Anywhoo, we decided to scrap all of the work we did for Final Rose Tarot, and revamp the entire deck, and make it something that even more people would be able to enjoy! (no reality tv viewing necessary!) Just a gorgeous and funny tarot deck to help people with LOOOVE.

This also means however, redrawing and re-writing all 78 cards, because we really felt like we could do them better a second time around! So they’re all brand new, even down to the names!

We persevered, and now we are SO excited to share this work with you! If you’d like to order a copy, it will be hitting stores on September 8th! SO SOON! You can find out more here

In other news! I’m so excited, because Trav and I are going to Catalina Island for the first time soon! Send me your recommendations! :-)

Speaking of Trav, if you want to get a (nicely discounted) tattoo from him while he’s learning, you should shoot him a message! They wont be discounted forever! hint hint….

Give him a follow on IG while you’re at it!

Okay! That’s all she wrote today folks!

Talk soon!!!

xoxo

Amelia

Lindsey and I are so thrilled to welcome this new work into the world! —This project being published is such a dream come true.

But sit down by the fireplace, children, and let me spin a yarn about how all this happened, because it actually has some hilarious catastrophe in the story!

When we were all losing our minds during covid, Lindsey and I decided to channel all that frenetic energy into a really funny project. The Final Rose Tarot — a tarot deck based around the bachelor franchise (lol).

Actually, looking back we were definitely in a group manic episode and finished the whole deck in around 2~ months, including photoshoots, launching a kickstarter, creating a stunning website (Thank you Linds!!)

I wish it was still up to link here because it really was gorgeous.

oh yeah, and an app, and so much more. We got it fully funded on kickstarter ($17,000!) — literally not a dollar to spare lmao — and printed the decks.

I am still so so proud of this project, and even though it ended in slight tragedy I’ll get to that! We learned so much, and had so much fun!

Bada Bing Bada Boom, we are now deck moguls, and selling at a nice pace from our own website and etsy! Easy! The deck turned out so gorgina, and it was all 5 star reviews and smooth sailing…. for about 2 years. DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN

On one fateful day, we got a very strange message from someone. Saying, (okay i dont remember exactly what it said but something like) “Heyyy!!! I love your deck! I want to buy one, and I’m not sure which copies are the real ones!”…..

…..The “real” ones????

One quick google search later, and catastrophe was revealed. Someone had knocked off the deck and the internet was literally FLOODED with fakes. Etsy, Amazon, Alibaba, Temu, you name it, you could buy a shitty fake copy of the deck there.

oh lord, i just searched it up to find photos of how BAD the fakes are, and they are all still up, of course, and SO SO UGLY and LOW quality. haha now I’m kinda pissed all over again….

Anyways, there’s literally no recourse to get these taken down, and so as sales slowed, we decided to just call it a day! This is where things get really juicy….

APPARENTLY, and we didn’t find this out until YEARS later, the woman who we had been working with at the printers, went ROGUE and stole a bunch of files from customers to start her own printing company…. and it was a big big drama!

Love some of these quotes haha “If WJPC had such high profits my boss would be the richest man in China, but he is not.” Okayyy! Pop off sis!

Anyways, so that’s probably what happened to us.

Which, to be fair, totally stinks. And we were definitely bummed for a minute, but to be fair we were kind of over the project at that point, so this was like, just the final nail in the coffin.

Also I should note, that I love this printing company, and I have printed, and continue to print ALL my decks, posters, and prints there, and nothing like this has ever happened before or since. I think it’s because Final Rose was so mass-market coded, that rogue agent knew it would do well as knockoffs. And anyway, she’s obviously been fired. Long Live WJPC and the richest man in china!

So, after chilling out for a year or two, we thought to ourselves, hey… this deck really was SO special. People were truly gaga for it… And what if we could make something even better? And have it traditionally published, so none of this nonsense is even in our hands? * cue inspirational music *

And thats when we decided maybe we could make the deck, and make it way better, and cuter, and more professional! And also take out all mention of the bachelor franchise so we dont get SUED. Which will also make it more accessible for more readers!

….. Stay tuned for part two! Where things really take a turn for the better!

Xoxo

Amelia

First of all, let’s take a moment for the deck reveal! it’s STUNNING and GORGEOUS! Kindred Fin is a 54 card cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises) themed, 54-card oracle deck and companion guidebook. For sharing messages of healing and remembrance of our deep connection to all life.

“Each card carries guidance from our ancient finned kin, helping us move through these uncertain times as we remember our sacred belonging to the earth, and to the living intelligence of the sea.”

If you’d like to learn more check out the webstore! Pick up a copy, A portion of proceeds supports nonprofit organizations protecting ocean life, so you can feel extra good about supporting the work!

So how did we take the raw artwork and text, and format it to be printed so stunningly? Let’s get into it yall!

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An illustrator friend who is extremely successful, senior, and who i respect immensely, told me during a recent con…

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My passion project, The Long Way Tarot, has an official kickstarter launch date!!!!! OCTOBER 1st! So mark your calendars!

You can preview the kickstarter here - and set to be notified when it launches!

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I have gone through a LOT of trial and error finding the supplies that work best (for me!!!) and I don’t want you to have to waste time and money trying things that maybe don’t work so well… so I’d like to impart this hard-won knowledge upon my loyal subjects! (I’m delusional)

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(Queue joke about the recipe having this person’s entire life story before you get to the ingredients.) Actually, I digress, but ther…

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So!

First …

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As a quick initial overview, here is a list of pros and cons for both styles of publishing - just my opinions!!!

Let’s start out with a quick overview of the process for Traditional publishing… This might turn into several parts depending how much I yap here!

Traditional Publishing is worth considering in my opinion, primarily if you don’t want to hassle with the sales of it all. In other words, if you can convince a publisher to buy your idea, you won’t have to worry about a lot of the other grunt work, and plus, you know— prestige! being a published author! very cool stuff.

First thing first, you will need to get solid on your idea, create 10 sample cards and an expertly written/designed pitch deck. This is a snazzy pdf document that has ALL the info a publisher could ever want to know. Here is an example of some key slides from two pitches I’ve sold.

The first with my bestie Lindsey (designed by her) and the second, solo.

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Hi Newsletter Fam!

Hope you’ve all been well! :-)

I’ve been enjoying a kind of extra peaceful month, detoxing from my phone and instagram, and going for lots of walks, cooking a bunch and lots of…

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To answer that- let’s take a moment to ask yourself a series of questions, if you feel like sharing, let’s chat in the group about it!

꩜ What medium do you want to use? the world is your oyster: watercolor, cut paper, collage, pencil, digital painting, screen print, photography. You can create whatever way your heart desires, but I think it’s important to get real with yourself about where your work can excel the most in this moment. If you struggle with drawing, maybe a more abstract route will be best! You can even make it primarily text based! Do you not care about it being ‘sellable’ and just want to create? More power to you! It’s all about what road YOU want to walk down with this project. Time is also a consideration here.

We will get into ALL the pros and cons of self publishing vs trad publishing in the next chapter… which also plays a roll in what medium you should decide to use. For instance, do you have your heart set on traditional publishing? Then found image collage won’t do (copyright problems), or something that takes you an excessive amount of time to complete will also be tricky because of tight deadlines (eek!). More on that soon I promise!!!

In the end, any medium can create something awesome! I’ll show some inspiration here of wildly different decks that all bring something special and unique (and that I love) Sharing things to spark inspiration that maybe you havent seen before.

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Three of my decks have been traditionally published, two through Penguin Random House and one through Hachette Book Group, both among the “Big Five” publishers. Three other…

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I was going to wait until I actually figure out how to use this dang platform before sending out an email, but I think I accidentally just sent one lol so here we go! … Why is this platform so confusing?? I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it soon!

I loooove the design of my other email sender, but in this day and age $35 a month is really s…

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