a crafty affair...

I plunged into the craft fair world last fall {and it has only taken me months and months to find a minute to blog about it!} For the past two years our Young Life area has put on a craft fair to raise money - crafters pay a fee for their booth space and a table; in turn they keep all the money they make. I learned a few things about craft fair's along the way:

1. the web, blogs, and pinterest have tons of GREAT information - steal it, take in all the vast knowledge and previous experience of those who have gone before you in the craft fair world. Here is a board I particularly loved.

2. it's really hard to have exactly what people want. years working in a LQS taught me that. people ooh and ahhh over the samples and beg to buy them, but when the same thing is up with a price tag on it, they are suddenly not so sure. i sold a decent amount of items, but went home with a moderately full car. any advice out there? is that pretty normal?

 3. designing a booth and props is fun! part of the crafting process for me was to create a little awning out of pvc pipe and some stands for display. i think presentation makes a big difference in sales {people really wanted to buy my props... see item #2 above}

4. people might not come with alot of money to spend. it seemed like this - and other fairs i have visited - are often visited by the casual browser and NOT the big spender. perhaps the ease of online shopping has made bigger purchases a little easier to shop for. i could be wrong, but most people are in the market for smaller dollar items - not the hand pieced and quilted queen size quilt or the hand hooked 100% wool room sized rug. buyers tend to plan for those items rather than see, have to have, and buy them on the spot.

5. enjoy it. though some use craft fairs as a primary income source, i look at it as a little extra fabric money and a chance to visit and get to know other crafters. {i think i spent most of my income at other booths}

I have included a few photos of my craft fair items to break up the text and give you some color to look at. Check out my etsy {the online craft fair} if you are interested in acquiring any of them. If you see a 'must have' in the booth picture at the top but not in my etsy, email me and I may still have 1 or 2 :)