him supporting and encouraging my creativity over the years. If you've been to an East Coast/Midwest anime convention in the past 15 years (ex: Otakon, Anime Next, Katsucon, Ohayocon, Youmacon, Bronycon etc), you may have visited my friend Xavier aka X's booth "Light it Up" in the Vendor's hall/dance parties. He was the guy who always played great music at his booth and sold swords, masks, jewelry, energy drinks, glowsticks, etc. More info about him can be found here if you remeber him: X's Gofundme (Please feel free to share this to the anime con community if you are involved in it)

So being out of town dealing with this all at once has basically consumed my life since mid February, and this is why I have been unable to update you all on Kickstarter for quite some time. I wanted to take the time to explain why I have been gone and I do sincerely apologize about my delayed response online here. In no way, shape, or form was I ignoring anyone's request for a Kickstarter update or leaving you all in the dark intentionally. I just have not been in the right mental space to focus and give a thorough update up until now. I just returned home a few days ago for a break, and I will be able to update my Kickstarter and Instagram more often. I hope you can understand my slight delay announcing my this next update, and I thank you all so much for your patience waiting for me during this time.

As for news on the bags: I have been keeping up with my bag manufacturer since the end of their Chinese New Year. They have a new factory open and have always assured me that production will be much faster at this new facility. The last time I gave a Kickstarter update, the new estimate for me to receive these bags was by the middle/end of May. I asked my manufacturer for updates last night and they let me know that we are still on track for May delivery to me which is great news!! Once the bags are finished, my manufacturer will let me know when shipping has started. All the bags will be sent by sea in order to save on shipping costs, so shipping can take up to a month to arrive to me if all goes according to plan! I'll keep all of you updated as soon as I get the tracking information.

As of right now with the production line, all of the bag fabric is currently being cut and sewn together, and I will be making a few minor changes to the bags since I have been testing the sample bags out. Below is the full list of changes we will be making to these bags to make them 100% ready to wear when they arrive to you!

All changes to the ita bags:

All bags

• My logo will be embossed underneath the back zipper for all of my ita bags including the gaming bags! I will also try to include a cool new QR code business card for you all to carry in the back of your bags to easily share my shop with others incase someone asks where you got the bag :) 

Cat bag- During the sample production, the face was printed with black outlines instead of dark gray outlines. Below are the changes we are currently making to the face:

• Cat face printing- Nose, mouth, and whiskers will be printed dark gray instead of black 

• Removing dark eye outline, printing only yellow part of eyes

• Changing yellow eye color to match warmer yellow insert color

Red+ Black Lip bags- Black lip bags were announced in the last Kickstarter update! Inserts are interchangable between both bags <3

• Making inside of Red Lips bag back pouches bigger to hold larger phones

• Add handles to both red and black lip bags (image above shows new handle added)

**To all backers who chose a Red lips bag during the campaign, I will be messaging you all separately soon to give you the option to switch from a red lips bag to a black lips bag! At the time of the campaign, I did not have black available and I know a few people requested the black bag to be an option! Please message me if you would like to switch from red to black and I will make a note in your order! 

Eyeball bags

• Changing flower zipper pulls to regular silver zipper pulls to match other bags (the sample bag was accidentally made with these flower ones)

• Eyeball brown insert color- This brown color I originally picked ran out of stock (Image below). If this fabric is restocked, we will go with this brown. If it cannot be restocked, we will go with a similar deeper hologrphic brown color (next image)

• When I received the eyeball sample bag, the package was missing the "Pink eye" insert, so I only had a picture of the insert to show off during the campaign. My manu sent me the missing insert with the black lips sample bag and I finally took some pictures of the "Pink Eye" bag! It looks just as cool as the "Red Eye" bag and I'm super excited to fill this insert up! I'll be posting more pics of this shoot later on my instagram. If you're interested in adding an extra insert, check out my Etsy Shop for the separate insert listings! Just let me know you're already a backer and I'll include it in your package~

Game bags- This was a separate campaign I ran in the Backerkit shop and my Etsy shop only!! If you are interested in adding one of these gaming bags to your order, please visit my Etsy Shop! 

• Game bag (Blue/red bag)- changing light blue color to a deeper blue color to match

• Game bags (all bags)- add 2 charm rings to front window

• Added holographic inserts as an option for the game bags (Please message me if you want to add an extra holo insert!)

• Added game cartridge tabs to all 3 game bags

• Add handles (all game bags)

------------------------------------

These are all the current changes being made during production, and I hope you all are just as excited as I am about these bags coming in soon! We are so close to the shipment phase, and I'll keep you all posted when I find out more information! Thank you so much everyone for your support, patience, and understanding during this time. It has been a very rough year for everyone, and I sincerely hope that each and everyone of you are doing alright in your personal lives. Please take care of yourselves, and I will be back with another update soon when I receive some more news. Thank you so much again everyone,

<3 Jess

Production update + new pics!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 22, 2021 at 07:07:10 PM

Hello everyone, hope you all have had a good holiday season and happy new year so far! I just want to give everyone an update here about the production timeline of the bags.

I reached out to my manufacturer earlier this month for an update, and they let me know there have been a few production delays. For full transparency, there were several other artists running ita bag kickstarter campaigns during October/November and COVID19 has significantly impacted the production line for all of our ita bags.

I originally anticipated these to arrive to me in late February and get them shipped out to you all by the beginning of March, but my manufacturer is estimating these bags will arrive to me closer to late April/ the middle of May. Because of the recent surge of COVID19 cases in their area, many workers have taken an early holiday to quarantine before the Chinese New Year celebrations (about a month long holiday).

My manufacturer was hoping to deliver these to me before CNY, but once they return from their holiday in March, they will begin working on my bags ASAP. All inserts have been finished and they have already started on printing/cutting the main fabric. They estimate it should take the rest of March to finish sewing all the bags together and ship them out to me by April. Shipping by sea is estimated for 1 more month, which brings us to the late April/ middle of May estimate. I hope you all can understand this slight production delay! If we were not in the middle of a pandemic, I’m certain that these bags would have been finished. If there are any changes to the production timeline, I will make another announcement ASAP!

If you need to change/update your address:

You can log into your Backerkit account to change/update your address at anytime! I will make another announcement when the ita bags arrive when I will lock the addresses in. If you need help changing your address please reach out to me and I'd be happy to help you out.

For some good news, I have been thoroughly testing out each ita bag for a few weeks to make sure the quality is good! I’m happy to say that these bags can fit a lot of stuff inside, and have been holding up well to everyday use. I’ve also gotten quite a few compliments in public about how cool and unique the bags are! So I am very excited for you all to wear these outside when they arrive! 😄 I will be posting more about the bags in the next few weeks on Instagram and Tiktok.

Another exciting announcement about the bags:

I had quite a few requests for Black Lips bags, and I had to get this sample bag made! I will probably run a separate Etsy pre-order campaign for these since I have not ordered them yet. Follow my Etsy shop to get announcements when I release this for preorder! If you would like to add this onto your order, please reach out to me on Kickstarter or Instagram!

Thank you so much everyone for keeping up with this project, I can’t wait to get these bags out to each and every one of you!! 🤗💌

My social media/shop for more updates:
→ Instagram ---------- instagram.com/jbzydraws

→ Tiktok -------------- vm.tiktok.com/ZMJPFbjkM

→ Etsy Shop ---------- etsy.com/shop/jblakedesign