Entries categorized as ‘craft shows’
I’ve been pondering ways to best display my necklaces (which make up the largest chunk of my inventory by far) at craft fairs for several months now. I didn’t want any of the commercially available options, either–acrylic or velvet busts or risers. And as much as I like trees and tree-shaped things, many of my pieces just don’t look as dynamic when they’re simply dangling from a stem. Being this picky has left me pretty stumped, and frustrated at the increasingly cluttered look of my table, but I think I’ve finally found a few solutions.
1) I bought a 10′ x 10′ tent. Been putting it off for over a year, making do by sharing with one of my local crafting buds when possible, shying from the seemingly large investment…. But when you do outdoor fairs in Florida between March and October, not having a tent is quite a health hazard. My lovely tent (bonus: it’s tan, not blue or white!) will not only prevent heatstroke and sun poisoning but will also allow me to have more than one table (no, your eyes don’t deceive you–there’s only one in the pic ’cause I forgot to bring my 2nd table yesterday), thus helping alleviate the clutter problem.
2) I can now have one whole table dedicated to my necklaces, and thanks to my new corkboard necklace displays, they won’t all have to lie flat and jumbled on the surface of the table, but can be draped on cork in all their glory. Yay!
Since I was so pleased with how simple and easy my eventual display solution turned out, I thought I’d share the steps here. It’s not reinventing the wheel or anything, but it’s something that can be easily personalized and requires little investment of money or time. (more…)
Categories: craft shows · handmade · yay
Tagged: craft fair, craft show, DIY, how-to, i made it, jewelry display, photos, step-by-step, tent
Hey, I’m only a week late posting this. It could be worse. =) So the first FEST craft fair was a roaring (pun intended) success. My parents drove down from Jacksonville to be my helpers and companions for the day, which was great. The weather was beautiful, the dinos scary, and, most importantly: people came! Yay. Here are some photos: (more…)
Categories: FEST · craft shows · etsy
Tagged: craft fair, craft show, dinosaur world, etsyfest, FEST, fun, mega-craft-zilla, megacraftzilla, networking, parents, photos, sales
(Living in the land of Mickey Mouse and the Holy Land Experience as I do, I don’t mind admitting I’ve never been to most of Orlando’s attractions–but neither do I desire to. Dino World seems a bit more old-school, which is much more appealing to me than, say, “The Most Magical Place on Earth.”)
Another reason to be excited about this show is that my folks are coming down from Jacksonville tonight and will be accompanying me to the show (a big selling point was that they get to bring their pooch…)! It’s always fun to have company at your booth, and my folks don’t usually get to make it to my shows, so I’m honored and thrilled that they’re making the drive. (Although, come to think of it, after this show I think they’ll be tied with my husband–his work schedule is such that he can rarely make it to weekend shows.)
Didn’t plan for this to be such a long post, but I can’t finish without celebrating the fact that yesterday was a red-letter Etsy day for me. I sold 2 items from my handmade shop, plus made one sale in my vintage/destash shop! One sale was thanks to Alchemy, which I have been addicted to since they brought it back 3 days ago.
I seriously, seriously LOVE Alchemy. I’ve already put in several custom requests (not that you couldn’t do that without Alchemy, but the new “Request Custom Item” feature is pretty snazzy), and when I posted an Alchemy request asking for bday ideas for my Mama (hope she doesn’t read this!), I got 40-plus bids within about 20 minutes! I had a heck of a time making a decision among all those great suggestions, lemme tell you. I definitely ended up finding new favorite shops and purchasing other items even from sellers whose bids I declined–which is how I got that sale through Alchemy. The spillover effect when you make a bid is just great. My bid was declined, but the buyer found something else in my shop that they wanted. It’s like the best kind of targeted, yet un-intrustive, marketing. Plus, I love seeing the quirky things people request–everything from pet clothing to a beard and mustache cozy to “Om-Nom-Nom-Nom” panties (<–brilliant!).
OK, off to prep for tomorrow’s show! I’ll be back next week, hopefully with pictures of prehistoric creatures rockin’ my jewelry. Happy weekend and day-after Pi day!
Categories: craft shows · etsy · yay
Tagged: alchemy, craft shows, custom, dinosaur world, etsy, parents, sales, yay
MEGACRAFTZILLA FLIER
Originally uploaded by avenuehandmade
Yay! I’m stoked about this craft show…never been to Dino World, so I’m excited to check it out! Plus it’ll be my first FEST event, so I can’t wait to get to meet some of the members in person. More details to come soon….
Categories: craft shows · marketing · shameless self-promotion
Tagged: Uncategorized
