Worst Craft Fair Experience Ever

So, I had my first huge show this past weekend. It was a 3day music festival called Forecastle Festival and by all rights it seemed everything was going to be awesome: great music, 17,000 attendees, awesome location, good weather. However, my experience quickly soured as the three days of the festival wore on. Here is my story ....

The night before the first day of the festival, we went to set up our booth and were told we didn't have a location assigned - our first warning sign. So we somewhat randomly chose a spot and set up right next to a huge fountain by the DJ stage. The next sour spot was a runin with a festival employee. My friend - who is not from the area and doesn't know how to navigate downtown Louisville - was waiting in his car for me to find a temporary booth watcher so that I could come park for him. The employee screamed at my friend to move his car, to which my friend asked if he could direct him to a place to park? The employee said "that's not my problem" and proceeded to actually call the cops up and continue screaming insults at us as I RAN out to the car to move it for my friend! The employee continued to creep around our booth the entire day, finding things to pick at us about (for example, my boyfriend didn't get a re-entry band - because he wasn't planning on leaving - and the employee sent an apologetic coworker over to reluctantly scold us. WTF?) As far as sales, traffic was slow at the spot I chose on the first day. I barely made 20 sale or so. But no matter, Fridays are always slower than Saturdays! I remained optimistic.

Saturday morning I showed up at 12pm to the sight of my entire tent flipped over, soaking wet, my booth dismanteled, and my inventory all over the ground. My first thought was back to the employee from the first day, but I have no proof of anything. Nothing was stolen, although my tent frame was bent and broken, many of the metal chains on my necklaces were rusted, my signs were all soaked through, and I lost about 2 hours moving my booth away from the water and towards a more protected area. No one assisted our move.
No one came to apologize for the loss of our booth (although many curious bystanders asked what happened, and a few volunteers informed us that they'd fished our tent out of the water earlier that morning, Christmas lights and all). I sent my boyfriend to buy us a new tent and pocketed the loss myself. A kindly security guard told me to ask the event staff to bring us the weights that were provided to every vendor. We asked 10 different staff members and were told repeatedly, "that's not my problem." I began to wonder what their problem WAS, exactly ... clearly it wasn't helping the vendors with anything! I did see several security guards smoking pot and harassing attendees, though.... hmmm. At any rate, we set back up for the day and tied our tent down to a streetlight and a bench for security. Unfortunately, we realized that day that this was a bad location. All of the vendors around us had picked up their tents and moved. It dawned on us that the music festival was focused much more on jam bands (who played at the other 2 stages) and not electronica. There was nobody at our booth for several hours, and thousands of people milling around the other 2 stages! We decided to move our booth one last time on the third day.

My devoted friend and I moved the booth all by ourselves in the 90 degree weather, up and down 2 flights of stairs, to the more populated area of the fair. We were EXHAUSTED. We asked for help from the staff but no one would lend us so much as a ride in a golf cart (altough the owner of the festival did run me over with some tiki torches and knock several of my items off the table with his golf cart....) The location we moved to was much better traffic and entertainment-wise, too bad we only had that benefit for one day! It was enough to help me finally make a little bit of profit after my expensive booth fee, though. At the end of the 3 days, we were exhausted (8am to 2am every single day, carrying heavy stuff and little relief from the heat!) but we had fun. All of my friends came to help out and I met some great people. I am very dissapointed in the disorganization of the staff, but as an attendee I'm sure I would've had an amazing time. Not sure I'll try to do this festival again in the future, though.

What are your awful show experiences?

Craft Fair #2 and my life

Can you see my friend sleeping in the chair behind my tent? Teehee.

My second craft fair of the summer was, to be honest, quite dissapointing. Last year at the same fair I made over $200 - this time I didn't even cover the $75 booth fee, even though the weather was great! I think either there were less people in attendance, or my booth was in a worse location. My other hypothesis is that for the first day, there was a jimmy buffet cover band playing RIGHT NEXT TO ME for 7 hours straight. Unfortunately, I suspect that this awful music drove away some customers as remaining in my tent for over 5 seconds was akin to torture ... at least for me. I hate Jimmy Buffet with a passion. Luckily, there were at least 5 drunk middle aged women who were so into it that I felt entertained enough not to commit a henious act of violence unto either myself or the 5-person band.

Luckily, my friends came to cheer me up and we ate snow cones and acted ridiculous and rode on carousels and conned carnies letting us throw darts at balloons for free. The picture on the left depicts me acting absolutely ridiculous, please enjoy it.

In other news, I got my braces off and I have a new boyfriend (more on him later!) TEETH:

*happy dance*

First craft fair of the summer!

So my first craft fair was a total success! I tripled my entry fee and then some. Of course, let's keep in mind that this was the cheapest of all the fairs I'm doing this summer ... the one coming up in July is $500!

See the 10 or so carebears chillin around my table? They are KID MAGNETS. As if my booth wasn't already pink and girly enough, little girls could NOT resist dragging their mommies into my booth to point out each of the carebears by name and squeal happily (meanwhile, their mothers looked at the jewelry! Win!) I also had some other kid-magnet props like a unicorn head and a gumball machine. *tents fingers evilly* little kids cannot resist the gumball machine.

Unfortunately for me, little kids also have no money, so I have to rely more on parents and older chicks for sales. My first two sales were to women in their 30s, one of which kept stopping in to tell me how many compliments she'd gotten on her new skull earrings! And one preteen girl and her mother apparently shared the same taste in jewelry and bought over $50 worth of merchandise between them!! Now that is my FAVORITE kind of sale.


I've definitely learned some good lessons from this first fair which I'm going to apply to my future fairs this summer. Hopefully these can help some of you as well.

1. Accept credit cards! Over half of my sales were charged to a credit card, and the majority of the sales on credit were higher cost items. I use ProPay, an affordable credit card processing platform. As long as you have the CC number, expiration date and zip code, you can go online to the propay site and process any amount on the card. I couldn't figure out how to work my Knuckle Buster so I ended up writing them all down by hand and shredding them once I had processed the cards, but all of the orders went through and I'm really glad I took CCs!

2. Showcase your least expensive items! My stud earrings are $3-$5 and I put them front and center. Lots of shoppers made impulse buys or didn't want to spend very much, so having them featured like that really helped them to sell, in my opinion.

3. Use eyecatching displays! Heads literally turned when people passed my booth. Not only is everything bright pink and colorful, but I had so many interesting props to look at that several people came in just to examine them! I found most of my props at yard sales and flea markets for cheap!

4. Don't pack up until the fair is really over. My biggest sale happened less than an hour before the fair was schedule to end. I know it takes a while to dis-assemble a booth, but it's not worth saving an extra few minutes if you lose a customer!

5. Test your display before attend a fair! I ALMOST did this. I set up my tables and tablecloth in a room in my apartment, and halfheartedly tossed some of my props on top. But I didn't set it up completely and I'm really sorry I didn't. I need another table, more displays with varying heights, and better necklace displays. Luckily I've got time to get these things before my next fair in a month!

Craft Fair Schedule

Butchertown Art Fair,: Sunday, May 17, Louisville, KY
Lyndon Area Fair: Friday, June 19th and Saturday, June 20th, Louisville, KY
Forecastle Festival: Friday, July 10 through Sunday, July 12th in Louisville, KY

Come see me!

Craft Fair Sign Tutorial

This is the tutorial for my sign displays!
You Will Need
1. Good cardboard. Any ordinary cardboard box will be fine. It doesn't matter if it has writing on it. You'll also need a bit of lighter cardboard, like a cereal box. Yay, recycling!
2. Pretty paper. I used a combination of scrapbooking paper from a craft store and free paint samples from Home Depot! Construction paper, wrapping paper, etc will also work well. Whatever looks good. If you want your signs to match, though, make sure you have enough! I didn't, as you can see, so they're all kind of in the same general color scheme.
3. Access to a printer and computer for designing the actual text. If you're fabulous at handwriting or something, I guess that'll work too, but I found that printed text makes it look more proffesional.
4. Scissors! And possibly a box cutter if you're into that.
5. CLEAR PACKING TAPE. This is important. It's to waterproof everything so it lasts longer!

Let's Begin!
1. Design your labels, print and cut them out. My labels included the name of the item, its price, and sometimes discount for multiple purchases.
2. Cut out strips of cardboard. You will be folding these in half, so make them twice the length of your sign size. To find the width, I held up the cut-out label on top of the cardboard and cut around it. You can of course also make them all one size.
3. Fold your cardboard strips in half. Now they should look like little tents! Cute! If you're using cardboard with writing on it, consider folding them with the writing on the OUTSIDE and the blank side on the INSIDE, because that way you won't see any of the writing stuff once it's covered up *shrug* I'm OCD, are you? Hehe.
4. Time to get out your tape! Cover your cardboard strip with the decorative paper, tape it in place and then tape all over it (in straight lines, so it looks neat). Also tape your label in place on one (or both, if you like) sides. See the picture to the left for what it should look like now!
5. To prevent sign your flattening on your table, we're going to make a little bridge at the bottom of each tent to hold it in place. I used paint sample paper; any light cardboard (get out those cereal boxes now!) will work fine. Fold your tent again and set it at the angle you would like it to stay at forever. Cut out a strip of light cardboard the width of the bottom of your tent. Then tape it to the bottom on top AND bottom of the strip. This is kinda hard to explain, but I'll try. Place a strip of tape underneath the cereal box strip so it goes around on top of the decorative paper sides of the sign, and also one on TOP of the cereal box strip so it stays in place with the tape going up the sides on the INSIDE of the tent. Does that make sense?

Now your sign is done! Just repeat these steps to make the rest of your signs. They should be sturdy and waterproof, as well as proffesional looking and perfect for your craft fairs! Here is an action shot of my signs:

Craft Fair Tips

I've been thinking, and I've decided that with 3 craft fairs under my belt (2 not-so-good ones and one very succesful one) I might as well write down some tips for the n00bs. In no particular order, here are mine:

1. Bring everything on this list. I packed up a big box for my first fair and just bring it to each subsequent fair, and nothing ever gets left behind!

2. Make a big excel file of all of your inventory and its price. When you sell something you can cross it off, and then at home you can tally up everything you've sold on the computer to keep track of it really easily. Plus it helps if you forget the price of something or other.

3. Mark prices very clearly. Some people don't like to ask, and some people decide what to buy based directly from the prices they see. This picture shows my pricing signs: they are little triangles made out of recycled cardboard and pretty paper, laminated (and waterproof) with clear tape. Easy fast and cute, and I can reuse them over and over! I'll make a tutorial if anyone wants one.

4.Have freebies, either from your shop or other people. It creates loyalty because everyone loves freebies! Freebies for your own shop (promotional freebies) should be USEFUL so they don't just get thrown away. My favorite item for this is magnets, which I make myself. Pens, mirrors, etc might also work wonderfully! Make sure your URL is on there and all that. I gave away all but 3 of the 50 or so magnets I had sitting out there, and now they're all sitting on people's fridges for them to see every day!

5. packaging! Bring bags (NOT recycled wal mart bags) with your url or logo somewhere on it. Include a biz card inside. I also toss in etsy promotional packs, makes them feel like they're getting more freebies! Consider wrapping and whatnot if your item works that way.

6. Have a draw like the giant teddy bear I used at my last fair! (see my previous entry for pics) it will attract your target demographic. If you're a soap seller, think about how The Body Shop always has that little dish set out with yummy smelly samples in it OUTSIDE their store, to draw people in, for example. If you sell plushies, make a huge one. If you sell clothes, put your best outfit on a mannequin. Etc! People will see it from far off and want to come check out your stuff!

7. Displays. Think about how you want your items to be seen. If you are marketing adult-oriented, sophisticated stuff, you may want all matching displays. I personally chose a variety of themed displays for my tables, so it doesn't match very well but does look interesting. For some ideas on DIY jewelry displays, click here. The picture is of an old, dirty necklace stand that I painted! Get creative.

8. You'll hear this one a lot - levels! You need your table to have lots of levels so it doesn't look all boring just laid out in one spot. I personally like to put a box underneath my tablecloths to mix it up and then put things on top of that. The picture is an example. See how one jewelry display is much higher than the other? It makes it look more interesting. Plus, you can fit more stuff on your table that way! Also consider hanging things from the side of your tent. The more levels, the better!

9. Be friendly. My last craft fair, I was going through a breakup. I was SOOOO not in the mood to smile and sell my stuff. But I did anyway (plus my friends showed up to help, which cheered me up!) and I got a lot of return customers from one day to the next! All these teenage girls kept coming back to talk to me, it was adorable! If I would've let my mood take over I would've sat glowering at everyone, but instead I said hi to each customer and sold my products cheerfully. Always stay proffesional.

10. Promote your fair. I know, that's the job of the advertisers ... but in my case, I wasn't sure there was advertising to my demographic. The fair organizers had advertised in the newspaper and around their neighborhood, but I hadn't seen anything on craigslist, facebook, or myspace!! So I got promoting, created a facebook event and a craigslist post. We all know how to advertise here, and the more customers a fair has, the better EVERYONE benefits.

If I think of any more tips I will update! Please add your own too!

Craft Fair Pictures!

Pictures of my latest fair, as promised, are here! This first picture is of little Lia the Bear, complete with DIY reconstructed top and ice cream cone! She was popular with the kids who all wanted to buy her :P This fair was 2 days long. These pictures were taken on the first day, which was unfortunately very gloomy and rainy and not too many people showed up. The 2nd day which I have no pictures of was bright and sunny and tons of people came! Also on the second day, I put up a pink sheet in the back of my tent so you couldn't see the ugly caution tape and cars like in this picture, so just imagine that there, hehe. I wore my hair down the first day b/c it was cold, but the 2nd day I was sweating in my shorts all day long! This next picture is of some earring and ring displays and also my newwwwww graphic art wallets which aren't on the site yet but are coming REALLY soon! I sold 2 wallets, and lots of people stopped to look at them, so I hope that's a good sign!

The only snag I hit with my display was that at one point my tent collapsed, nearly taking out a customer! It just started leaning over ... and over .... and over until I looked up and realized it was almost completely parallel to the ground! The weight of the supply displays on the sides must have sagged it down. Anyway the guy next door helped me hammer each leg deep into the ground so it stayed firm the rest of the fair. I guess you get what you pay for, because my tent was $50 on ebay.
The rest of my pictures are over at My Flickr. Suggestions for improving my booth are welcome!

Success!

Today was the final day of my 2-day craft fair. PICTURES COMING SOON! Suffice it to say that I sold 22 items and made a profit of over $100!! It was a wonderful fair, fireworks and rides and everything, and all of my friends stopped by :) I had a lot of fun!

In personal news, I was just dumped by my boyfriend of almost 3 years and feel totally distraught about it.
So ya know. Feel free to cheer me up or help me stay busy somehow.
Business success really does wonders for a broken heart, though, doesn't it? Hmmm.

Craft Fair #2

Got back a few hours ago from my second craft fair! All in all, I had a great time. I shared a booth with Kayraffla from Etsy and her mom. She's super cool, my age and going to my university next year, and her stuff is AMAZING. We had totally different items (she's a metalsmith) but they were both really funky and unique, so it worked. Our booth looked kickass. However, she ended up making loads more money (she sold a $47 pendant necklace - damn! I need some of that!) and I only sold 4 pairs of earrings and a keychain (to Kayla, haha) totalling in about $6 profit :-/

HOWEVER, it was a lovely day outside, it was a really nice little craft fair and I got some great ideas for my next 2-day fair in a month. Kayla will be sharing the booth again and we're planning a raffle for a mixed bag of some of our earrings. I'm also going to make a ton of little $1 button bobby pins, because Kayla had some wire-wrapped seed bead ones that sold like hotcakes and I want in! My cheapest items are $3 and are popular on Etsy and have done OK at the fair, considering, but people apparently really go for that $1 thing. A bobby pin with a button glued onto it would probably cost me no more than .15 to make anyway, it would make a good loss leader. We also have our booth all planned out for next month (paralell tables with an entryway like a store, hanging stuff from the tent, etc) so it's gonna be awesome :D she's really cool and I'm glad to already have a crafty college friend for next year! Pics if I can figure out how to get them from my camera.

Now I need a nap!

Craft Fair: The Aftermath

So, that's me ... making a funny face and looking weird at my booth! Just a thought, but the face might have been from the intense freezing cold that was permeating my poor bones (and it was only 8am!) The Chili Cookoff was a total success for chili cooks, but not so much for us crafters .... which was only like 5 people! Lesson learned: only sign up for shows that people interested in buying my stuff will be attending. At any rate, it was an experience. I sat with my sister and her fiance for about 12 hours in 40 degree windy weather (At least it didn't rain) while odd folks in cowboy hats and overalls walking around tasting chili (which was odd, considering I'm from KY and I was in CT, and I definetly didn't expect to see cowboy hats and overalls.) There were lots of little girls with cheap parents who wouldn't buy their kid my stuff (lame) but also some really nice folks including Jillian from Ms. Kitty Fantastico, leader of the CT street team who I met and who is wonderful! All in all, I came out just about even - the entry fee was $50, and I made $41 plus my sister and her fiance bought 3 things which I kind of don't count, hehe. Anyway, in the weeks leading up to my next craft fair (on the 20th!) I'll be posting pics of my DIY labels and signs and whatnot. In the meantime check out My Flickr Photostream for more pics of the fair and what I've been working on!

Craft Fair in 1.5 Weeks!

So, I'm back from my nice little mini-vacay in time to realize that my first ever craft fair is next-next Saturday! Yikes! I know that you all want to hear the mushy details about my visit home but I hope that this picture of 2 turtles we saw at the Zoo on Sunday will suffice for now (infer what you will. By thw way, if I ever have a turtle, I'm naming it Skipperdee like in Eloise.)
Anyway, because the craft fair is so soon, I'm working my butt off starting today. I've been making stuff nonstop since 10pm (it's 3:30 now! Class in the morning! Woohoo.) I made 10 keychains (they're fun! Why haven't I made more before this?) and 5 necklaces. So that's a decent $100 minimum if they sell. I also sold a bunch of stuff today for some odd reason (3 pairs of earrings and 2 supply lots) so that's more stuff to send out and less to sell at the fair. Oh well, at least I came home to TONS OF BUTTONS for my wholesale order (still need more though, poo.)
Anyway, here's a list of things (mostly for my benefit, skim if you must)to do before my fair:
1. Finish felt sign, sew letters onto sheet.
2. Finish label cards, attach logo onto cardboard backings.
3. Steal more bags from the campus center (ssh, I already paid 50k for them.)
4.Create a giant excel file of all the items I am bringing to the fair
5. Work on getting omglia.com functional (possibly before next fair)
6. Sew the half-made wallets, and make more!
7. Sew some tops!! Lots of them!!
8. More necklaces! and earrings!
9. Big batch of button stud earrings: assemble and decorate
10. Get propay account set up
11. Set up tent outside to test it out, check for weights
12. Put all the stuff from my Things to Bring to a Craft Fair post in a box, ready to go.
13. Possibly start work on portfolio
14. Take a giant 2hr round trip (ugh) visit to the mall for more buttons, more keychain pulls and flickr prints at target (which are apparently free) for portfolio
Phew. Hey, is anyone else NOT looking forward to finals which are conveniently RIGHT after my fair? Relaxing ... what's that?

Things to Bring to a Craft Fair: The Ultimate List

I've been reading as many articles and posts as possible in preparation for my first 3 craft fairs, and I've compiled a giant list of things to bring (aside from your items + setup stuff, which I hope is obvious.) Here it is! Please add if you don't see something listed.

-business cards
-credit card accepting things if applicable
-lots of extra change (1$s and coinage)
-Notebook to Sign Up for Mailing List
-photo album of work sold
-prices for everything
-wear my items
-tempting basket of free candy
-other crafter's freebies/promo packs
-bags for people who make purchases (paper, staples?)
-Bring something to work on while you sit behind the booth. Doing your craft on the spot draws in customers.
-Have different levels on your display.
-Bring a CALCULATOR for sale totals
-small plastic bag for trash
-signage
-folding chairs
-bring extra lighting
-CLIP ON BACKS and needlenose pliers for jewelry, just in case of requests or repairs
-receipt slips or papers
-tape, paper, pens, scissors
-tablecloth
-mirror for jewelry or clothing
-Sign up sheet for mailing list or custom orders
-Writing pens for customers to write checks
-Notebook to note who bought what, payment type & price
-paper towels/baby wipe/purell

Please let me know if I've missed anything!
I found another great link here http://sunshineglassworks.com/articles/craftshowlist.shtml
(Ps - the picture is of jewelry I made over spring break to take to my shows, so it's not TOTALLY unrelated. I think it's an awesome pic though!)

Promo packs for craft fairs: send me yours!

I'm doing 3 craft shows this summer, and I really want to help promote other crafters! Here's my plan:

-3x4" ziplocs filled with smaller promos (perfect size for biz cards with samples attached, etc)
I'm going to toss in one of these bags with every purchase, and encourage lookers to take one free from a big promo basket.
Also, they're all going to have a different card facing out the front and back of the bag, so that some people are going to *choose* the bag with YOUR card showcased, just because YOUR card looks so freaking cool to them. Those people are more likely to go to YOUR site ;)

-Other promo items
I have a bunch of freebies that don't fit into the little bags, so these are going to be sitting in a big basket with a "FREE, PLEASE TAKE ONE!" sign! If you have bigger promos, your items will be included in this lot.

Fair dates are May 3, May 20, and June 20-21, so I'll need them before then if you want to be included.
I'm looking to make as many as possible, because I'll use these until they run out and send any leftovers in packages!
EMAIL ME FOR MY ADDRESS! im.so.rad@gmail.com

Craft fair jewelry displays!

I spent all weekend working on these DIY jewelry displays! Feel free to grab some inspiration from my idea :)
BEFORE:

Ewwwww
AFTER:



I have several sizes, but I don't have pics of them yet!
Materials:
-A bunch of frames from the dollar store, big lots, etc
-Mosquito netting
-Lots of hot glue (or any other really good glue, I suppose.)
-Paint and paintbrush.
I painted mine matte black, I haven't glossed over them with varnish yet. I'm probably going to add some polka dots or something with a paint pen afterwards to customize them. What do you think? Eye catching? Effective?

Branching out

So this summer I'll be expanding my selling venues to include brick&mortar stores and craft fairs! If you've got any you'd like to suggest to me please let me know. Here's my list right now:

1. May 3rd New England Chili Cookoff in Somers, CT
2. May20th Butchertown Art Fair in Louisville, KY
3. June 20-21st Lyndon Art Fair in Louisville, KY

and I'll be consigning at Wholly Craft in Ohio! I'm excited!