Having Trouble Preordering?

Hi, folks! This is IMPORTANT!

You CAN still preorder the Tarot of Bones at https://thetarotofbones.com/shop Unfortunately the credit card function has been malfunctioning, so orders via Stripe have not been going through. We have since disabled Stripe until we heard back from customer support.

However! You can use a debit or credit card via paypal even if you don’t have a paypal account. Just put your items in the cart, then when you go to check out at https://thetarotofbones.com/cart select Paypal. After you’ve put in your name, address, etc. it will then relay you to a paypal page. Below the login information is a button that says something like “use a debit or credit card”. Click that and it will walk you through securely using your card without having to make a Paypal account.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Want to See the Final Card Designs?

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Hey, folks! Do you want to see the final designs for the Tarot of Bones cards? They’re now available at https://thetarotofbones.com/the-cards/ ! Just click on the entry for each card and you’ll get to see both the final design and the original assemblages.

Like what you see? You can preorder the Tarot of Bones deck and book (together, or separately) at https://thetarotofbones.com/shop/ 🙂

Shop is Fixed, Yes, You CAN Preorder the Tarot of Bones!

Hey, folks–so when I opened preorders last week I hadn’t realized that one of the settings on the Tarot of Bones shop was making it so a lot of you were unable to actually complete your transactions because the checkout page wouldn’t load. I have since fixed the setting, but I’m now concerned that a lot of you think you can’t preorder from my site because of it.

Can you all pretty, pretty please reblog/share this post to let everyone know that the shop is now functional and you CAN PREORDER the Tarot of Bones at https://thetarotofbones.com/shop/ ? Thank you so much!

Tarot of Bones Preorders Are Available!

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Hey, all! Exciting news here! The printed proofs for the Tarot of Bones just arrived–despite the poor lighting in the photos, I can tell you that they look AWESOME! This means I’ve given the printer the go-ahead to print the deck, and I can upload the book files to CreateSpace.

It also means that preorders are officially open!!! The deck, and both paperback book and ebook, are all available here in the Tarot of Bones shop. I do have both U.S. and international shipping options available; however, for the moment the only international option is a flat rate priority padded envelope. Once I get the deck and book and can get a final package weight and dimensions, I will be able to customize shipping options for closer countries like Canada who may have lower, non-priority rates.

I also need to mention again that preorders will be shipped AFTER I’ve shipped the several hundred orders from the 2015 and 2016 IndieGoGo campaigns. I am not 100% sure when the decks will arrive here; likely in late January to early February. So if you preorder, your package may not arrive until early March, but I will endeavor to get it out as soon as I possibly can. I’ve already asked a few friends to help me with the shipping process and get everything done more quickly, and as always I will keep you all posted. Thank you 🙂

Teensy Update!

Pssst–real quick note. I just got an email from the printer saying FedEx is supposed to be delivering the physical proofs in the next few days! Woohoo!!!! If all goes well I’ll be able to greenlight the printing, and I’ll share a few pics, too 🙂 Oh, and preorders should go live next week as well (though they won’t be shipped out until all the IndieGoGo orders are taken care of first!)

One More Tiny Milestone

I haven’t yet received the physical proofs of the cards so I can green light the final printing, but I have been taking care of other tasks related to the Tarot of Bones while I wait. Tonight I finished the final layout for the book, to include adding in actual images of the cards in their respective entries instead of the placeholders I used for the mockup a couple months ago.

Have I mentioned I HATE doing book layout? I mean, I can do it, and used to do it professionally. But it is one of my least favorite things in the world, up there with doing my taxes and waking up to an alarm. I don’t have any fancy-schmancy software, just Microsoft Word, which can actually do a lot for not being a dedicated layout program. But it’s a bit squirrelly, and making one minor change can foul up everything downstream, which means going back through and adjusting spacing and images and so forth. UGH.

But it’s done, and even though I have no doubt someone will find formatting errors, I’ve gotten rid of the vast majority of them. So you’ll just have to use a more finely-toothed comb. Nyah 🙂

Card Layout is Done!!!

Last night I received the last few photos of Tarot of Bones assemblages, and I stayed up much later than I should have completing the layout on the final cards! Woohoo!

So now what? I still want to go over the cards one more time–check for any errors and minor adjustments, that sort of thing. Then I’ll resave them in .psd format–I’ve been working with .xcf files in GIMP 2.0 since you can keep editing them even after you’ve closed and reopened them. After that, the files will go to the printer and then it’s just a matter of waiting. In the meantime I’ll be working on the perks from both IndieGoGo campaigns so I can get everything shipped out once the decks and books both arrive.

This is so exciting!

One Step Closer…

*deeeeeep breath* Okay, so I’m one step closer to having this project in the bag! Friday my sweetie and I made a boomerang trip up to Seattle to take the last few assemblages to my ever-kickass photographer, Sandra, so they could be photographed. (There were bonus kitties and ferrets, too!)

Anyway, the pics turned out spectacularly, as is expected, and all that needs to be done is for her to do post-production on those last few. I should hopefully have them this week, at which point I can sit down and do the layout on the last few cards. After that, I’ll need to go over the files one more time to make sure they’re all flawless (no typos, etc.), and then re-save the .xcf files to .psd, and get them sent to the printer!

I do have vending events coming up the next few weekends, plus I am prepping monthly goodies to send to my Patrons on Patreon in November,  plus my birthday is November 1 so I have the day off, so I *might* not make my “end of October” deadline right on the nose, but if it’s not done this week it’ll be done very soon after. I’m too damned close to let this slide now!

I Present to You the Eightieth and Final Assemblage!

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So like everyone else, I thought I was done with Tarot of Bones assemblages at the end of last year. Apparently not.

I’ve spent the past few weeks designing and laying out the final card files using the photos of the assemblages and background images (since the assemblages are not all at the same aspect ratio as the final cards). During the layout process, I began to feel more and more like I wanted the card back to also be an assemblage. It’s not that the illustration that I originally commissioned from Erin “Narumi” Prince of Lotus Lion wasn’t absolutely gorgeous; just the opposite!

But as the deck’s final appearance began to take form in my mind, I realized that I wanted all of the art to be assemblages, even the back. So over the past several days I created one final assemblage that I felt summed up the spirit of the deck.

I started with a wooden box–but not just any wooden box. It’s one of my many antique shop finds, an old smoked salmon box from before they were printed with Salish-style salmon designs. It had seen better days–the lid was coming off and was warped, the paint was faded and distressed. It was perfect.

It initially became involved in the Tarot of Bones when during the photography session back in April Sandra Buskirk took photos of various items–leather, feathers, wood and more–that I could use for the card backgrounds later on. The lid of this box was one of them, and ended up being one of my more commonly used textures during the layout process.

Later on, as I was casting about for the proper backboard for the card back assemblage, I came across the box again in my supply room. It was just about the size I wanted, and the color and texture were appropriate. So I brought it out, fixed the lid’s hinges, and began designing the assemblage.

I made sure all five sorts of bone represented in the Tarot of Bones–skulls, ribs, long bones, vertebrae, and jaws (teeth)–were also present in the assemblage. I also added in various natural materials that I’d used in other assemblages, from stones to moss to one very lovely scallop shell. While it thematically matches the other assemblages, unlike the others there will be no text on the card back, making it easier to distinguish front from back.

So I think now I can officially (again) say that all of the Tarot of Bones assemblages are complete! I’ll be taking it with me to Seattle on Friday along with the last few assemblages that need their photos redone, and hopefully by early next week all the layout will be complete and I can start prepping the files to send them to the printer.

Even More Cards Completed!

Hey, folks! It’s been a busy week for me–I finished the layout on twenty-three more cards, nearly doubling my total and bringing it to forty-nine! Here’s what I got done since the last update:

Chariot

Death

Tower

Moon

Judgement

World

2 of Wands

3 of Wands

Knight of Pentacles

Page of Pentacles

Ace of Pentacles

6 of Pentacles

7 of Pentacles

Queen of Swords

2 of Swords

3 of Swords

4 of Swords

7 of Swords

2 of Cups

5 of Cups

8 of Cups

9 of Cups

10 of Cups

We’re due for a nasty storm tomorrow on the Washington coast, so there’s a good chance I’ll lose power over the weekend, hence why I frontloaded layout work. Once this all blows over, though, I plan to jump right back into it. Wish me luck!