Craft Show Sharing

Hello Blogger Friends!

Warning! this is a long post. So grab your favorite drink and read on.  I am done with my craft show season.   I kept forgetting to bring my camera;  therefore, I only have a few photos from my craft shows to share.  I am one of those people who still use the old cell phone that only make calls.  This was from one of the show.

I made clear plastic pockets on poster board to hold my cards.  I didn't sell any card from this poster board.  However, I did sell some cards when I put them in boxes and purses.  So I will do that from now on.

I had A LOT of crochet hats, scarfs, hat bands, and crochet flower ID badges.   I sold some of those items.

HOT items were the Hershey's Milk Chocolate snowmen wraps.  I used 1/2 inch circle punch to make the snowmen eyes and buttons.  If you google snowmen wrap, you will fine tons of inspiration.

I made three of these wooden basket filled with gift tags.  I sold only one.
As always I decorated both sides of the basket.

 This is the other side of the basket.

Tags that were in the basket.

These four frames were sold right a way.

Last item that I am sharing is the ghirardelli chocolate purses.  Are you ready for the number?  I made  about 320 purses!  I made 150 of them over the summer.  Then I made the rest less then two weeks ago. I sold 240 of the purses without the chocolate to two ladies from churches.  They told me that they needed something affordable for their churches.  I showed them the ghirardelli chocolate purses for $1 each.  One time, I tried to sell that for $1.25.  I sold only two purses. They said they needed something less then that.  So I told them that I can give them just the purses at 50 cent each.   They were happy and I am happy to get rid some of my papers that I had been hoarding.

For these purses I didn't add the crochet flowers like I normally would .  I just added a flower punch on the front and added a hanging tag.  I always used ribbon for the handles because I threw these purses when they were done in a paper shopping bag. I once used card stock for the handles and the handles were crashed.  I also found an easier way to make the handles.  I hot glue the handles and that, my friends, were a lot faster and easier to make than using brads to hold the handles. 

Click here for purse measurement. The handles were 5 1/2 inches long. I had used  1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 inch wide depending what I had in my stash.

Over all, I was very please with the craft shows this year.  I did only 6 shows this year but I sold at least 25% more than I did last year with 8 shows.  I signed up for 5 shows but I had a last minutes bonus show with was surprisingly awesome! Thank you Ann Marie!

I hope I haven't bored anyone with this long post.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Helen 

I Am Back!

Hello Blogger Friends!

Phew! I finally finished with the craft shows for this season!   I couldn't believe myself. I did 8 craft shows in 8 weeks.  I had one craft show a week since October, 24. The first show was very disappointed.  I sold only half of the amount that I sold last year.  There were not much traffic due to lack of advertizing.

Then I went to my second show at a hospital (Riddle Hospital) the following week.  I was hopping for a better turn out.  At first, it was another disappointed show.  However,  I had a customer (Sue) whom I email after the show to thanks her for stopping by my booth and Sue placed an order from me and that sort of made up a little but it still wasn't a good show.  I won't return to that hospital again.  The ladies who organized the show didn't care a dime about us.  She didn't advertize for us. Sue happened to walk by us after her doctor appointment.  The hospital employees didn't know about us selling there.   So there were not much traffic.  When there was no traffic, there wasn't going to be any sale.

I am not going to bore you with the rest of the craft shows.  Out of the 8 shows that I did, 5 of them were not a good shows.  The other three shows turned out great!  Thanks to the staffs at the volunteer office  at  Crozer hospital for allowing me to sale my crafts there.  My 20%  donation were well worth it!  If you are curious what I meant by that is, a vendor needs to give 20% of her total sale to the hospital at the end of the day and this apply to any hospital.  

My last two shows were December, 8 and December, 9.  I know it was insane to do two shows in two days.  I had almost nothing to sale for the last show.  It was at a Catholic school. It was the Secret Santa workshop. The items for sale cannot exceeded $5.  So  I had to drop my price down for some items and for the last minute items and I really meant last minute.  I went shopping for the fleece and the chocolates right after I came home from the craft show that I did at the hospital.  Then  I stayed up until 1 AM to make them.

I made 36 of these for the secret Santa work shop.

Isn't he cute!

I got the image from here.  On her blog it said free but I couldn't get the image for free so I paid a small fee and got to download the image right away.  Well worth it!  You can find the video tutorial here.

It was lots of work  preparing  items for the craft shows and I didn't make any profit from it but I had load of fun meeting others crafters and many compliments about my work. I was asked this question from the people who stopped by my booth.

Questions and compliments                 My answers
"did you make all these?"                     Yes, I made everything on the table.
"Did you sleep?"                                 Yes, I did but not a lot.
 All the patience you had!            Only with these crafts because they didn't talk back to me. hehehe.....
 Your work are so beautiful!!!!        Thank you!!!!

I would do this all over again! Who won't, right!

Have a marvelous Monday!

Helen

Craft Shows Sharing

Good Morning Everyone,
 This year, I did 5 craft shows which were a lot for me and they were all good.  With the 5 craft shows, I was able to recoup all my craft expenses. Yay! I didn't make any profit but I still have lots of supplies, papers, punches and die cuts.  I considered those items  are my profit because I am going to spend all the money on them later anyway. 


Here was my table for the first show that I did this year.  It was at a high school.  It was on October, 23 the weekend  before Halloween but I didn't make any Halloween projects to sell at the show.  As you can see my table was almost empty and this was right after I set up.  I haven't sold a thing at this point. But at the end of the show, I somehow  sold a total of a little over $300.  I sold 1 card during the entire show from the poster board on the right hand side but I sold two sets of  card.  See picture below for card sets.  The two ladies who bought the card set didn't even look at the cards.  They saw the purses and  they  wanted it. 

I made two similar sets to this set.  I put 10 cards in each purse and sold for $20 each purse.

I also sold a lot of the empty top note boxes and purses. People bought them for gift card holders.

 This show was at a hospital.  It was the annual employees craft show.  I didn't work there but my husband does.  I always sold the most here. This year the traffic was not good. But I was surprised that I made more money than last year. Are you wondering how much? Just a little over $500. I couldn't believe those $2 and $3 did add up to quite a bit.

The card purses were sold within the hour I was there.  Too bad I only had four here.  I took most of  the cards that I made through the year and put 10 cards and 10 envelops in each purse. I only sold  for $20 each purse.  I wanted them to sell that was why I priced them low.  I rather make less money than bring the stuffs back home.  Now I can make more!

In front of the card purses were the chocolate top note boxes. Also sold very good.  There were 9 pieces of Hershey nuggets in each box.  I warped each nugget with either designer papers or with embossed card stocks.  I made everything coordinated.

Individual card purse.  The papers for the purses were from  the Luxury stack from DCVW.  Love that paper pack! This is my second pack.

I made this purse template but I was inspired from Becky Robert. 


Some craft show tips:


I only went to the event that said "craft show" only and the admission is free to shoppers.


I attended the craft show around Fall.  When people started thinking about the upcoming holiday.


I picked and chose the craft show that had been going on for many years.  All the show that I attended had been going on for at least 10 years and took place around the same time of the year.


I priced my items low.  It wasn't like I didn't like making money.  Everyone always thought twice before spending.  So if I wanted to continue enjoying my paper crafts.  I needed to get rid some of the stuffs that I've created in order for me to make more.


I paid no more than $40 for the space.


 Hope this help some of you.

Helen