My first Craft Fair!

Yesterday I had my first booth at a craft fair. I was so excited to try it. The local parent teacher group had put on the event so it was a great way to support the kid’s school even if I didn’t sell a thing…luckily that was not the case 🙂 I did GREAT! The kids did well too, the made lots of things for the booth from earrings to ornaments and they got to pocket some cash for their effort! Here is a pic of my booth:

Keep in mind all of the photos were taken with my point and shoot camera, with the flash on in a school gym 🙂

I used crates to add extra space for products and the different levels add visual interest:

Here were my best sellers:

Handmade earrings: $5 a pair, I decorated an old frame with scrapbook paper and cut a sheet of foam core (decopauged in sewing pattern tissue) to fit inside and tacked the earring to it:

Notice the tacks (push pins) I took clear flat marbles and glued scrapbook paper to the back and glued the embellished marble to the tacks. They were very pretty and I sold the tacks for .25 each, I made marbles in the same fashion and sold them for .50, they were easy to make and great sellers! The Magnets sold better tho, I displayed them in a tin:

My mom makes beaded ornaments and they also sold well at $2-$8 each!

Chocolate covered pretzels: $1 for 3 in a bag (SOLD OUT!)

Paper Snowflakes (You can buy mu SVG die cut here) $3 each. They were a double whammy because they drew many people into my booth to see what they were made of:

Homemade Lip Balm in a paper purse: $1 (The template for the paper purse is in my set Nifty Gifties and you can cut 6 from a 12″x12″ sheet of paper), Paper bag Pins: $2, Heat packs: $5, and campfire starters: $1.50

Soap: $2-$4 priced by weight, the most popular variety were the toy soaps and the green tea and mint bars.

Holiday card multi packs: $5-$10 for sets of 2-6 cards. Break out your stamps and have fun making quick cards (it beats Hallmark any day!) I’ll be sharing my quick and easy cards I made later this week 😉

Craft Fair Tips:

1. Price Everything! I cannot tell you how many booths did not have prices on their stuff. Why not? Most people will not ask the price and if they do and they are not in line with their expectations they will not buy it. If you are not pricing your items it is foolish.

2. Talk about your crafts. Especially if you have a higher priced item. Are your candles made from soy wax? Well, talk about it, if the high quality of your products means the price is higher explain the benefits of the materials you use. People love it when you talk about the product, make connections.

3. Have a variety of items. I only sold a few candles but there were two other booths selling only candles. Luckily I had a variety of items to sell at a variety of price points.

4. Package your wares gift ready. I put pretty tags on my products and I wrote the price in pencil so it can be easily erased for gifting. A pretty stamped tag with ribbon or twine looks boutique and expensive and will delight your customers.

5. Have a clean organized booth and take time with the set-up. My table is 2 saw horses with an old luan door on top. I place a couple of bed skirts on top and then a length of fabric on top. My set-up was free and down-homey. Perfect for a craft fair. The crates I lugged my products in with became part of my display as well.

6. Get tips from an experienced exhibitor. My friend Cindi took me under her wing and gave me some great pointers. She also had the cutest bags for her stuff, she stamped a big snowman on brown paper lunch bags and they looked so much better than my recycled plastic shopping bags 😉

Here is a pic of Cindi’s booth, we set up side by side so we could share the Christmas tree:

My niece Sarah had this table, I love her jar of branches to display her jewelry!

If you are selling at a craft fair this season I wish you the best and I hope I gave you a fe ideas of what worked for me! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!