I've been an admirer for awhile and after asking some random cute people around the internet all I heard was that the buttons (as we'd call them stateside) were good quality &; worth a purchase.
There are some really fabulous designs available for purchase, but I decided take her up on the offer to make custom buttons using images of my choosing. Well, nothing could have prepared me for the ability, kindness, communication, and end result of what turned out to be about a month long series of emails back and forth.
Do you know me? Hi, I'm Mindy and I love Popples like the vast majority of people love Care Bears. I didn't watch the cartoons as a kid and cannot think of ever in my child life seeing a commercial or ad for them, but you don't' have to try to sell me on Popples. I don't take interest in a whole lot of things, so I got what I wanted when I did ask. I'm not saying I had every Popple as a kid and looking back I realize that my Popples merchandise was, for the most part, practical items. I had the plates, bowls, cups, a tea set, mugs, puzzles, bathroom decor, the sleeping bag, stickers, colorforms, and of course a few plush. Not all
that stuff was new: I've been garage sale-ing and thrifting my heart out since I could toddle down the sidewalk. I've managed to accumulate some really cool Popples stuff through my teen and adult years.
When I first contacted Sarah, the creator of the badges, I had only a memory of a Popples puzzle I had as a kid. This is exactly that first communication:
"Hello,
I love your pins &; hear that they're great quality. I was wondering
what kind of image you'd need to make one. I absolutely love how Popples
merch has popples plush staged &; photographed. I had a puzzle of
Pretty Bit &; Potato Chip (i'm pretty sure) playing with a gumball
machine that I'd love to have on a badge. Let me know if it's
possible.
~*love and light*~
Mindy"
Her reply was prompt. Actually the same day, but time gets away from me and it was days, maybe a week, before I saw it and replied. I was pretty much floored. Not only had she found that puzzle based on my description, but also sent along a mock up of it as a badge.
Oh my gosh, that's it! It's so much cuter than I recalled, with Pretty Bit sitting in the busted machine with the top on her head. She explained that this is a photo she found after having
"a quick look on eBay" and that it's a tray puzzle and will have lines in it. The lines of this tray puzzle are all wavy like you see: that's not manipulation of the photo. I shared that it was more orangey than I remembered and Sarah said and set about looking for pictures on my own. While I was doing that I heard back from Sarah that she'd also put a glaze layer over the image &; that it was probably altering the color, so she'd omit that in the future.
I suddenly realized that she'd just pulled this image off the web and made a lovely badge with it, so I asked if she'd be able to make badges with any image I provided. I have an inordinate amount of pictures of things I used to have, like, or want on my hard drive. Her response was this:
"Hi Mindy, whilst it's true I can use any image you'd
like to make a badge from, it's always best to use a larger, better quality
image than a small one. So, what I'll do when you email me your images is make
them ready for printing and email the sample images back for your approval (I
won't add the mock badge glaze to them, so you can see the images better).
How does that sound? 
I'm looking forward to this!"
I let her know I was gonna be searching thru my images and compiling a photo list to send her way!
What I discovered is that there are two releases of this gumball Popples puzzle and the
color differs ever so slightly from the tray with a red band at the top
from the one with the blue. I sent this image along with the explanation of what was goin on.
In going through my files I'd already come up with some photos I wanted to use. The following images are what I sent:
I have the pillow on the right, but getting to things is not easy for me. It's packed away safe, cuz I've kept in pristine condition for 20 years thru a lot a lot of life: it came with when I left my Mom's house.
(side note:she didn't make it for me, per se, but, my friend Lexi made me a fairy kei shirt with the middle pillow. The Popple holding the ice cream cone is my very first Popple & I don't have her. Pretty Bit is my fave Popple I acquired as an adult)
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The cutie badge top left I have, but it's vintage & branded on the back: not for using. I could not find a better picture or take a picture of that super shiny button, so I sent this.
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The middle plate was my special dessert and birthday plate. I don't have my plate but it was all scuffed up by the end of it's use from being, well, used.
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When I went looking for the tea set I realized it was a rare item indeed! The only photo I found was this one. This is so crazy, you guys! Ok, so the couch this set is sitting on is absolutely identical to the one I was sitting on when I opened my tea set when I was four. It's a small photo, but I'm just amazed to be looking at it.
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This I made myself, using MS paint and even though it is a
little dodgy I still had to show her. I worked HARD on this. See, as a kid I had that Popple I placed in
the image in the forefront and she was very special to me. I sang almost constantly & put on dramatic stage performances in and out of my home. I wish I had her longer since I got very much into the punk scene as a teen.
You've got to understand that I cannot photoshop my way out of, into,
or on top of a paper bag. Sarah was very understanding of
this and after I sent those to her she gave me the information I needed to collect images that could
be made into badges. She told me, "Ideally the bigger the image the better.
Ideally no smaller than 600px square. I can't use the image you created in
Paint, but I've re-created it using my own images. Punkity's image is now much
clearer, but I don't have a bigger image of them both to use for the
background"
I was NOT at all expecting this!
I think we'll all agree that this looks oh so much better. I don't have fuzzy feelings for the other Popple, so don't care that it's not clear and the gritty feel suits the scene. They are punks on stage and the audience is throwing tomatoes at them. I also wasn't able to salvage the tail in my paint version & now it's back & u can still see both the guitarists eyes.=^-^=fur joy
"I brightened up the puzzle image, so maybe the
background changed colour a bit. How about this:
The one I emailed you before is on the left, and the
less orangey one is on the right."
The one on the right matches my memory better and when you see them side by side like this I feel like the untouched image is too bright and the shadows to deep. The touch up is perfection and I told her so.
After getting that info about most of the images being unusable I found images of those things I could in a
more suitable size. I was determined to do the hunting myself & this is what I did every time I was able: sometimes all I'd do in a day is search for Popples or email Sarah. Not because I thought I'd get my head bitten off or
anything. In fact, she said,
"the best thing to do is for you to send me the
images you want made into badges and if they aren't big enough for me to use
I'll see what I have saved or can find on the internet and we can take it from
there!" I'm just nice and considerate of the fact that other people have RL lives to live, I guess.
I really wanted a Cool Times Barbie button. The buttons she has already up for sale are really cool and there's a great variety, but as you may already gleaned from this blog I'm getting these badges made in order to be able to, in a way, have my most beloved toys with me once more. Truly this is better that finding a mint in box Barbie, though cuz as an adult I can take these with me everywhere and share what I love with the world. All the pictures I found of Cool Times, and there are many merch images and prototype photos floating out there, had her clothes wrong or her hair not in pigtails like mine was. I looked and looked but never found anything that, to me, looked like Cool Times Barbie. Since I was blown away by how well she'd recreated that punk scene for me I asked if she'd be able to another custom for me. This time, of Cool Times Barbie. I wondered if she'd be able to take put a picture I took of my own Cool Times' one remaining earring on a photo of a boxed barbie I found. No Barbie of mine got played with more than Cool Times, which is why she's ruined today. I still have her, which is actually sayin a lot, cuz I'm a pony girl~in my pony world: let's go play My Little Po-nies!
I sent these images:
Sarah got back to me and said she needed the images without the circles now that she knew what part of them I wanted on badges. I did that and also asked if she'd be able to use a picture of the actual Cool Times earring I still have, since the earrings can't be seen in the image I found...any image I found.
The screencaps I painstakingly caught from my own Jem avis are esp awesome. That's Kimber (in signature outfit) with Jem's pink hair. Catching lazy/crazy artists flubs on Jem is lots of fun. Sarah warned me the quality of Kimber wouldn't be great, but it's the best I could do. The Misfits looks fabulous cuz it's the whole screen. It's from the first time they meet Tech Rat.
The lengthy process wasn't due to powdermonki: it was my fault this was March 22 to mid April.
It took me even longer to make this blog, so I can't wait any longer to show you the results of all this fantastic collaboration.
The first three are smaller ones she designed and made herself.
blurry from my pic~crisp image in real life
That's my Cool Times earring*!* OMG~so happy
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It is lower quality..but then again I grew up with BETA, sooo I love it*!*
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The smaller crafted ones she made have metal back, but the regular retro ones have plastic backs.
Fun badges are a great way to personalize any outfit, purse, or hair bow. I wore my Furrever Friends badge in the button hole of a silk shirt & entered a a fairy kei contest.
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If you're questioning whether or not to order from Powdermonki, then I assure you, you will be SO happy you did. She adds new badge designs regularly & working with her is a dream come true. Be sure to check out all the categories for much retro fun. I doubt you'll be left wanting for much. There's Lady Lovely Locks, Fairy Tail Birds, Keypers, many Barbies & Care Bears, Wuzzles, Cupcakes, and Rainbow Brite..to name
a few. You can even pick up your own Misfits split screen badge cuz my custom request is now a regular shop item.
Communication: Excellent
Quality: Excellent
Shipping Time: Excellent
Packaging: Excellent (with color invoice & all badges secured to the page it's bloody brilliant)
Over-all Satisfaction: Exceeded Expectation at every turn
Would I refer a friend or shop here again? *!*!*!YES*!*!*!*Leave a comment to let me know which ones you plan on getting *or* share your own experience with Powdermonki.
Powdermonki Retro Toy Badges
