My First Craft Show

My aunt makes gorgeous jewelry and was going to be a vendor at the local Fall Festival. Along with a few other women, she was going in on renting a space for their tent.  She asked me to join in, but I didn’t have enough items for all 3 days.  I agreed to do an afternoon and just bring what I had (which wasn’t much) and set up a small table.

At the last minute, the other ladies backed out leaving my aunt stuck paying for the whole thing, so I went all in.  I locked myself in my craft room (which I started calling “The Lab”) for a week and a half and made a lot more headbands, brooches, pins, etc.  I studied a few boards on Pinterest and researched a bit on how to set up a craft fair booth.  I even made a D-I-Y cake stand for part of my display (keep your eyes peeled for that tutorial soon!).

The night before, I set up a mock table in  my dining room so I could save time the next day.

I had to figure out how to display lots and lots of headbands using minimal table space and without crushing them.  Not easy.  I could have gone to Michael’s Craft Store and spent a fortune on cookie cutter, boring display pieces, but I didn’t want to spend a fortune or have a display that looked like anyone else’s.  So I did what I do best.  I looked around my house for things I could use creatively. I used my plain cylinder vases by putting hard headbands into them. I liked the way they fanned out around the vase.  I also placed a decorative branch in each vase and clipped hair pins and clips onto the branches.

I put the stretchy headbands on various Marilyn Monroe & Audrey Hepburn themed books…

I made price tags, wrote down my inventory, snapped some pics of the general set up so I can remember what I did, got $100 in change, gathered my bags & business cards and put the items into labeled ziplock bags. 

Since the fair was 3 days long, all vendors had to set up and take down their booths each day.  So, I packed everything into my huge suitcase (and a big tupperware bin) so I could wheel the heavy stuff to and from my car.

I didn’t have time or cash to buy a new tablecloth, so I used our old silver velvet duvet cover, lol!  We had to supply our own lights as well, so I stole the snazzy ones off of our night stands. 

I used one of our snack trays as my “check out stand”.  I used our silver sparkly umbrella stand to showcase the feather headbands and accessories. 

From the vases and books that I decorate with, to our bedroom decor, our  house was left looking like the Grinch came & stole everything for 3 days!

ME:

 I was ready to go! 

The funny thing is, most people stopped to inquire about the lamps! 

This set up was a bit busy, so as the day went by, I condensed and moved things around. 

I went from the butterfly bobby pins , rosebud pins, & ladybug pins on a paper plate (sorry about the blurry pic) to using my metal containers that used to house my herb garden and mousse cups that a co-worker gave me.

Here are a few of my best seller items, in case you were curious.

Chloe baby headbands

Elizabeth hair clips & baby bands

And here are some happy customers! 

 

Liz baby band

Rose bud bobby pinDanity ClipTu-Tu Ballerina baby band

Bella stretchy headbandHot Pink Jolee baby band

If you  or someone you know would like to look as adorable as these ladies above, click here to be sent to Finding Silver Linings Boutique 😉  You can customize ANY piece you see into a clip, a brooch, a bobby pin, a baby headband, a stretchy headband, hard headband, shoe clip, purse pin, etc.  It will be hand-made by moi.  Just do it 😀

*End of shameless advertisement paragraph*

 

Did you ever have a booth at a fair?  What kind?  Would you ever do it again?  Let’s chat.